Ticket sales for this week’s 103rd running of the Drake Relays are described as “brisk.” Drake Associate Athletic Director Dennis Francois says – barring bad weather – the stands should be packed both Friday and Saturday.”We’re definitely preparing for record crowds again,” Francois said. “We had a record year last year in terms of attendance and we had four beautiful days of weather. It looks like we might have a little chance of rain on Friday, but as always, we’ll run it right through and without any lightning, we’ll keep things on schedule.” Just over 14,000 people attended the Drake Relays on Saturday LAST year, which amounted to a sell out. “This year, how we’re going to fair against that will be determined by our walk-up crowd. We had a big uptick today with the high school (participants) announced over the weekend,” Francois said. One of the first big Drake Relays events, the pole vault, will be held Wednesday night inside Jordan Creek Mall in West Des Moines. The heptathlon and decathlon begin on Thursday, with the bulk of the Drake Relays events scheduled for Friday and Saturday at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Nearly every coach in the Big 12 and beyond will swear that spring practice shows just how far away their team is from playing a real game. For some, like new Kansas coach Charlie Weis, it’s far from hyperbole. Weis took over in the offseason after the Jayhawks fell to 2-10 under departed coach Turner Gill, and it didn’t take long for him to see why. The Jayhawks have issues on both sides of the ball — including the nation’s worst defense at nearly 44 points allowed per game in 2011 — and Weis took spring ball as an opportunity to start fixing what’s wrong. Many of Weis’s new colleagues have used the spring to settle on new quarterbacks. Baylor, Iowa State and Oklahoma State are among the Big 12 schools searching for signal callers.