SAN ANGELO, Texas — Of the 19 athletes who qualified in the 400-meter dash for this weekend's NCAA Division II national track and field meet, three of them are from Angelo State University.

When ASU head coach James Reid combined all of that talent on the Rams' 4x400 relay team, it quickly became the fastest relay in the country.

Isidro Garcia, Brendon West and Dallas Gray — each of whom will compete in the 400 at nationals Thursday — teamed with Robbie Thayer to clock the fastest Division II time in the nation earlier this year at the Texas Relays.

In the two months since, only powerhouse St. Augustine's has managed to beat the Rams' 3:09.30, running a 3:07.66.

Though ASU has yet to top its time ran in the Texas Relays in late March, Reid believes it will happen this weekend in Pueblo, Colo.

"It's going to run faster, because the four legs are running faster," Reid said. "When you get into a situation where you don't have three or four races before you get to the mile relay, you have the opportunity to run faster."

With the lightened workload, the Rams' four quarter-milers will attempt to beat a St. Augustine's mile relay team that has dominated the event at nationals for years.

"St. Augustine's has been a force to be reckoned with in the mile relay for a long time, and so they're going to be a formidable opponent," Reid said. "But I think these guys are ready to jump up there and give them a race."

The Rams are anchored by Isidro, a junior from Crane, who is heading to his third national meet in the 4x400 and 400. ASU was second in the mile relay in 2010 and fifth last year.

Garcia said he had a good feeling about this year's team, which made him all the more angry when the team ran a 3:21 in Kingsville about two weeks before the Texas Relays, although the Rams were competing with an alternate runner.

"I was really mad after that meet," Garcia said. "It was a big wake-up call. Then we went from a 3:21 to a 3:09, and all of a sudden we've got a team that can do some damage."

West and Gray are each freshmen who have made an immediate impact and could be cornerstones of the team in the future. West is from Fredericksburg, while Gray is from Rosenburg.

West and Gray run the first two legs, respectively. The final two legs turn to experience with juniors Thayer (a Wylie native) and Garcia.

The Rambelles' 4x400 relay waited until the final meet of the regular season, Abilene Christian's Last Chance Invitational, to run its best time and qualify for nationals.

The team of junior Keshawna Fisher (Inglewood, Calif.), sophomore Theresa Sue (Saginaw), freshman Lexi Brooks (Cedar Park) and freshman Jaylen Rodgers (Hamlin) ran a 3:45.38 in Abilene to grab the 11th of 13 spots at nationals. St. Augustine has the top seed at 3:37.60.

Four days earlier, they clinched the Rambelles' fourth straight Lone Star Conference title when they ran a season-best time of 3:46.37 to take second place and edge Abilene Christian by half a point.

"The fact that it was their fastest time of the year by over three seconds says a lot about those ladies," Reid said. "Then they turned around at the Last Chance meet and ran their fastest time of the year, which got us into the meet.

"They're ready. They really are. Their time over the last three weeks has begun to really drop off."

Rodgers, the team's anchor, will also compete in the 800, where she was a four-time Class 1A state champion in high school.

"I really enjoy running the 8, so I feel pretty good about it," Rodgers said. "I'm really bad at strategizing and knowing what I'm going to do, so that'll be a big challenge. But I think it's going to help me mature as an athlete, running in the national meet in the 8 and competing individually."

Rodgers said she likes her team's chances of competing well despite most of the field having better seed times.

"We'll have competition for sure," Rodgers said. "But I feel like our bond between the mile relay is very strong, and that will push us even more. We all trust each other, so hopefully we'll run faster."