SPEARFISH | Beautiful weather played a role in a big day for area teams and athletes at the Queen City Track and Field Meet at Lyle Hare Stadium on Friday.
Sturgis pole vaulter Klara Lyon set the school record in the pole vault for the second straight weekend and the Custer boys posted a new school mark in the 4x800-meter relay to go with another strong team-wide performance from the Central Cobblers, who won 10 different events.
Lyon set the Scoopers’ school record in the pole vault at 11 feet, 7 inches at last week’s Rapid City Developmental Meet and added another 3 inches to it this week to win the event again.
“I have to give all my credit to my coach,” Lyon said of former school record holder Kristi Cammack. “She’s the one who told me that I would break her school record some day and it’s pretty amazing that she ended up being exactly right.”
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Lyon’s teammate Brooke Ireland easily won the open 400 in a season-best time of 57.76 seconds before bringing the Scoopers back in the 4x400 relay with a blistering anchor leg.
“The kids love running those relays and they showed it today,” Sturgis head coach Cody King said. “They all ran well and then when you can pull that ace in the hole (Ireland) to run the anchor leg, that’s always nice. It was a good day for the team.”
The Custer boys relay team of Israel Parsons, Shane Herman, Brennan Witt and Chase Glazier set a new school record of 8 minutes, 11.4 seconds in the 4x800.
“We wanted to focus on those relays today because we had been looking more at individual events early in the season and they came out and ran really well today,” Custer head coach Craig Black said. “It’s early in the season but we definitely had some good things happen today that we can build on moving forward.”
The Central Cobblers once again dominated the sprints as Alaina Klapperich and Quade Ruffin-Hill swept the girls and boys 100- and 200-meter dashes and Ryan Stiles took the boys 400 after chasing down Spearfish’s Luke Wietgrefe on the homestretch.
“I was really happy with how I ran,” Klapperich said. “I ran the fastest time I’ve ever run (in the 100 at 12.49 seconds) and it’s still pretty early in the season so I was really happy with that. That really surprised me because I wasn’t expecting to be better than I’ve ever been just three meets in. That was really nice.”
The other Cobbler winners on the day were Abby Wahl in the girls long jump, Talon Maxon in the boys 110-meter hurdles, Alex Klapperich in the boys 300-meter hurdles, Wyatt Weidenbach in the boys high jump and the boys 4x400 relay team.
Central would have had one more individual winner but Hill City eighth-grader Marion Hohn ran 2012 Class AA 800-meter champ Hannah Hearn down at the finish line for her personal-best time of 2:25.51 in the event.
“I don’t have that much experience in the 800 and I was running with a bunch of AA schools, so I was pretty nervous,” Hohn said. “I just tried to stay with the leaders and then I just listened to my coach. At the end, it’s not so much about what you have (for talent), it’s more about if you think you can do it … I was psyched.”
Other individual girls winners on the day were Campbell County’s Jessi Jeffries (1,600), Elizabeth Maller (shot put) and Ruth Sifuma (100 hurdles), Newcastle’s Calbi Ausmann (3,200), Rapid City Stevens’ Claire Deuter (300 hurdles) and Jorden Three Stars (high jump), Harding County’s Sierra Stugelmeyer (triple jump) and Sundance’s Kacie O’Connor (discus).
Other winners on the boys side were Custer’s Kenneth Myers (800), Buffalo’s Matt Scarlett (1,600) and Taylor Hepp (long jump), Campbell County’s Harrison Simmons (3,200) and Dustin Erisman (pole vault), Dickinson’s Levi Jordheim (triple jump), Douglas’ Jared Maciejczak (shot put) and Newcastle’s Chris Spain (discus).
Most of the teams that took part in the meet will participate in next week’s Rapid City Track-O-Rama at O’Harra Stadium.