Jase Kraft takes home two titles - South Dakota Class B state track, day one recap
By Rich Winter
What a busy day for Wessington Springs athlete Jase Kraft on day one of the state track meet!
Early in the afternoon, Kraft ran a 51.3 400 meters.
A few hours later, Kraft strapped it up for the 800 meters and won easily with a 1:59.64.
About 45 minutes later, Kraft toed the line for the 3200 meters. His winning time of 10:18 was well off his season's best but it was good enough to hold off Bison 8th grader, Daniel Burkhalter who ran a 10:24.
Two state titles in the span of about 45 minutes and Kraft pulled off the rare, 800 / 3200 double.
Today at Howard Wood, Kraft is the favorite to repeat in the 1600. The 400 might be a bit problematic as his 51.3 qualified him as the 5th fastest runner in Class B.
Don't bet against him!
The boy's team race could be a pretty good one today as Elkton-Lake Benton, Mitchell Christian and Parker are all within four points of one another.
Parker has solid long relays and had the fastest qualifying time in the medley relay.
Should be an interesting day for Class B boys.
Girls Class B -
No shock here as Ipswich looks like they are going to roll to another Class B title. After day one of the meet, the Tigers lead Elkton-Lake Benton (44-21.5) and Ipswich has a lot of points yet to come off the track.
Arlington started the day off with a bang, winning the 4x800 relay in 9:55.
In the afternoon finals, Macy Heinz repeated as 800 meter champion, clocking the fastest time of any of the classes at 2:17
Ipswich picked up 16 big points in the 3200 with Tori Moore (11:48) and Taylor Loken (12:10) going 1/3
Field events:
Scotland's Carley Skorepa easily captured the discus - 127'3"
Elkton-Lake Benton's Lexy Lynn captured the long jump going 16'1.5"
Ipswich vaulters Autumn Pitz and Kristi Pond when 1/2 in the pole vault
Estelline sophomore Jamie Begalka won the shot put with a toss of 39'6"
Chester area junior Sara Heyn captured the triple jump with a leap of 36'7"
Looking for great track photos from all classes? Check out kernit.zenpholio.com
Cover photo by Kernit Grimshaw.