’Cats deal with shuffled meets

It was a busy week for athletes on the Custer High School track team, as members of the team competed in a meet in some form or fashion for three straight days last week, starting in Rapid City and ending in Pierre.
The American Legion Dakota Relays in Pierre were supposed to be held last Saturday, but were bumped up to Thursday due to weather.
Because of that, two Wildcats—Ezra Wollman and Ayden Dooley—traveled to that meet to compete after not being able to compete at the Wednesday Custer Invitational due to the weather, which had moved pole vault inside the Armory at that meet.
The two tied for second place at the meet, both clearing 11-3.
Meanwhile, the Custer Invitational was supposed to be held on Thursday of last week, but was moved up to Wednesday due to the weather. Because of this some teams dropped out of the meet while a few were added, which head coach Karen Karim said still made for a decent-sized meet overall.
The Wildcats had several championships at the meet, including Karyn Ellerton, who eclipsed her personal record (PR) in both the shot put and the discus, winning both events with throws of 40-4 and 143-0, respectively.
Siena Schultz, competing in the hurdles for the first time, won the 300 hurdles in a time of 51.16. The last individual championship came from Gloria Keller, who won the pole vault with a top height of 8-9.
Two relays won championships for the Wildcat girls, including the 1600 team of Taylor Busch, Kiran Pesicka, Kingsley Ludwig and Mikayla Dennis, putting up a time of 4:41.21, and the 3200 team of Dennis, Pesicka, Emma Halverson and Makenzi Ham at 10:36.04.
Ham picked up another second-place finish in the 800 by running a time of 2:51.28, as did Tenlee Stiefel in the 100 at a time of 12.98, which was a PR. Rylan Lowe was second in the discus with a best toss of 118-2, and Sarka Marakova was second in the pole vault with a top height of 7-6.
Third-place finishes included Karmyn Ellerton, who did so in the triple jump with a best leap of 20-9 1/2, as well as Keira Nelson in the javelin at 96-8, Ava Hohn in the discus at 109-5 (PR) and Jessica Hite 34-2 (PR).
The female and male throwers both had strong meets with a number of PRs. Hohn was fifth in the shot put at 30-9, while Ella Sheffield was sixth in the same event with a PR throw of 30-4.
In the discus, Sheffield set a PR with a fourth-place throw of 106-4.
“I was proud of them, and (throws coach Russ) Bailey was happy with how they competed,” Karim said.
Other third place finishes included Tenlee Stiefel in the high jump at 4-8, Ashlee Haas in the pole vault at 7-0, Taylor Busch in the 100 at 13.05 (PR), Myah Keller in the 200 at 28.10 (PR) and Brianna Noble in the 800 at 2:51.07.
Karim said the meet had a strong wind pushing runners as they came down the straightaway toward the finish line, which helped with many of the sprint PRs but hindered distance runners who had to run into it for parts of their race.
The 800 relay team of Myley May, Jasmine Harbison, Emarsyn Jaure and Gloria Keller also finished in third with a time of 1:59.08.
Fourth place finishes included Riley Messer in the 100 hurdles (18.20), Keira Nelson in the 300 hurdles (54.13), Kingsley Ludwig in the 400 (1:10.27), and Gabriella Hardesty in the triple jump (26-7). 
The 400 relay team of Harbison, Karmyn Ellerton, Sunshine Surratt and Rachel Adams was also fourth at 58.37.
Madeline Noble was fifth in the 800 at a time of 2:54.86, while Brianna Noble was fifth in the 400 in a PR time of 1:10.71. Schultz picked up a fifth-place finish in the 100 hurdles at a time of 18.31 (PR).
Sixth-place finishes included Myah Keller in the long jump at 14-3 1/2, Gloria Keller in the 100 at 13.65 (PR), Messer in the 300 hurdles at 56.83 and Halverson in the 400 at 1:12.90.
Seventh-place finishes came from Ava Jaure in the javelin at 87-1, Nelson in the high jump at 4-2 (PR) and Madilyn Baker in the high jump, also at 4-2.
Surratt brought home the team’s only eighth-place finish, doing so in the long jump at 13-7 1/2.
On the boys side, Carter Cooper brought home a championship in the 800 in a time of 2:11.40 (PR), as did Adam Hohn in the 1600 in a time of 5:04.94 and Mason Dirkes in the 110 hurdles at 17.05, an event he had not competed in since junior high.
“He could be a great hurdler if he decides he wants to do that,” Karim said.
Two relays placed first for the Wildcats, including the 400 team of Dirkes, Brady Virtue, Danny Immormino and Veek Johncour at 46.25, and the 1600 team of Dalton Marshall, Austin Drew, Jared Cooper and Ian Schiffer at 3:43.04.
Eli Kobza placed second in the 300 hurdles in a PR time of 51.57, as did Zach Cooper in the 400 at 53.83, Peyton Krueger in the 800 at 2:14.15, Johncour in the triple jump at 37-11 Dirkes in the high jump at 5-8, Lincoln Golder in the discus at 141-7 (PR) and the medley relay team of  Dooley, Wyatt DeFreece, Schiffer and Will Kimball at 4:14.25.
Rounding out the second-place finishes was the 800 relay team of Dirkes, Cheydon McPhee, Marcus Merrill and Daniel Wozny at 1:39.19.
Karim said the Wildcat boys have yet to be able to put together their fastest sprint relay teams due to injuries.
“We hope to get them put together to get qualified for state,” she said.
Third-place finishes came from Saylor Rice in the 1600 in a PR time of 5:09.70 and McPhee in the high jump at 5-6, while fourth-place finishes came from Zane Gunnell in the 1600 at 5:11.13, Kobza in the 110 hurdles at 22.34 and Drew in the 400 in a PR time of 55.28.
Rice also picked up a fifth-place finish in the 800 at a time of 2:21.85, as did Logan Olson in the shot put and discus with PR throws of 41-6 and 125-7, respectively, Virtue in the javelin with a PR throw of 130-4 and Kimball in the triple jump at 32-1.
The 800 relay team of Jaxson Pomarleau, Carson Hanis, Aiden Airheart and Kimball was also fifth at 1:47.92.
Sixth-place finishes came from Jameson Wiles in the discus at 123-3 and Pomarleau in the triple jump at 31-1, while seventh-place finishes came from Blaise Arp in the shot put with a PR throw of 38-4, Wiles in the javelin at 112-0, Virtue in the long jump at 18-3 1/4 and Brooks Wheeler in the 800 at a time of 2:30.04.
Finally, eighth-place finishes included Sam Cochran in the 800 at 2:32.99, Marshall in the 400 at 57.63 and Wiles in the shot put at 38-1 (PR).
On April 21 the team traveled to the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology in Rapid City for a meet hosted by Rapid City Central. The meet was supposed to be a JV meet, but after the varsity meet was cancelled due to weather, the JV meet became a varsity meet.
The Wildcats didn’t have a champion at the stacked meet, but did set several PRs, included Wollman in the pole vault with a top height of 13-0, good for third place.
The top placement for the boys was the medley relay team of Immormino, Merrill, Rusch and Zach Cooper at 3:44.66, while Rusch also grabbed fourth place in the 1600 at 4:37.15.
Fifth-place finishes included Carter Cooper in the 3200 at 10:40.11 (PR) and Dooley in the pole vault at 12-6 (PR), while sixth-place finishes included Krueger in the 3200 at 10:43.08, DeFreece in the pole vault at 11-0 (PR), Immormino in the long jump at 20-9 1/4  and Johncour in the triple jump at 40-6.
Finally, Virtue was seventh in the triple jump with a PR distance of 40-2 1/2 and the 1600 relay team of Zach Cooper, Drew, Rusch and Immormino was seventh at 3:38.70.
For the girls, Kelsey and Tenlee Stiefel placed third and fourth in the pole vault with top heights of 11-6, and the medley relay team of Schultz, the Stiefel sisters and Dennis was fourth at 4:29.59. 
Schultz picked up a pair of individual placings as well by finished seventh in the 100 at 13.19 (PR) and eighth in the 200 at 27.01 (PR).
“There are good things happening,” Karim said. “It puts us where we want to be looking ahead to state.”
The Wildcats have one meet this week, as the varsity Wildcats head to the Howard Wood Dakota Relays in Sioux Falls and Sioux Falls O’Gorman Invitational beginning Friday and running through Saturday.