More personal records fall for ’Cats

Dominant performances from the usual suspects marked the Douglas Early Bird Track Meet for the Custer High School track team last Saturday in Box Elder.
“There was some really standout performances,” head coach Karen Karim said. “We had a significant number of personal records with our kids getting into shape and learning how to race their races.”
Contributing to those dominant performances was Kellyn Kortemeyer, who cruised to gold medals in both the shot put and discus, winning the shot put by eight feet with a top throw of 41-6, while winning the discus by 24 feet with a personal-best throw of 143-3.
The other first place finish for the Wildcats came in the medley relay, where the team of JoJo Larsen, Rachel Miklos, Josey Wahlstrom and Kadense Dooley won easily with a time of 4:30.13.
For the boys, Blake Boyster was a double-winner in the sprints, posting a personal record time of 22.01 on the way to the gold  medal in the 200, while winning the 400 at 50.76.
“Blake had a great day,” Karim said.
Mikael Grace dominated in the hurdle events, winning the 110 hurdles in 15.51 and the 300 hurdles in a personal-record time of 41.43.
Dossen Elmore rounded out the individual first place winners by grabbing the gold medal in the javelin with a top throw of 140-10. The javelin is an event currently only contested at meets hosted by Class AA schools.
One Wildcat relay team took first place. The 3200 relay team of Gage Grohs, Drew Lehman, Alex Van Horn and Miles Ellman combined to win in a time of 8:37.90.
The boys didn’t bring home any silver medals from the meet, but brought home a handful of bronze medals, including Elmore in the discus with a best throw of 124-3, Justin Doyle in the shot put at 45-8 3/4 and Robbie Emery in the pole vault with a top height of 12-0. The 1600 relay team of Boyster, Grace, Ellman and Sam Gaulke finished in third place despite Ellman getting clipped by a competitor, falling and rolling twice during his anchor leg. Ellman was able to get up and cross the line to give the Wildcats a time of 3:44.90. Ellman also placed fourth in the 800 at a time of 2:08.25.
A pair of Wildcat relays placed fourth, with Landon Leighton, Hadyn Yackley, Gaulke and Boyster running the 800 relay in 1:37.25, and Leighton, Yackley, Kai Rusch and Landon Woodward ran the medley relay in 4:15.6.
Grohs finished fifth in the 800 just behind Ellman at 2:08.82, and Cade Lehman finished fifth in the triple jump with a personal-best leap of 38-6 1/2.
The final individual place came from Preston Drew, who was sixth in the 1600 at 4:56.73.
On the girls side, Ciana Stiefel placed second in the pole vault with a top height of 9-3. If that last name looks familiar it should, as Stiefel is the daughter of Chris Stiefel, who still owns the boys school record in high jump.
Also placing second was Alice Sedlacek, who picked up the silver medal in the discus with a best throw of 119 feet even.
Torri Virtue rounded out the throwing medals with a bronze in the shot put with a best heave of 33-7 1/4.
The final individual third place medal came from the legs of JoJo Larsen, who set a personal record by running a 13.02 in the 100. The freshman lost only to two Class AA sprinters who will  both play college sports next season. Larsen’s performance came on the heels of setting the school record in the 200 last week, when her time of 25.72 beat the previous record of 26.0 set by Taylor (Neugebauer) Koch in 2011.
Larsen was also a part of the third-place finishing 1600 team, being joined by Wahlstrom, Miklos and Ramsey Karim to post a time of 4:17.76.
Karim placed fourth in the 1600 at a time of 5:23.31, while Wahlstrom was fourth in the pole vault with a top height of 8-9.
Brit Wheeler finished sixth in the 800 at a time of 2:33.64, while Sierra Swanson was sixth in the 3200 at 13:10.62.
Two relay teams placed sixth, including the 800 team of Miklos, Kylee Ellerton, Maya Tennyson and Paige Fitzler, running a time of 1:55.42. The 3200 team of Keira Alfson, Serenity Meyer, Ava Miller and Quinn Lewison was sixth at 11:48.03.
Eva Studt rounded out the girls placing with a seventh-place finish in the 800 at 2:34.57.
A big focus of the meet, Karim said, was relays, as the team wanted to qualify for the year-end state meets by virute of qualifying through time at this meet. As the season unfolds and meets don’t allow unlimited entries or the weather doesn’t cooperate, qualifying for both relays and as individuals can get tricky.
“It’s more important now that you can’t qualify (for state) at region,” she said.
The Wildcats are scheduled to head to Spearfish Friday for the Queen City Classic, but weather could affect that meet, as winter storms are looming in the forecast.
“That’s the hard part of the season. You have to keep progressing forward and look for the sun at the end of it all,” Karim said.