Skies clear for Queen City meet

By: 
Jason Ferguson

It hasn’t been the best weather recently for area track teams, but that wasn’t the case last Friday in Spearfish as sunny skies greeted athletes who competed in the Queen City Classic on the campus of Black Hills State University.
The competition included Class AA schools from the area, as well as some larger schools from other states, such as Sheridan, Wyo.
Custer head coach Karen Karim said meets with such stiff competition are good for the team.
“We want competition as much as possible,” she said. “But there is a time and place we need to make sure we have meets (everyone) can compete in so we need to do the small meets as well.”
The Wildcat girls brought home four championships from the meet, led once again by thrower Kellyn Kortemeyer, who won the shot put with a throw of 42-0 while winning the discus by 24 feet with a school-record toss of 145-3. Kortemeyer’s throw bested the old school record of 143-6 set by Jenni Mack in 2006.
Karim said Kortemeyer is working on throws with coach Russ Bailey to revamp her form for the shot put, switching from a glide to a spin with the goal of taking her to the next level in that event, in which she also holds the school record.
Josey Wahlstrom set a personal record in the 400 on her way to the gold medal, almost eclipsing the one-minute mark with a time of 1:00.17. Karim said it is only a matter of time before Wahlstrom and JoJo Larsen, who placed third in the event at 1:01.67, both run the race in under a minute.
The final gold medal came on the legs of the 3200 relay team, as Kadense Dooley, Eva Studt, Brit Wheeler and Ramsey Karim combined to post a time of 10:02.85.
Dooley picked up an individual silver medal in the 1600 with a time of 5:35.69, while Alice Sedlacek was second in the discus, as she continues to shatter her own personal records in the event, this time with a throw of 121-4.
Wahlstrom grabbed a bronze medal in the 200 at a time of 27.35, while Larsen was fourth in the 100 at 13.02 and the 200 at 27.52. Karim rounded out the individual fourth place finishes by running a 2:24.09 in the 800.
One relay team placed fourth, as the medley team of Studt, Kylee Ellerton, Maya Tennyson and Rachel Miklos combined to run a time of 4:40.00.
Miklos, Dooley, Studt and Wahlstrom placed fifth in the 1600 relay at a time of 4:40.71, and Wahlstrom picked up a fifth place finish in the pole vault with a top height of 5-0.
Torri Virtue and Sedlacek finished seventh and eighth in the shot put to finish out the girls placing with throws of 33-2 and 32-0, respectively.
On the boys side Mikael Grace was the only champion as he won the 110 hurdles at 15.44 before shutting things down for the day due to some leg soreness.
Gage Tennyson got in his first jumps of the season at the meet, and placed second in the long jump with a best leap of 20-11 1/4. Karim said Tennyson popped a jump that was likely over 22 feet, but his hand fell back on his landing, making the jump shorter.
Miles Ellman picked up the boys’ lone third place finish, running the 1600 in 4:42.98. The team’s only individual fifth place finish came from Robbie Emery in the pole vault, with a top height of 12-6, which was a personal record.
Two relay teams placed fifth for the boys. The 3200 team of Drew Lehman, Alex Van Horn, Jackson Drew and Sam Gaulke did so in 9:03.54, while the medley team of Landon Woodward, Hadyn Yackley, Sam Gaulke and Gage Grohs did so in 3:54.92.
Dossen Elmore grabbed the team’s only sixth-place finish, throwing the javelin 123-3, while also placing seventh in the discus at 127-6. Justin Doyle also had a seventh-place finish at the meet, throwing the shot put 45-8, while Blake Boyster was seventh in the 100 at 11.57. Karim said Boyster felt a twinge in his leg during the sprint and sat out the rest of the meet as a precaution.
Finally, the 1600 relay team of Boyster, Gaulke, Grace and Miles finished in eighth place at 3:47.13.
Karim said the team is showing gradual improvement as the season goes along, but cautioned East River there are athletes putting up impressive marks that haven’t shown up yet due to the meets being held indoors.
“It’s a long season, and the goal is to get through the season without anything bad happening,” she said. “We’ll build as we go.”
The Wildcats were scheduled to compete in Rapid City this week at the Track-O-Rama, but that meet has been postponed due to the weather. It’s possible, if not likely, the team won’t compete again until next Thursday’s Custer Invitational. Some of the Wildcat athletes will also travel to the Pierre American Legion Relays next Friday.
Between now and then, Karim said, the team will focus heavily on training.
“We can do so much more when we don’t have to prepare for a meet,” she said.

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