Track team eyes state track meet

Medals continue to be won and personal records continue to fall as the Custer High School track teams continues to work its way to the postseason, all with its sights set on performing its best when it matters the most—the South Dakota Class A State Track Meet.
Most recently the team participated in the Black Hills Classic meet in Sturgis last Saturday.
The meet served as an opportunity to get some younger team members—including eighth graders who will now participate with the varsity—into some events, as well as a chance for some varsity stalwarts to improve times and marks and even qualify for the state meet.
The girls came away with three gold medals, led by thrower Karyn Ellerton, who won the discus by 12 feet with her throw of 131-6. Ellerton also placed third in the shot put with a best heave of 34-6.
“Karyn has just been solid,” head coach Karen Karim said. “She’s just solid week-in and week-out.”
Jayda Bennett picked up a first place in the 300 hurdles, posting a time of 47.32, while placing fourth in the 100 hurdles at 15.54.
As always, a Stiefel was victorious in the girls pole vault competition, with Ciana winning the event by clearing a top height of 12-6. Just behind her in second place was sister Kelsey at 12-0, and in fourth was younger sister Tenlee at 11-6.
“We saw some things we needed to see on the girls side,” Karim said. “A bunch of girls PR’d (personal record) in the sprints, and other races girls are dropping their times.”
Jessica Hite set a PR of her own in the shot put, placing fourth with a best throw of 33-7 1/2, while Keira Alfson was fifth in the 1600 with a PR time of 5:41.69. The 1600 relay team of Kelsey Stiefel, Kiran Pesicka, Addie Sander and Siena Schultz was fourth at 4:21.21, while the medley team of Fiona Weber, Rachel Adams, Mikayla Dennis and Makenzi Ham was sixth at 5:04.41.
Rylan Lowe finished in sixth place in the discus with a best throw of 109-10, while Tenlee Stiefel was seventh in the high jump with a top height of 4-11. Rounding out the placing was Taylor Busch in the 400 in eighth place with a time of 1:02.64, and the 3200 relay team of Ham, Dennis, Ava Miller and Evelyn Garcia also in eighth at 11:16.42.
On the boys side Roland Sedlacek was the lone champion, as he won the javelin with a best throw of 174-7.
Cade Lehman picked up a third place finish in the 100—a race Karim said he will likely run at the state meet—in a PR time of 11.19.
A fourth place finish came from Ezra Wollman in the pole vault with a top height of 11-0, and the Wildcats received sixth-place finishes from Sean Shipp in the 1600 (4:35.45 PR), Mason Dirkes in the high jump (5-7 PR) and the 1600 relay team of Zach Cooper, Jackson Wiles, Daniel Wozny and Dalton Marshall (3:40.03).
Ayden Dooley finished seventh in the pole vault with a top height of 10-6, as did Kyle Virtue in the shot put with a PR throw of 44-5. One relay placed seventh, as Marcus Merrill, Dillon Hanis, Kawika Johncour and Wozny combined to run the 800 relay in 1:40.35.
Wiles finished eighth in the 800 at a time of 2:04.61, while the 400 relay of Lehman, Sedlacek, Merrill and Torin Knight was eighth at 45.11.
“People continue to improve their times. They had a solid meet,” Karim said. “It was really hot by the end of the meet. It was pushing 90 by the end of the day.”
The Wildcats competed in the Black Hills Conference Meet yesterday in Belle Fourche, which was moved ahead two days due to impending weather.  Because its hard to compete for a conference title due to the sheer numbers schools like Sturgis and Spearfish bring to the meet, Karim said it was another chance to get a look at some younger athletes to see how they can help the team as the season winds down.
“We would have liked to have had the week to work on some things and have the meet on Thursday but things didn’t go as planned,” she said.
The team is also scheduled to compete at the Last Chance meet in Rapid City next week, but weather could play a factor in that meet as well.