BRITTON – Area track and field athletes tried to take advantage of solid weather conditions to improve upon previous efforts during the Orville Pfitzer Relays on Tuesday.

Aberdeen Roncalli won the boys’ team points, while Warner won the girls’ team crown.

Leola’s Dustin Wurtz, who has the top mark in the state among Class B throwers in the shot put, was unable to beat his personal record, but still won the event in addition to winning the discus.

The senior said it feels different this spring because it’s his final season of competition.

“It definitely does,” Wurtz said, “knowing that I don’t have very many more chances to throw.”

He is chasing goals and records, and obtained a big one just last week in the shot put.

“I just want to keep getting better, show the people what I can do and obviously PRs are good,” Wurtz said. “I already got the school record last meet, so that’s a big plus. I’d like to get the state record, but I gotta a couple more things to figure out.”

Last week in Ipswich, Wurtz broke a 55-year-old school record when he threw 54-feet 5-inches, shattering the record of 53-5 set by Dale Zetterlund back in 1974.

“It’s been a while. … It’s pretty cool,” Wurtz said. “I’ve gotten a lot of congratulations and a lot of smiles.”

Wurtz, who finished fifth in the shot at state last season, would like to cap his high school career with a state championship this spring.

“It would be amazing,” Wurtz said. “I don’t think Leola’s ever had a state champion in anything, so it would be the first.”

No one had a bigger day at the meet than McKenna Tietz. The Groton sophomore won the 100-meter hurdles, the 300-meter intermediate hurdles, and ran on winning 400-meter and 1,600-meter relay squads.

Tietz got out in front early on the way to winning the 300 hurdles.

“You’ve got to push out of the blocks, and get that first one and attack them,” Tietz said. “And with it being good weather today, you’ve got to use it.”

While Tietz had individual success, she said it was enjoyable running with her teammates as well. The 400-meter relay squad recorded a PR.

“It’s fun and satisfying when you win with your teammates, too,” Tietz said.

While Tietz was unable to get a personal record in all of her events, that is her quest each time she competes.

“I just try to get faster each meet,” Tietz said.

Like Tietz in the hurdles, Britton-Hecla’s Daniel Person got out early and set the tone on the way to winning the 1,600-meter run, although he had to fight off a challenge from Groton’s Jayden Schwan at the finish.

“I kept hearing people cheering him on, yelling his name right behind me, so I had an idea that he was behind me,” Person said, “and I’ve raced him a couple of times before, so I knew that me and him have kind of been battling this season.”

Person had one main objective heading into the race.

“My main focus of mind was I hadn’t broken five minutes yet in the mile and last year my best time was a 4:39, and so I knew that I had that in me,” Person said. “So, today I made it a goal to make sure I broke five minutes and I think my time ended up being a 4:52 on that.”

While there was a definite breeze at times, it did not have a huge impact on the competitors.

“It’s nice today that we got a west wind, so it’s not effecting either of the straightaways,” Person said, “but on the north curve over there we got a little bit of headwind that we got to run into, but it’s definitely been worse at a couple other meets.”

Tri-State’s Shali Laurence saved her best for last to win the discus event. The senior from Rosholt trailed before recording the top throw in the field on her last attempt at 107-feet 1-inch.

Laurence said she didn’t play attention to where she was at in the standings heading into the final throw.

“I just go out there and throw,” Laurence said, “and don’t think about anything, just focus on my throwing.”

The left-handed thrower knew she had a good attempt the second she let it sail.

“It felt good when it left my hand,” Laurence said.

Laurence, who also competes in the shot put, said she uses different techniques in each event.

“You can do glide on shot put and then a spin for shot put and disc,” Laurence said. “I prefer the spin for discus and then shot put I do the glide.”

Laurence has a goal of setting a school record in the discus in her final year of competition.

“I’m trying to beat our school record. … It hasn’t been broke for a while,” Laurence said, “and I want to get that.”

Northwestern’s Ella Boekelheide won both the 800-meter and 1,600-meter runs. Wilmot’s Kolby Haubris won the 200-meter dash and the high jump, ran on the winning 800-meter relay team, and finished second in the long jump.

Aberdeen Christian won two events on the day, claiming the girls’ 800-meter relay and the girls’ triple jump.

“Really good day. Throwers hit a bunch of bests and the sprints, jumps, and distance group all did well,” said Knights coach Sam Bjorkman. “Good relays again today which we needed.”

The 800 squad was comprised of Payton Skarin, Ali Isakson, Eritrea Cobbs, and Hope Ellyson.

Meanwhile, Shawnteah LaCroix continues to excel in new events. After placing in the shot put last week, she broke the school record in the triple jump with a mark of 33-feet 6 and 3/4-inches.

“Fun to see Shawnteah find something to try while she is getting healthy,” Bjorkman said. “She seems to be enjoying trying out new events and obviously had some success today.”

Roncalli also had a strong meet led by Parker Grieben who won the 110-meter high hurdles, and finished runner-up in both the 200-meter dash and 400-meter dash with PRs in both races.

“Carter Samson threw a huge PR to take third in the shot put,” said Roncalli coach Sarah Lux. “Aiden Fisher won the 300 hurdles with a season record, and both Austin Fisher and Evelyn Martin ran PRs in those.”

Lux also noted that “the horizontal jumpers did well with a few placing pretty high and some PRs.”

Matayah Henrich had a PR in the pole vault “and the girls medley shaved off a lot of seconds to move them up in the rankings,” Lux said.

Christian will compete in a field event meet in Warner on Thursday. Both Christian and Roncalli will head to Ipswich for a meet on Saturday.

To see Thursday’s complete meet results, click on the following link:

https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/meet/571310/results