It came down to the wire for area Class B athletes on the second day of the State Track and Field meet at Howard Wood Field Friday before they secured five state championships.

Spencer Melius of Faulkton went into the meet with the top mark in the javelin of 179 feet, 2-inches, but found himself in fifth place going into the final round with a throw of 155-1.

“I usually don’t throw the furthest all the time. They call me the one-shot wonder,” said Melius. “I usually throw those shorter ones, but then I did get my one-shot wonder throw out, so I’m happy about that.”

His ‘one-shot wonder’ came on his final throw of the day. He was in fourth with a prior throw of 161-2 and knew he could get the state title with a small change going into his last throw, that almost cost him to step over the line.

“So right away, I was throwing a little slower getting up to the line, so I knew I had to get my speed up,” Melius said. “I got a little closer to the line with the speed, so it carried me almost over, but I was able to hold onto it.”

He then had to wait for the distance to be calculated. A total of 168-5 was called out, a distance that broke the meet record gave him the first-place finish.

“Yeah, the heart was racing. I guess it was a cool moment, overall,” Melius said. “It feels pretty good.”

A very similar situation happened to Hitchcock-Tulare’s Katelyn Schroeder who was sitting in third going into her final throw in the girls’ javelin.

“I knew I was on the podium and I kind of told myself I had nothing to lose,” Schroeder said. “I might as well just focus on what I know and just chuck it as far as I can, and it worked out for me.”

Schroeder’s final throw that secured her first place was 127-3, a personal record and a meet record. Hitting that distance came as a surprise to the senior.

“It was pretty insane, I guess. This might sound bad, but I didn’t expect that out of myself. I PR’d by quite a bit,” said Schroeder. “I really didn’t believe it, if I’m being honest with you. I just had to put my head down for a little bit.”

The javelin is the newest event added to the state meet, making its debut in 2022. Schroeder decided to give it a try this season.

“This is my first year doing it, so I kind of took a while to learn, but I learned that speed is the main thing,” said Schroeder. “And your release really affects how far you throw, because if you don’t have a good release, it’s not gonna go too far. But yeah, very technical.”

Over in the shot put, Dustin Wurtz secured his second state championship, adding to his discus state title he won on Thursday. Although the senior didn’t set a new personal record, his final throw of 55-0 and ¾ was enough to put him on the top podium for the second straight day.

“I’m very happy. Would have been much happier with a PR, but I’ll still take winning by over five feet,” Wurtz said. “It felt good. I knew I won, so I just tried to give it my all.”

And the first person Wurtz celebrated with was none other than his mom.

“It’s really nice. I’m very thankful for her, she’s done a lot for me,” Wurtz said. “She feeds me, so that’s really nice. And she’s been to every meet my senior year.”

Wurtz capped his high school career with a pair of state championships in his final meet.

“I’m very happy. Very emotional because I’ve made a lot of friends throughout high school,” Wurtz said. “And I absolutely love this sport, but we’re just gonna see where life takes me.”

While Wurtz won two state titles in two days, Northwestern’s Ella Boekelheide won two state titles in less than five hours on Friday. The junior started her day by winning the 3,200-meter run with a season best time of 11:38.32.

“It’s fun every time. It never gets less fun,” Boekelheide said. “I can’t ask for anything better.”

Just over a second separated her from Kimball-White Lake’s Autumn Baker with Madisyn Gellhaus from Ipswich not too far behind. A tight race is what Boekelheide excels in.

“I love competing. I want all the competition I can get. It makes it more exciting, it makes it more upbeat,” Boekelheide said. “I love to come out here and have a stacked field and just see what we can all do to push each other.”

The multiple state championship runner sat in second place for the first seven laps of the race before making a move to pass Baker with 300 meters remaining.

“I just kind of zone out and just keep running. The key is just don’t overthink, just run. You know how to run,” said Boekelheide. “I was feeling pretty good. I was feeling smooth,and I knew I had to change to another gear. And even if my body doesn’t feel like it, you still have to.”

With one first place finish in hand, she had more confidence heading into the 800-meter even though only a few hours separated the two events.

“It’s always a little risky running the two-mile so close to the 8 (hundred meter),” Boekelheide said. “I think this gave me a lot of confidence and even though it took eight laps out of my legs, it helped out with my mental a little bit, so I would say it’s a fair trade.”

Running in the 3,200-meter didn’t seem to phase her as she set a new season-best time of 2:19.14 on the way to her second state championship of the day.

“Like I said. It never gets old,” said the double champ. “It’s so exhilarating every time.”

However, she found herself in a not so favorable spot to start the 800, being boxed in by the pack.

“I didn’t wanna be leading it, but once I got out, I knew some girls would get out pretty fast, so I was kind of prepared for that and then I got pretty boxed in,” Boekelheide said. “So, I just relaxed. I had to swing wide. It was kind of hard navigating that, but that’s what kind of made the first lap a little slower you know. Just trying to get through all that traffic.”

She navigated traffic perfectly as she made her move on the back straightaway to get her into first place.

“I use as little energy I can to navigate that and get through that. You don’t want to be maybe going, going, maybe going. You have to be very distinctive,” said Boekelheide. “It’s the 800. You don’t have much time to get it back if you lost it, so you just have to be really confident in your moves.”

Coming down the final 100, Braylee Bordewyk from Corsica-Stickney began closing the distance, and Boekelheide knew she was going to be there, but she couldn’t hear the crowd that was cheering her on.

“I knew without looking. I knew she would be there. I watched her run in some relays, I knew she would be there. So, I was looking up at the board, I couldn’t feel her behind me, but I knew she was there and wasn’t gonna let up,” Boekelheide said. “When you’re coming down this homestretch, it’s silent. You aren’t really hearing that. … I kind of just block it all out and run my race.”

In one of the final events of the day, Rasmus Loken of Ipswich defended his state title in the pole vault after getting out to a rocky start.

“The nerves and everything. I’ve never felt anything like that before,” Loken said. “It was on my third attempt I made it. It was a very, very nervous time.”

The senior passed on the first jump of the day at 10-9, and failed his first two attempts at 11-3 despite having a PR of 13-9. In addition to the nerves, he got a bloody nose after his second miss.

“Everything was crazy. Yeah, I got that bloody nose on my second attempt,” Loken said. “I didn’t know if I was going to make that third attempt, but luckily I did and things escalated from there.”

And things did escalate as he hit the next four jumps on the first attempt, including the jump that earned him the state title at 13-3. Alongside him was teammate Brody Davis, Jake Burns from Arlington and Aksel Ehlers from Lyman, all who hit or tied their PRs.

“It was a huge relief. I mean, in a sport like this when you make it over that first bar, it’s just always a huge relief off your chest,” Loken said. “It felt great, but the four or five that were left, I just felt good for them. They all had very good PRs and it was just a good day for Class B pole vault.”

North Central’s Gabe Johnson finished second in the 3,200-meter run with a personal record time, and Annaliese Van Zee of Sully Buttes finished third in the javelin with a PR as well.

Aberdeen Christian will be competing in numerous events when the meet concludes today. Shawnteah La Croix will be in the 100-meter and 200-meter finals, as well as the triple jump. The Knights will also run in the finals of the girls’ 400-meter relay, and Dylan Hofer goes into the triple jump with the highest mark of 44-4 ¼.

To see state meet results, click on the following link:

https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/meet/601981/results