Aberdeen Central hosted its only full track and field meet of the season on Friday, and the Golden Eagles took advantage of that home-track advantage as they began to gear up for the Eastern South Dakota Conference meet next weekend in Harrisburg.

A variety of Central athletes found their way to victory at Brownell Activities Complex and many of them said competing at home gave them an extra boost during competition.

“I mean I’ve been coming to this meet, my parents are coaches, since I was a little kid so watching them when I was little and now getting to be at this meet is just a pretty cool feeling,” said Central junior Taryn Hermansen who won the shot put. “It’s just fun to be home and have all your friends and family be able to support you.”

Joran Foss also used the extra motivation in his events on Friday, including a Class AA top-five performance in the discus.

“It feels good. I love the whole meet, it’s the best meet of the year,” said Foss. “It feels great. I mean, you practice here every day, so you’re pretty used to it.”

Standout hurdler Mya Arampatzis also used the comfortability of being at home to her advantage.

“It’s pretty great. I really love our track and all of our girls are so nice,” said Arampatzis. “It’s nice being on home turf and it’s kind of familiar. It’s just really good practice to get in before ESD.”

Carson Urlacher, who won the 1,600-meter and 3,200-meter runs, just enjoyed winning in front of the home crowd.

“It feels good to win with all the people I know here,” Urlacher said. “And my family in the crowd, and stuff like that.”

Although it wasn’t Urlacher’s fastest time in the 1,600, he still put his effort into winning the race, using his strategy to get him there.

“It’s not the best, but I knew I wasn’t just gonna come out here and PR today, so I just wanna have good effort and to get some good times down on my other events,” said Urlacher. “I usually like to get out pretty hard, cruise laps two and three and close hard on the last lap. … I feel like I did that pretty well today.”

Even with wins in both distance races on Friday, Urlacher prefers a change in scenery compared to turning left.

“I definitely like running cross country a bit more because it’s a little change in scenery, you know on grass and such,” Urlacher said. “But I’ve been having a pretty good track season and it’s just been growing on me.”

Hermansen has also been having a stellar season, breaking the school record in shot put last week at Howard Wood, and securing another meet win, this time at home.

“I was fired up and ready to go. After that one scratch, it went really far, so I came to that last throw, they clapped me in and I didn’t hold back on that one and it was just really fun,” Hermansen said. “It feels good. Definitely could have thrown it farther, but I’m gonna hopefully save it for next week and go do it at ESD.”

The school record holder says that shot put is mainly mental.

“I would say it’s very big mentally. I’m really big at just meditating before I throw, really center myself and then that really just does help me get through,” said Hermansen. “When I get in that ring, I’m ready to go. Nothing else going through my mind besides getting it out there as far as I can.”

Foss won both the shot put and discus on Friday, improving on his throws from last week.

“I wish I threw like that last weekend at Howard Wood, would’ve got me on the podium,” Foss said. “It’s good to hit those marks again because I haven’t hit that high since Huron and that was a while ago, so it’s good to be back up there.”

With the wind playing a factor in the discus, Foss used it to his advantage and executed the plan to perfection hitting 159-feet and 7-inches, currently fifth in Class AA.

“I think it was the wind, because that’s why they’re using this ring today because there’s a righty wind coming in so if you throw it down the line, it’ll add about five more feet or so,” Foss said. “It feels really good. It’s just a big relief for me because discus the last couple weeks, until last week, has been a little rough.”

The dual sport athlete has a short turnaround time as he now gets ready to play four baseball games with the Aberdeen Smittys this weekend in likely hot conditions.

“It’s tough. I haven’t been to practice this week, and we got four games this weekend, but I think it’ll be good,” Foss said. “I’d like it if it wasn’t four games and it’s gonna be pretty hot this weekend.”

Arampatzis, who twice set the school record in the 100-meter intermediate hurdles last weekend, will now begin to set her sights on the upcoming ESD meet.

“I’ll definitely start recovering like right away tonight and through this weekend,” said Arampatzis. “Just kind of fine-tuning things before then and just preparing mentally.”

Arampatzis won the 100-meter hurdles and took third in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles. She appeared to be in pain following the long set of hurdles.

“I took some medicine before my hundred, so I was feeling pretty good, but it kind of wore off before my 300,” said Arampatzis. “You just gotta push through it and make sure you recover right.”

Arampatzis, who also ran on Central’s winning 400-meter relay team on Friday, talked about her record-setting performances last weekend at the Howard Wood Relays.

“It was awesome. It was my dream to run that good at Howard Wood at such a big meet with so much competition,” Arampatzis said. “It was honestly everything I’ve prayed for, and it was just an amazing feeling.”

Other local winners on the boys’ side included Central’s Kyson Fayant who won the 300 hurdles and also ran a leg on Central’s winning 1,600-meter relay squad, plus Central’s 400-meter relay and Frederick’s 3,200-meter relay. Other local winners in the girls’ division were Espynn Kuhfeld of Central in the 300 hurdles, Groton’s Ryelle Gibert in the 800-meter and 1,600-meter runs, Central’s Jaidyn Forsyth in the pole vault, plus the Groton 800-meter relay, and Warner 3,200-meter relay.

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

https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/meet/597510/results