SIOUX FALLS – As was the case all weekend, another Class B state championship was decided on a final attempt Saturday during the State Track and Field Meet at Howard Wood Field.

After both javelin state titles came down to the last throw on Friday, Aberdeen Christian’s Dylan Hofer saved his best for last to win the state championship in the triple jump on Saturday.

Hofer secured first place on his final jump of the day. The junior came in with the top mark but was sitting third on the final attempt, before jumping a foot farther than his best on the day hitting 43-feet, 9.75-inches.

“Oh, amazing,” Hofer said. “Just the suspense waiting for my distance to come up was amazing.”

Christian coach Sam Bjorkman was also waiting to see the distance pop up on the screen and once he saw the 43-9.75 jump, he might have jumped that distance himself with pure excitement for his athlete.

“(Athletic director) Matt Rohrbach always gives me a hard time about laying off the caffeine. That’s honestly every time a kid hits a big jump at any meet, you’ll hear me hooting and hollering,” said Bjorkman. “I hope I don’t get on people’s nerves, but I’m just a high energy guy and I love seeing my kids succeed.”

Once Hofer hit his final jump putting him in first place, he had to wait for a very familiar competitor to hit his final jump. Ty Boekelheide of Northwestern set the previous standard on the day with a jump of 43-2.50, and his final jump fell just an inch short of Hofer with a 43-8.75 jump.

“I mean, I wasn’t obviously hoping he’d do bad, but I was just hoping that I would win. I couldn’t even look,” said Hofer. “He’s just really nice and I’m happy that he got second.”

Hofer finished seventh last year and moved up six spots due to the time he put in during the offseason.

“He worked the entire offseason and so it’s not just talent, and that’s what I love,” Bjorkman said. “Talent’s exciting, but work ethic, character, that’s awesome.”

Ethan Schwenn of Wilmot won the 400-meter dash on a photo finish with a personal record time of 50.54 seconds.

Right behind him was Sabas DeHaan of Andes Central-Dakota Christian with a time of :50.57 and Jase Mousel of Colman-Egan with a time of :50.59.

“Man, it feels so good. It was so amazing,” Schwenn said. “I’m just happy with how far I’ve gotten from last year and God was pushing me the whole way.”

Coming around the final turn, Schwenn had ground to make up as he was in third. The junior knew he had it in him to finish the race on top.

“I was just going. They were up there and I was like ‘I can do this. I can do this,’” said Schwenn. “It just kept popping up in my head back there, so I just kept pushing harder and harder, and then just tried to dive as far as I could there at the end to get it.”

The finish was so close, no one knew the results until they were shown on the scoreboard.

Schwenn was too busy congratulating everyone to realize that he had just won.

“I wasn’t even looking to be honest with you. I was just congratulating everybody else because they did wonderful,” said Schwenn. “And then I heard my dad screaming, so I looked up and I saw and it was a miracle right there. I thanked God right then and there.”

Ella Boekelheide won her third state championship on the weekend. The Northwestern distance runner secured the triple crown of distance medals winning the 1,600-meter run on the final day after securing state titles in the 800-meter and 3,200-meter runs on Friday.

“It feels good to get all three of them, but the job’s never done. You always got to be looking to improve,” said the junior. “I’m satisfied with this, but there’s always more.”

There’s not much improvement left after she ran her season-best in the 1,600 with a time of 5:09.35. Boekelheide said the competition helped her run that time.

“The competition’s there to push you and makes you think more strategically,” Boekelheide said. “It’s a whole different ball game here at state versus normal meets.”

A lot of strategy played into account for Boekelheide after she had already ran 5,600 meters in the first two days, which included an 800 leg on a relay.

“It’s hard to tell how your legs are going to feel after already running three events. So, I’m just seeing how I’m feeling,” said Boekelheide. “You know, warming up, it’s always a little rocky. Your legs are a little tight, everything was set. You just have to trust that in the race, your legs will be able to do it tired.”

Christian’s Shawnteah La Croix was also experiencing tired legs as she competed in the triple jump prelims about 10:15 a.m., ran the 100-meter finals at 10:30 a.m., and went back to the triple jump pit for finals, which finished at 11:17 a.m. She then ran the opening leg of the 400-meter relay at 12:08 p.m., and finished with the 200-meter finals at 1:50 p.m.

“(Friday) I mapped out everything because I did not trust myself to just be able to know everything,” La Croix said. “Got here early, got warmed up. I knew what I was in for, so I checked in early and we somehow made it.”

It wasn’t a new experience for the junior, who is used to having multiple events in the same day.

“Eighth-grade year, I think she had three (events) on Saturday. … The last couple of years, three events or four events on Friday and it’s been awesome,” said Bjorkman. “(Friday) night I say, ‘Hey let’s connect, let’s talk about this,’ and she comes with the whole thing mapped out herself. I’m like, ‘Cool’.”

La Croix qualified for the finals in the triple jump with a leap of 35-feet, three-quarters of an inch, and immediately ran over to the starting line for the 100-meter finals and placed third with a season best time of :12.50.

“Everyone was like ‘Well you look like you were warmed up extra good today.’ Yeah, 100 percent. I was panting and I was like ‘I don’t know how this is gonna work, but we’re gonna do it,’” said La Croix. “It was great. Honestly, I didn’t care how I did as long as I crossed that finish line. Victory for me.”

The third-place finisher in the 100 went over and did three jumps in finals. She was already battling a mental block because of a sprained ankle earlier on in the year.

“I was very nervous, because I haven’t jumped since I hurt myself, obviously. I sprained my ankle,” La Croix said. “I didn’t really know what was gonna happen, but I just trusted my coach, trust the mark and went for it and obviously, it all went well.”

Christian’s 400-meter relay team took sixth, and had to break the school record to even get into the finals. The Knights ran a :51.02, beating their season best which was :51.82.

“The 4X1s are fast. The girls had to break our school record by four tenths of a second to make finals,” Bjorkman said. “They did it. They broke the school record by eighth-tenths of a second.”

Spencer Melius of Faulkton added two more state championships to his collection, winning both the 110-meter and 300-meter intermediate hurdles after winning the javelin on Friday.

In the 110 hurdles, Jacob Graves of Viborg-Hurley had a step on Melius, but hit one of the last hurdles and Melius capitalized on the opportunity.

“He was ahead of me and he hit a hurdle, so it was my time to catch up,” said Melius. “I knew I had to go then, so that’s when I went and I got out in front.”

Melius enjoyed his first place finish in the javelin and was happy to get it in the 110 hurdles as well.

“It felt pretty good. I mean I did it (Friday) and I did it again today,” Melius said. “It’s pretty special.”

Just a couple hours later, Melius finished first again in the 300 hurdles with a time of :40.07, a personal record for the junior. The wind at his back helped him close out the race.

“It feels very good. There’s not much like it,” Melius said. “The wind kind of pushed me along on the backstretch and I was right on with my hurdles, my form was good, and I got up to the last one and I knew my form was gonna be good for that one too, so I just ended up finishing strong.”

After winning three events, the junior knows there will be a target on his back going into his senior year.

“A lot of pressure on my back for next year, but it’s not always a bad thing,” Melius said. “I just gotta put in the time in the summer and hopefully get in the weight room, get a little stronger. Hoping I get a little faster, but just compete next year again, I guess.”

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

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