While most athletes were just hoping to set a baseline at their first track and field meet of the season, a pair of competitors were just happy to be back competing during the NSU Invitational Track and Field Meet on Tuesday at the Barnett Center.
Abby Kjenstad of Great Plains Lutheran tore her ACL more than a year ago playing basketball. The Aberdeen native missed her entire track and field season last spring and all but two weeks of volleyball last fall. She didn’t compete in basketball this winter in preparation of playing volleyball for Jamestown University next season.
In her first real individual competition in nearly two years, the senior won the high jump on Tuesday.
“It felt good to compete again,” Kjenstad said.
She said it was difficult having to be on the sidelines instead of competing for the Panthers.
“It was a tough year, definitely. I missed competing,” Kjenstad said. “I missed playing, being out with my friends, but it’s been really fun now. It was worth all the work to get back to playing.”
Kjenstad said her goal during the meet was just to round back into form a bit.
“Today, I was just kind of going for experience,” she said, “to get a couple of jumps in, kind of get back into my groove.”
She said her injury has definitely altered her perspective when it comes to participating in sports.
“Definitely just enjoy it more,” Kjenstad said. “Don’t need to win to have fun. Just grateful to be out here doing what I love.”
Aberdeen Roncalli’s Austin Fisher shared the same sentiment. The senior broke his collar bone this past winter and missed a portion of the basketball season. He finished second in the boys’ high jump on Tuesday.
“I’ve definitely lost some vertical, but I’ve been trying to gain it back,” Fisher said. “I think I’m better than ever right now.”
Sitting on the sidelines and watching the action was tough on Fisher. Like Kjenstad, being injured also gave him a much different perspective on sports.
“From now on I will never complain again about getting up and being able to lift,” Fisher said, “because however long as I was out for, seven weeks, it was one of the worst times of my life, honestly.”
Fisher didn’t quite reach his initial goal in the high jump, but was satisfied considering he is just getting started.
“I thought it was a great day. I had one practice coming into this meet,” Fisher said. “I wanted 5-11, didn’t get it, but 5-9’s good. … I think if I had two more practices before this I would have been able to get that 5-11.”
Groton’s McKenna Tietz was also hoping for a better time in the 55-meter hurdles, but still won the race in addition to finishing second in the 200-meter dash.
“I thought I definitely could do better,” Tietz said, “but given we went over hurdles the first time (Monday), I thought I did decent enough with that.”
Tietz said the 55 hurdles are much different than the 100 hurdles.
“You feel like you get to that first one and you’re pretty much done,” Tietz said. “I blinked once probably during that race, it went by so fast.”
Interestingly Tietz prefers the 300-meter intermediate hurdles compared to the 100 hurdles.
“I like (the 100), but being I’m short, it’s kind of harder … my legs are shorter so it’s hard to get that length,” Tietz said. “I have the speed, but not the longness.”
Aidan Thurber of Ellendale, N.D., won both the 800-meter and 1,600-meter runs at the meet. The senior finished fifth at state last year in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200. He said the longer the race the better.
When told he should think about running in the Boston Marathon, Thurber responded, “That is one of my goals. As I get older I want to get that Boston Marathon in.”
Thurber said running indoors presents a challenge because the laps are shorter than an outdoor track.
“I wasn’t running with a watch, either, because it’s hard to track five laps,” he said. “If you want to track halfway through, you have to do two and a half, so it’s just hard to track indoors for sure.”
Thurber definitely gets stronger as a race wears on and that is by design.
“I like to do negative splits,” Thurber said, “which means you go faster, do faster splits as the race goes on.”
That strategy was on display in the 1,600 when Thurber trailed just briefly heading into the final lap before turning on the afterburners and sprinting his way to the victory.
Athletes from Roncalli and Aberdeen Christian competed in the meet. Neither focused much on winning, rather trying to gain a starting point and set good habits.
“You have to start at some point. As much as we don’t always want track to be about measurements and numbers, it does give us something to work with,” said Roncalli coach Mark Stone. “And then we have a conversation about next week. How about we just compete against yourself from this week? Let’s not worry about a place, let’s not worry about that stuff. If you jumped, you threw, you ran this week, then we know how to set our goals for next week. In that way it’s an important start.”
Christian coach Sam Bjorkman said the goal at the initial meets of a season are to try and set the tone for the rest of the season.
“Every year, this meet, really the first couple meets, we’re just trying to lay a foundation, show up, do the right things to set ourselves up for success long term,” Bjorkman said. “I think the kids really did that.”
He said what transpires now will pay dividends as the season progresses.
“What are you doing to prepare for success during this meet, and building a habit towards long term?” Bjorkman said. “It’s how you show up for the meet, it’s how you warm up, it’s when you warm up, and those things are going to compound over time to set you up for success later.”
Other multiple individual event winners on the day included Bentley Bauer of Mobridge-Pollock in the 55-meter dash, the 200-meter dash, and the long jump, and Kaleb Claymore of Herreid-Selby Area in the 55-meter dash and the 200-meter dash.
To see complete meet results, click on the following link:
