Track and field athletes used stellar competition to help bring out their best during the Al Sahli Invitational at Brownell Activities Complex on Friday.
Regardless of Class AA, A or B, individuals were able to find success in variety of events on the day.
No race was closer than the 100-meter dash, where Aberdeen Central’s Carter Lust edged Pierre’s Karson Walti at the wire to capture the victory. The race was so close that both runners finished with identical times of :10.83.
When asked when he knew he had that race won, Lust responded, “Out of the start when I heard the gun. You know, he beat me in Huron and after that I said he wasn’t going to beat me again this season.”
Lust recorded a personal best time in pulling out the win.
The junior later added a victory in the 200-meter dash, and also ran a leg on the winning 400-meter relay team.
Lust talked about the difference between individual and team events.
“I would say an individual race is more like a personal goal and then a relay could be like a team goal that you want to accomplish together,” Lust said.
Lust has his mind on a couple of school records: the 400-meter relay, and also the 100-meter dash.
The dash record is :10.6 set by former standout Tony Schwan.
“It’s something I really want to do,” Lust said. “Next year would be a great opportunity to do that.”
The 100-meter dash also included Groton’s Keegen Tracy, who has the fastest time in Class A this spring. Tracy finished third in that race.
The senior sprinter said he doesn’t mind facing Class AA competition.
“They’re bigger schools and they have way more kids than we do,” Tracy said. “We work with what we got, but I always love to work with these AA kids, because they’re a lot faster than we’re used to and it helps me improve our times.”
Tracy, who often sweeps sprint races in many of his meets, did not mind seeing where he stacked up against some of the top runners in AA.
“It’s kind of like a reality check,” Tracy said. “You think you’re pretty fast, then you come to some of these meets and you get humbled pretty fast, but it’s fun to have competition. What’s a sport without competition?”
Tracy, who anchored the Tigers to a win the 800-meter relay, said he uses meets like the Sahli Invitational to help prepare for the upcoming state meet.
“These meets help get the time down, so when state rolls around hopefully I’m ready and I’m 100 percent,” Tracy said, “because I really want to go out with a bang for my last year.”
Central’s Mya Arampatzis clocked a season-best time in winning the 100-meter hurdles.
“My previous best this year was a 14.84. Today was 14.74. I’m OK with that,” Arampatzis said. “I think it will get me a good place in state. I’m ready.”
While the junior did not compete in the 300-meter hurdles during the meet, she is one of the state’s best in that event as well. She said the two hurdles races are much different.
“The 300, I would say your form does matter, but it’s in between the hurdle just getting the next one and just getting three off that hurdle,” Arampatzis said. “But in the hundred, your form really does matter.”
Arampatzis enjoys running both sets of hurdles.
“I really like the challenge the 300 poses, this year especially,” she said. “I’ve gotten over a little mental block with them and I’m sitting really good. But the 100 is also really fun to run.”
It turned out to be a memorable day for Bentley Bauer in the long jump. The eighth-grader from Mobridge-Pollock set a personal best of 17-10 to win the event.
While she said the wind helped her, she’s jumped with stronger win and never reached that distance.
“It definitely does help, but I’ve jumped with worse wind and I haven’t ever jumped this far,” Bauer said. “I think part of that was that my legs have been resting for so long.”
Bauer, who has competed against Class AA competition before, noted that athletes from all three classes were having success on the day.
“It’s a lot similar, but there’s also a lot of other good competitors from B schools, and there’s others from A schools, too,” Bauer said.
She competed against one of those standout athletes from Class B in the 400-meter dash, which was won by Northwestern’s Ella Boekelheide, who also won the 3,200-meter run.
Bauer finished third in the 400 in a personal best time of 1:00.6, just off the school record of 1:00.3.
“Obviously, my biggest goal this year was to beat the school record in the long jump. I went after that hard and I got it,” Bauer said. “My new goal is the school record in the (400). I’m pretty dang close. I don’t just want to get that school record, I want to get better than it. I’d like to get a 59 this year.”
Webster’s Matthew Mount was another double open winner on the day, taking the shot put and javelin, and finishing second to Central’s Jack Bertsch in the discus.
The Central boys also received wins from Kyson Fayant in the 300 hurdles, and Tate DeVries in the 1,600-meter run.
“It’s good to be at home,” said Central boys’ coach Greg Murley. “It’s good to be able to host a meet and show people this great facility.”
The Golden Eagles will now gear up for the Eastern South Dakota Conference meet next Saturday in Watertown.
“Hopefully things come together and you can stay healthy and you can put some things together,” Murley said. “Batons are gonna hit the ground and bad things are going to happen. The kids are going to get this speech this week. There’s going to be a few bad things that happen to us and there’s going to be a few good things. If we just overcome the bad things, we’ll be OK.”
The Central girls’ received a win from Taryn Hermansen in the shot put, while Groton’s McKenna Tietz won the 300 hurdles.
Athletes had to deal with windy conditions once again.
Central girls’ coach Jim Appl was pleased with the times considering the elements.
“I’m impressed with our kids, even in our relays. It’s hard to get good times,” Appl said. “One, someone has to run into the wind, but the times we’re running look really good considering having to do that. We are really starting to get dialed in for our conference meet next week.”
The Sahli Invitational is the only home action of the season for the Golden Eagles, who got a chance to honor their seniors on the day.
“We’re excited to compete at home and we’re excited for our seniors. I just want to thank our seniors for everything they’ve done for us for the last four, some of them five, years,” Appl said “That’s what this is about. I made sure I told our kids, it’s important you’re out here supporting our seniors and cheering them on.”
To see complete meet results, click on the following link:
