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Wednesday
April 06, 2005
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SPORTS
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Monday, April 04, 2005
Christie leads
Pierre in track opener
By MIKE SMITH
Capital Journal
Staff
Quincy Christie showed up in near mid-season form in the
debut of the Pierre track and field athletes at an indoor meet in
Aberdeen Saturday.
Christie, who broke almost all of the
Governor sprint records in a sensational sophomore year, was named
most valuable male athlete at the Al Sahli Indoor Meet at the
Barnett Center. Christie won three events, the 55-meter dash, the
long jump and the triple jump.
Christie is the defending
state
champion in the
200-meter dash and triple jump. He was also second in both the
100-meter dash and long jump. Govs coach Geoff Gross said Christie
will not be shouldering all the weight for a young and talented
team.
“We had some other great performances,” said Gross,
starting his second year as head boys’ coach.”Three of the top six
placers in the 55-meter dash were Pierre athletes and we had two
more right on the cusp.”
Cameron Rogers, a sophomore, who
transferred from Sully Buttes, placed fourth and Alex Helbig was
fifth. Perry Job and Chance Frederick nearly placed.
Trent
Thompson, another sophomore, was third in the 400-meter dash and
sixth in the 55-meter hurdlers.
“He had a nice day and is a
hard worker,” said Gross.
Matt Tetzlaff was the other first
place individual for the Govs, winning the 55-meter hurdlers.
Distance runner Matt Bump was third in the 1,500-meter run and fifth
in the 3,000-meter race.
“Our distance runners (Bump, Travis
Fitzke and Alec Anderson) all ran well,” said Gross.
Gross
also praised Tyler Peterson and Ben Young as young athletes who will
make an impact this season. New names to remember include Bryan
Palmer and Josh Tetzlaff.
“They are both distance runners who
came out for track this year,” he said. “They both ran a good
two-mile relay.”
Mike Zellmer led the Govs in the field
events, placing third in the discus and fourth in the shot
put.
The Govs were missing high jumper Michael Tveidt, who is
taking some extra time to heal up an ankle injured in
basketball.
“He’s another bullet in the holster we haven’t
pulled out yet,” said Gross.
The Lady Govs were paced by shot
putter Kris Schaefer, who won the event with a throw of 39 feet, 10
inches. It was the furthest throw of her career. The 3,200-meter
relay team of Amy Brandner, Erin Titze, Abbie Mitchell land Jen de
Hueck set a meet record in winning with a time of
10:34.8.
“They're a veteran crew that has been working hard,”
said new Lady Govs coach Craig Ullmann. “It was no big
surprise.”
Torri Ice placed in both the high jump and triple
jump. She equaled her career-high with a leap of five feet in the
high jump. She went 32 feet, 10 inches in the triple jump, missing
first place by less than an inch.
“Indoors is always kind of
different but I was impressed with the way we ran,” said
Ullmann.
Eighth-grader Alexa Berg placed fourth in the
55-meter hurdles. Abbie Mitchell, a young sprinter who was brought
up to the varsity late last year and qualified for state, was third
in the 400-meter dash. Brandner was fourth in the 800-meter
run.
Sophomore Caitlin Feller and freshman Katie Buhler both
placed fifth in the 3,000-meter and 1,500-meter runs
respectively.
'We have a lot of young girls who should do
well for us,” said Ullmann.
Of the 31 girls out for track,
only 20 made the trip to Aberdeen. Hurdler and jumper Nicole Erbele
was one of the missing as she is nursing a hamstring
injury.
Pierre was one of six ESD schools competing in
Aberdeen. Both Gross and Ullmann were impressed with the Watertown
squads.
“We added up (Watertown’s) points and they kind of
blew everyone away,” said Ullmann of the girls’ division. “Yankton
should be good too (in the ESD).”
Gross agreed that Watertown
is the class of the ESD.
“They are good on the track and
absolutely sopped up all the points in the field events,” he said.
The Govs and Lady Govs will get a truer test of where they
are at in tuesday's Early Bird Meet at Hollister-Trautner Field.
Field events start at 3:45 p.m. and the running at 4:15 p.m. Along
with Pierre, teams from Stanley County, Gettysburg, Sully Buttes and
Sunshine Bible will be competing.
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