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Track veterans strut their stuff at Early Bird event
By Padraic Duffy, Journal Sports Writer

BOX ELDER -- A few new faces and a bunch of familiar ones showed up at the Douglas Early Bird Track and Field Meet Saturday at Patriot Stadium. For an early-season track meet, plenty of athletes showed that they are awfully close to midseason form.

Rapid City Stevens' Brittany Garner and Alex Holmgren each won two individual events and Douglas' Shannon Hellman took both the 100 and 300-meter hurdles in convincing fashion.

"I think Brittany Garner looked really good," Stevens head coach Paul Hendry said. "Her 100 and 200 times were great. And our girls 400 team (which Garner anchored in a 51.09 second win) looked outstanding."

Garner trimmed a few tenths of a second off of both her times from last weekend's Rapid City Developmental meet as she won the 100 with a time of 12.07 seconds and a 200 time of 24.94.

"I was happy with how I ran," Garner said. "It was nice to get out and run well."

Garner has had the good fortune of running this year without having to face her nemesis from last season, Rapid City Central legend Megan Trotter. Garner's other major competition, Central sophomore Leia Jackson, has been nursing a toe injury that has kept her from running at her top levels.

"She wouldn't use that as an excuse," Central head coach Dave Dolan said of his star sprinter. "She got beat by one heck of a sprinter today. But it's bothering her. More than anything it has affected her conditioning this season. It's one of those nagging injuries that could be all right in two or three weeks, but it could bother her all season long, too."

Hellman, the defending State A champion in the 300-meter hurdles (Douglas has been moved to Class AA this season) actually ran a faster time Saturday afternoon (44.56 seconds) than she did in last season's state finals (45.87).

"It was pretty good," Hellman said of her first meet this season. "I felt off in the 300, but I got a good start. I'm pleased with it."

Another reliably steady performer that again came through with a great day was Stevens' Julie Schwengler. The defending Class AA champion in both the 400 and 800 ran a 59.15 to win the quarter-mile on Saturday, and anchored Stevens' winning 1,600 and 3,200 relay teams. Schwengler didn't compete in the individual 800 on Saturday, which teammate Betsy Blackler won with a time of 2:28.67.

"They looked good," Hendry said of his girls 3200 team. "They got us started with that race and we performed pretty well."

That race was a perfect example as to why Stevens' track team is consistently one of the best in the state. All four runners, Kap Ainslie, Samee Pagel, Shannon Hattervig and Schwengler, laid down impressive splits before Schwengler lapped all the other teams before their anchors had even touched their respective batons.

"We don't want them (the girls 3,200 and 1,600 teams) to be too relaxed," Hendry said. His worry being that they might rely too much on the powerful kick of Schwengler at the end. "And they weren't. Kap, Shannon and Samee all ran very, very well."

Stevens' other big performance came from Alex Holmgren, who duplicated Hellman's feat in the Boys hurdles, taking both the 110 and 300-meter hurdles. Holmgren set a school-record in the 300, running a 39.24, before leading off the winning 1,600 boys relay team. Holmgren won the 110-meter hurdle with a score of 15.11.

"Alex ran extremely well," Hendry said. With Aaron Lessin, the defending state champion in the 110-meter hurdles out for the next two meets with an academic obligation the Raiders look to be set in that event for the rest of the season.

Other winners for Stevens were Nichol Deckert (1,600), Matt McKie (800), Sam Papendick (long jump) and Cody English (200).

Hot Springs' Joe Beehler served notice to the rest of the Black Hills Conference that he's as fast as ever, winning the 100 with a blistering time of 10.8 seconds.

Rapid City Central had a couple of individual winners as Igor Makar (1,600) and Joey Carda (400) both ran solid races.

The next action for most of the local teams will be on Thursday at the Queen City Classic in Spearfish.

Boys Division

Shot Put-1, Eric Flores, Custer, 53-05.50; 2, Noah Trevor, Hill City, 52-01-1/2; 3, Frosty Paris, Sturgis, 51-10; 4, Ty Tetrault, Spearfish, 45-01; 5, Adam Bettman, RCS, 43-07-1/2.

300 Hurdles-1, Alex Holgren, RCS, 39.24; 2, Kyle Peep, Spearfish, 41.92; 3, Adam Bierschenk, Spearfish, 42.21; 4, Brandon Pfeifle, RCC, 42.40; 5, Josh Shoemaker, Douglas, 42.63.

110 Hurdles-1, Alex Holgren, RCS, 15.11; 2, Mike Hartley, St. Thomas More, 15.79; 3, Kyle Peep, Spearfish, 15.93; 4, Keith Nelson, RCC, 16.43; 5, Brandon Pfeifle, RCC, 17.13.

3,200-1, Joe Luedtke, RCS, 10:59.69; 2, Kyle Koch, Douglas, 10:59.96; 3, Caleb Parsons, Custer, 11:00.00; 4, Dan Tribby, RCC, 11:20.12; 5, A. Flack, RCC, 11:37.75.

1,600-1, Igor Makar, RCC, 4:47.65; 2, Bing Blalock, Sturgis, 4:56.65; 3, Brandon Hislop, Custer, 4:57.52; 4, Rick Elliot, Sturgis, 4:59.93; 5, Daniel Black, Douglas, 5:01.53.

800-1, Matt McKie, RCS, 2:04.77; 2, Al Christianson, RCS, 2:08.18; 3, Alex Whitesell, RCS, 2:09.12; 4, Jake Davis, Belle Fourche, 2:10.34; 5, Byron Williams, RCC, 2:10.48.

400-1, Joey Carda, RCC, 51.93; 2, T.J. Boehler, RCS, 52.70; 3, Jessie Biggins, Douglas, 53.40; 4, Eric Burden, Hot Springs, 54.46; 5, J. Smith, Newell, 54.98.

200-1, Cody English, RCS, 22.57; 2, Jonah Pickell, Sturgis, 22.65; 3, J. Smith, Newell, 23.35; 4, Matt Anderson, RCS, 23.40; 5, Andrew Reed, RCC, 23.80.

100-1, Joe Beehler, Hot Springs, 10.80; 2, Cody English, RCS, 10.91; 3, Matt Anderson, RCS, 11.46; 4, (tie), Zach Derr, Hot Springs and Marcus Harms, Belle Fourche, 11.50.

Triple Jump-1, Jack Clyde, Belle Fourche, 38-10; 2, Nathan Mahone, Custer, 38-04; 3, David Frederickson, Newell, 37-8-1/4; 4, Shawn He, RCC, 37-8; 5, Shon Clauser, Spearfish, 37-2-1/2.

High Jump-1, Brandon Dennis, Hill City, 5-10; 2, Greg Schroeder, RCC, Andy Peterson, RCC and Casey Anderson, Sturgis, 5-8; 5, Zane Wiedmeier, RCS, 5-6.

Pole Vault-1, David Czerny, Sturgis, 13-6; 2, Bryant Schwartz, RCS, 13-6; 3, Nate McGruder, Lead-Deadwood, 13-0; 4, Dan Brick, Lead-Deadwood, 10-6; 5, Calvin Cammack, Sturgis, 10-0.

Discus-1, Frosty Paris, Sturgis, 143-8; 2, Eric Flores, Custer, 143-1; 3, Brian Elliot, RCS, 136-0; 4, Matt Birrenkott, RCS, 135-1; 5, Jeff Annable, Custer, 129-0.

400 Relay-1, Rapid City Stevens 44.67; 2, Sturgis 45.24; 3, Rapid City Central 45.34; 4, Douglas 46.28; 5, Belle Fourche 46.84.

800 Relay-1, Rapid City Central 1:34.00; 2, Hot Springs 1:35.15; 3, Rapid City Stevens 1:36.65; 4, Sturgis 1:37.50; 5, Belle Fourche 1:37.95.

1,600 Relay-1, Rapid City Central 3:33.47; 2, Rapid City Stevens 3:33.62; 3, Spearfish 3:40.62; 4, Douglas 3:41.68; 5, Hot Springs 3:46.58.

1,600 Sprint Relay-1, Rapid City Stevens 3:54.03; 2, Hill City 4:00.3; 3, Sturgis 4:01.00; 4, Douglas 4:11.92; 5, Spearfish 4:14.93.

Girls Division

Pole Vault-Kelsey Mortenson, Sturgis, 9-0; 2 (tie), Cindy Bennett, Custer and Laura Hilton, 8-6; 4 (tie), Kristen Price, RCS, and April Bland, Custer, 8-0.

Long Jump-1, Courtney Ollerich, RCC, 16-1-3/4; 2, B.J. Huntley, RCC, 15-10; 3, Erin Beisner, RCS, 15-1-1/2; 4, Sarah Skinner, 14-10-1/2; 5, Ashley Maas, RCC, 14-10.

Shot Put-1, Emily Dahl, Spearfish, 37-0; 2, Courtney Arseneault, Custer, 36-0; 3, Lynnae Fox, Newell, 35-11-1/2; 4, Amber Ball, Sturgis, 33-6; 5, Shawna Walsh, Spearfish, 31-7-1/4.

Discus-1, Lynnae Fox, Newell, 128-5; 2, Courtney Arseneault, Custer, 104-11; 3, Emily Dahl, Spearfish, 103-10; 4, Becca Carbo, RCS, 95-6; 5, Shawna Walsh, Spearfish, 94-10.

Triple Jump-1, Tara Miller, RCS, 34-7-1/2; 2, B.J. Huntley, RCC, 34-2-1/4; 3, Amanda Bushie, RCC, 32-3; 4, Autumn Nekuda, Hot Springs, 31-0; 5, Lennea Mueller, Custer, 30-7-3/4.

High Jump-1, (tie) Katie Ginsbach, Hill City, and Sarah Uhrich, Custer, 5-0; 3, Jesse Dinkel, Hot Springs, and Ariane Nielsen, RCS, 4-10; 5, Kelsey Moen, RCS, 4-8.

1,600 Medley Relay-1, Spearfish 4:37.68; 2, Hot Springs 4:50.68; 3, Strugis 4:52.32; 5, Custer 5:11.81.

1,600 Relay-1, Rapid City Stevens 4:10.07; 2, Douglas 4:17.77; 3, Spearfish 4:34.93; 4, Sturgis 4:40.87; 5, Custer 5:09.45.

800 Relay-1, Sturgis 1:50.41; 2, Douglas 1:52.51; 3, Rapid City Stevens 1:54.59; 4, Rapid City Central 1:56.00; 5, Spearfish 1:57.51.

3,200 Relay-1, Rapid City Stevens 9:40.60; 2, Hot Springs 11:23. 38; 3, Rapid City Central 11:35.00.

400 Relay-1, Rapid City Stevens 51.09; 2, Sturgis 51.37; 3, Hot Springs 54.31; 4, Spearfish 54.80; 5, Custer 56.87.

800-1, Betsy Blackler, RCS, 2:28.67; 2, Kap Ainslie, Rapid City Stevens, 2:32.53; 3, L Peterson, Rapid City Central, 2:43.96; 4, Jenna Sorensen, Rapid City Stevens, 2:45.09; 5, Mariah Russell-Crane, Sturgis, 2:45.25.

400-1, Julie Schwengler, RCS, 59.15; 2, Samee Pagel, RCS, 1:01.45; 3, Cortnee Simmers, Douglas, 1:03.31; 4, Josie Bloom, St. Thomas More, 1:05.09; 5, Jessie Dinkel, Hot Springs, 1:07.05.

200-1, Brittany Garner, RCS, 24.94; 2, Leia Jackson, RCC, 25.92; 3, Kelsey Weisgram, RCS, 26.90; 4, Malloree Jeffery, Spearfish, 27.50; 5, Whitley White, St. Thomas More, 27.51.

100-1, Brittany Garner, RCS, 12.07; 2, Leia Jackson, RCS, 12.60; 3, Kelsey Weisgram, RCS, 13.11; 4, Malloree Jeffery, Spearfish, 13.19; 5, Courtney Ollerich, RCC, 13.31.

100 Hurdles-1, Shannon Hellman, Douglas, 14.07; 2, Amanda Davis, Sturgis, 14.52; 3, Ashley Cordes, RCC, 15.54; 4, Kayla Wolff, RCS, 15.81; 5, Jade Jasinski, RCC, 16.00.

300 Hurdles-1, Shannon Hellman, Douglas, 44.56; 2, Anne Doshier, RCS, 47.22; 3, Beth Mueller, RCS, 47.37; 4, Katie Hogan, RCS, 48.53; 5, Whitley White, St. Thomas More, 49.95.

3,200-1, Mariah Russell-Crane, Sturgis, 13:21.93; 2, Kayleigh Stone, Douglas, 14:27.81; 3, Brenna Schrempp, Douglas 14:52.82.

1,600-1, Nichol Deekert, RCS, 5:28.96; 2, Taryn Sahli, RCS, 5:33.99; 3, Jessica Engel, Sturgis, 5:34.56; 4, Melissa Estacison, RCS, 5:58.53; 5, Amy McIntyre, St. Thomas More, 6:03.10.