Day 1 state track roundup: Kernel girls take down more school records

SIOUX FALLS — Thursday was a day for records for the Mitchell High School girls relay squads at the Class AA state meet.

In the girls sprint medley relay, the Kernels got on the team scoreboard by scoring eighth-place and breaking a nearly 50-year-old record in the process. Senior Brooke Bartscher, junior Mia Mullenmeister, senior Lizzie Tyler and sophomore Carsyn Weich finished in a time of 4:14.12 on the Howard Wood Field track, more than 2 seconds faster than their May 6 time at the Dakota Relays.

The old MHS record was 4:16.1, held by Anne Alfred, Deb Loon, Val Fosness and Ann Koch in 1976. Dating back 47 years, it was the oldest-remaining record still on the books for Mitchell girls track and field.

O’Gorman won the medley race on Thursday in a meet-record time of 4:06.06.

In the girls 4x100-meter relay preliminaries, Mitchell fared well as one of only three Class AA relay teams to break the 50-second mark and snapping the school record again this season.

Sophomore Ava Brannan joined Mullenmeister, Hegg and Tyler to finish in 49.96 seconds.

The previous season-best was 50.52 seconds from May 2 at Joe Quintal Field by Brannan, Mullenmeister, Tyler and Brooke Bartscher, and the record was at 50.78 seconds entering the season from 1991.

Only Sioux Falls Lincoln (48.61 seconds) and Rapid City Stevens (49.09) were faster in Thursday’s prelims.

Mitchell will run in the 4x100-meter relay finals at 12:10 p.m. on Saturday.

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Having already broken two school girls relay records, Mitchell track gunning for another at state meet

“We’ve been talking about since Day 1 that we had two or three (records) that we were going to try to break. That was kind of the expectation,” coach Eric Palmer said.

May 24, 2023 05:18 PM

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By  Zech Lambert

A personal-best effort from Mitchell High School senior Treyson Schulz landed the Kernel standout on the Class AA podium, finishing sixth in the boys long jump.

Schulz finished tied with Sioux Falls Jefferson’s Griffin Wilde for fifth place but Wilde had the second-best jump between the two to claim fifth place alone. Brandon Valley sophomore Landon Dulaney won the event with a jump of 22 feet, 7.5 inches.

Adam Thury / Mitchell Republic

Schulz was the only Kernel to break 21 feet this season, something he did for the third time in 2023 on Thursday at Howard Wood Field, leaping ahead to sixth place with his last jump of the day.

The jump moved Schulz’s all-time best leap in school history up the standings but he remains fifth at MHS all-time, with the school record held by Jason Greenway at 22 feet, 10 inches, in 2012.

Elsewhere in the field events, Mitchell’s Lilly Young was 11th with a top throw of 35 feet, 7.75 seconds for the shot put, while Keyana Kelley was 12th in the long jump (15-8). In the javelin, Kellan Odell finished 11th with a best throw of 151 feet, 10 inches. Harrisburg’s Carson Barnett won the event for a second consecutive season at 176 feet, 6 inches, improving his own meet record.

Bolstered by the strong finish in the pole vault and a second-place run in the 4x800-meter relay, Menno has the Day 1 lead in the Class B boys team scoring at 31 points. Ipswich is second at 21 points and Kadoka Area and Deubrook Area are tied for third at 14 points.

Owen Eitemiller and Isaac Fergen went 1-2 in the pole vault and Menno finished second in the Class B boys 4x800-meter relay behind champions Deubrook Area (8:16.95). The foursome of Brayden Sattler, Izayah Ulmer, Bryce Sattler and Kadeyn Ulmer finished in 8:25.45 for the Wolves. (Also in the Class B 4x800, Gregory was fifth (8:36.92), Wessington Springs was seventh (8:39.44) and Freeman Academy/Marion was eighth (8:39.52)).

Among the Class A boys scores, Sioux Falls Christian has 24 points to lead, with Lennox second at 14.5 points and Deuel at 11, followed by Sanborn Central/Woonsocket and Platte-Geddes tied for fourth with 10 points. The Class AA boys team scoring is led by O’Gorman at 22, followed by Brandon Valley and Sioux Falls Jefferson at 18 and 17, respectively. Mitchell is tied for 13th place with three points scored.

In the girls AA scores, Spearfish leads the scoring at 30.5 points, followed by O’Gorman at 30 points and Sioux Falls Lincoln at 21 points. For the Class A girls, Sioux Falls Christian leads with 20 points, followed by Lennox at 16 points and Dakota Valley and West Central both at 11 points in third place. Ipswich leads the Class B girls field with 24.5 points, followed by Deubrook Area at 15 points and Potter County in third with 14 points. Scotland, with Trinity Bietz’s shot put title, is the top area school in Class B with 10 points and tied for fifth.

A look at the area's top-eight place-finishers on Thursday:

• In a thrilling Class B boys sprint medley relay finish, Wolsey-Wessington narrowly edged Canistota by three-hundredths of a second for the state title. The Hawks ran Tage Ortman, Levi Schroeder, Noah Kleinsasser and Josiah Schroeder in a time of 3:39.84, while W-W won at 3:39.81, with the final carry coming from Caleb Richmond edging Schroeder at the finish line. 
• In the Class B girls high jump, Canistota’s Natalee Hofer finished fifth (4-10), Burke’s Daytona Paris was tied for sixth (4-10) and Mak Scott, of Lyman, finished eighth (4-10). Ipswich’s Gracie Lange won with a top jump of 5 foot, 2 inches.  
• In the Class B boys discus, Corsica-Stickney’s Lucas Krogstad finished fourth with a throw of 142 feet, 6 inches, and Canistota’s Jaden Kleinsasser took eighth place (134-1). Kadoka Area’s Lincoln Koehn won the title at 152-4.
• Ethan/Parkston’s boys sprint medley relay team finished in third place in Class A behind Sioux Falls Christian’s meet record time of 3:33.75. E/P finished in 3:40.14 behind the efforts of Cael Ryther, James Deckert, Kolter Kramer and Evan Bartelt.
• In the Class A girls 4x800-meter relay, won by Sioux Falls Christian in 9:37.47, Chamberlain finished in sixth place in a time of 9:56.79. 
• Burke took fifth place in the girls Class B sprint medley relay in 4:28.41. Colman-Egan won the event in 4:13.85. 

Here’s a look at the area’s top preliminary performances from Thursday:

• Three area runners advanced to the Class B 100-meter hurdles girls finals, led by Menno junior Ashton Massey, who had the top time at 15.48 seconds. Piper Hanson was second for Burke (15.56) and Rylee Peters, of Freeman, was third (15.66).  
• Mount Vernon/Plankinton’s Reagan Rus had the top qualifying time in the Class A 100 hurdles at 15.47 seconds. Brandy Pulse, of McCook Central/Montrose had the third-best qualifying time in 15.71 seconds, advancing to Saturday’s finals. 
• Lyman’s Rory McManus won his heat in the Class B boys 110-meter hurdles prelims in 16.01 seconds. He has the third-fastest time heading to Saturday, while Corsica-Stickney’s Shad Bosma qualified as sixth-fastest (16.37). Viborg-Hurley’s Luke Campbell was the fastest in 15.42 seconds. 
• Reed Rus, of Mount Vernon/Plankinton, ran his fastest time of the season in the Class A 110 hurdles in 14.82 seconds to take the top qualifying mark to the finals. 
• In the Class B girls 100-meter dash, Howard’s Melanie Calmus qualified for Saturday’s finals with the seventh-fastest time of 12.93 seconds. Colman-Egan’s Daniela Lee had the fastest time in 12.09 seconds. 
• MVP’s Berkeley Engelland had the fastest time in the Class A 100-meter dash prelims in 12.24 seconds. Lauren Ziebart, of Ethan/Parkston, qualified for the finals with the fourth-fastest time of 12.40 seconds. 
• Gregory’s Kade Stukel had the fastest time in the Class B 100-meter prelims, a time of 10.90 seconds, one hundredth of a second ahead of Colman-Egan’s Christopher Lee. Also moving on is Freeman Academy/Marion’s Keaton Preheim (sixth, 11.27) and Canistota’s Tage Ortman (eighth, 11.36). 
• Stukel anchored Gregory’s top time of 44.21 seconds in the 4x100-meter relay on Thursday, just ahead of Ipswich (44.25). Eli Fogel, Luke Stukel, Paul Sinclair and Kade Stukel made up the team. Mitchell Christian’s team of Carson Johnson, Jason Baas, Carter Lee and Josh Brandt made the finals, going seventh-fastest in 45.80 seconds and lowering the MCS’ 4x100 school record in the process. 
• Platte-Geddes’ 4x100 relay of Skyler Hanten, Trevor Rolland, Hayden Sprik and Aiden Bultje ran second in the Class A prelims in 43.98 seconds, only behind Sioux Falls Christian’s (43.84). Hanson (fourth, 44.13) and Bon Homme (seventh, 44.55) also moved on. 
• In Class A, Winner’s Aiden Barfuss is also moving on to the finals in the 100 (11.13), which was led by Custer’s Blake Boyster (10.93). 
• In the girls 4x100-meter relay, Freeman (third, 52.22), Burke (fourth, 52.30) and Howard (eighth, 52.61) were the area schools moving to Saturday’s finals. Colman-Egan had the fastest time in 51.64 seconds.