In a season with unseasonably warm weather, the high school track and field meets brought enough bad weather to make up for the whole season.
"If it wasn't the state track meet I'm sure we'd have a riot," Bon Homme track coach Byron Pudwill joked.
Temperatures were in the 40s and felt colder as rain fell throughout parts of the day at all three track meets Friday in Rapid City, Spearfish and Sturgis.
The triple-jump event was moved indoors at the Class A meet in Spearfish, while all other events went as scheduled outdoors.
"The pole vault was outside in the rain," Pudwill said. "I can't fault the guys at the meet. It's a hard call, but I felt bad for the kids."
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Many athletes struggled at times dealing with wet conditions during the pole vault, but Pudwill said he never saw any major issues.
Pudwill said the team took extra precautions to avoid any situations.
"You do what you can," he said. "As soon as you get the towel off everything's wet again."
Two Ethan/Parkston athletes were able to withstand the harsh conditions on the pole vault and earn 11 team points in Class A. Wes Dvorak picked up six points with his second-place finish and Henry Wegehaupt's fourth-place performance earned the team five points.
Both athletes cleared 11-feet.
Delay occurs at Class A high jump
The Class A girls' high jump saw a 30-minute delay early in competition when, after a few contestants had failed to clear the 4-feet, 11-inch mark, officials realized the bar was not level.
After examining the bar, it was noticed that the right side was almost an entire inch higher than the left side.
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Wagner coach John Tyler said he and a few other coaches thought the bar looked uneven at first but were not positive.
"Little things happen," he said. "It was a little bit unfair that other girls had to stand around in the cool conditions, but it's one of those things you have to deal with."
The additional wait time may have affected Wagner's LaShawn Medicine Horn, who came into the event with the top mark but finished in fourth place.
Robinson takes second in discus, eighth in shot
Hanson's Ashley Robinson ended her throwing career with a couple medals.
Robinson's throw of 36-feet, 9-inches got her an eighth-place finish in the shot, and she took second in the discus with a toss of 123-feet-1.
Winner's Brother of All takes fourth in two-mile
Winner's Donovan Brother of All had tough competition in the 3,200-meter run and came away with a fourth-place finish. His coach Dan Aaker was happy with his time of 10 minutes, 6.54 seconds and believes he can have a better finish in today's 1,600-meter run.
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"Hopefully he can finish his final track meet on a high note," Aaker said. "He may use that fourth-place finish as motivation and we'll see what he can do."
Weiss, Lemon finished third, fourth in 800
Mount Vernon's Kody Weiss and Mitchell Christian's Aaron Lemon both made a run for the Class B 800-meter run title, but the two finished third and fourth respectively.
Weiss finished with a time of 2:03:25 and Lemon finished in 2:03.49. Great Plains' Nick Lindwurm was able to win the event with a time of 2:01.98.
Mount Vernon earned another top-four finish when senior Dean Frey tied for fourth in the high jump, clearing 4-feet-11.
Mount Vernon finished day one of competition in seventh place in the team standings with 11.5 points. Wakonda leads Class B with 29.5 points while Wessington Springs is in third with 19.5 points.
