LAUREL — The last individual events were just wrapping up at the state A and C track meet Saturday when storms began to rumble through sending everyone out of the stadium and back to shelter, wondering when the final event — the 4x400 relays — would resume.
After about three hours, competitors and fans were let back in to complete the results of not just the last two days, but their seasons.
Manhattan Christian won the boys competition with 81 points. Runners-up Belt had 48 and third-place Chinook had 42.
Plentywood successfully defended its 2022 championship by winning the girls competition with 75.75 points compared to runner-up Manhattan Christian’s 66 and third-place Savage’s 47.
“It was definitely worth the wait,” Plentywood senior Annie Kaul said after.
Manhattan Christian meanwhile piled on the podium for the first time in T-shirts that stated “For Tim.” The Eagles boys were intent on celebrating assistant coach Tim Dyksterhouse who after receiving treatment in Salt Lake earlier this week, was determined to not miss the meet.
“We had never won a guys (first-place) trophy ever in the history of our school. We’ve won a lot of other trophies so for us to come out and this to be the first one,” Manhattan Christian coach Laura Arthun said.
“All these kids were like, ‘We’re going to do this for him and we’re going to run our best,” Arthun said. “We can’t do anything better.”
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Small, but mighty
Plentywood won a state title with just four athletes in 2022, but unfortunately for everyone else in the state, they didn’t lose anyone over the last year.
“Annie (Kaul) does hurdles, pole vault and distance. Emma (Brensdal) does throwing. Audrey (Sampsen) does high jump and hurdles and then I do the other three jumps and since we all just have different events, it’s easier for us to get more points in each event,” sophomore Mallory Tommerup explained.
They were hungry to repeat and Kaul started them off with 10 points by winning the pole vault Thursday night, but after a false start in the 100 hurdles to begin Friday, they had to regroup a bit.
“We knew that we could still do this without those points and so it was just a team thing that we all knew that we could do this again so we just made sure everybody was at their full potential after that happened,” Tommerup said.
Brensdal chipped in 20 points by virtue of her wins in both the girls discus Friday and girls shot put Saturday.
“I was pretty happy to help my teammates when they really needed it,” Brensdal said.
Sampsen added 10 points for winning the high jump at 5-4 and a fifth-place finish in the girls 300 hurdles.
“It just feels amazing. It feels so good to help my teammates and help our seniors go out in a good way,” Sampsen said.
Tommerup contributed with a pair of third-place finishes in the long and triple jump and tied for fourth in the high jump. Kaul ultimately won the pole vault and 3,200, finished runner-up in the 1,600 and finished fifth in the 300 hurdles and the quartet also combined for fifth place in the 4x100 relay.
“The trust we have in each other really just carries us through because we all know we can do our best and the best is what we can do,” Brensdal said.
“It means like everything,” Kaul said. “It’s super special to bring it home to our town doing it two years in a row and being the first time last year so then being able to do it again. We wanted it bad and we’re glad that we were able to do it.”
For Tim
Manhattan Christian finally got to put a year on their previously empty boys track banner last year when they finished as runners-up. But the championship section had stayed blank until Saturday..
“It’s huge. That’s the only sport our school has never won a state championship in and it’s just really cool to be able to do that my senior year,” Nathan Adams said. “It’s really cool to do that my senior year and to do it for Tim and to be able to glorify God in everything.”
Adams and his teammates explained that they learned this week that Dyksterhouse, who handles jumps for the Eagles and has coached since 2005, had to have treatment on his brain this week. In spite of that, he was there to see the Eagles’ boys win their first track title.
They delivered a show worth being there for as the Eagles were led by double-event champion sophomore Shaphan Hubner (800 and 1,600) and junior Oren Arthun (3,200). They combined to score 18 points in both the 800 and 1,600 by going 1-2 in both races, including a sprint down the homestretch of the mile where Hubner got the edge in 4:31.23 to Arthun’s 4:31.24.
“I was just glad that me and Shaphan were able to go out today and the last 100, just brawl it out. It was a great feeling. .01 that’s crazy,” Oren Arthun said.
“I wasn’t feeling it the first three laps, but the last lap I just started going,” Hubner said of his come from behind effort. “It feels good to know I can run a 1600 that fast and me and Oren helping each other out running both those races, it went good.”
Seth Amunrud, Adams, Arthun and Hubner capped their team’s performance off with a school record victory in the 4x400 relay to finish the day.
“We’ve had a lot of really good athletes, but we’ve just never been able to put it all together,” Adams said.
“To be able to go out there and perform to the best of our abilities and to do it for Tim and to do it for God, it blows my mind,” Oren Arthun said.
“For our guys, I mean this is just a really special group. I think they just did a great job this year at going out and winning this for each other and for Tim. We’re just really proud of them and proud that it worked out for the day,” coach Laura Arthun said.
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Multi-event winners
Plentywood’s Brensdal delivered for her team by winning her second event of the meet with her throw of 40 feet, 7.25 inches in the girls shot put to take the victory. Brensdal also won the discus Friday.
“It felt pretty good. I released it and I kind of teetered over the toe board so I was really glad that I stayed in," Brensdal said.
Savage junior Brooke Reuter was a double winner in the girls 100 and 200 with victories of 12.61 and 25.55, respectively, but even as the state record holder in both (which she lowered during Friday's preliminaries), it wasn't easy. In the 100, Reuter and Manhattan Christian's Jadyn VanDyken, who had run a faster qualifying time, were in a dead heat all the way to the line.
“It took forever for them to say who won,” Reuter described. "After the 200, I crossed the finish line and just started crying. It was so much emotion and pressures that all came out.”
VanDyken finished runner-up in both and Reuter now owns five state titles, 3 consecutive in the 100 and two in the 200 which Reuter admits comes with pressure.
“Basically the entire season was watching Jadyn’s times and like, ‘Ok I have to do it, I have to do it,’ and that mindset," Reuter explained. "Then getting here, I didn’t have a bad day like I did last year so that was amazing, and then just breathing through everything and then the race is finished and the times come out, just like a boulder falls off of you kind of."
Chinook’s Brenden Fetter also completed the sprint double to go with his title in boys long jump from Friday. Fetter won the 100 in 11.48 and the 200 in 22.86. He also added a third-place finish in the triple jump.
“Today has been a beautiful day," Fetter said. "It’s a pretty incredible feeling. It’s cool.”
In the boys 1,600, Manhattan Christian's Hubner captured his second individual title of the meet to go with Friday's 800.
Manhattan Christian girls swept both relays to start and end the day.
"I just wanted to take off and run as fast as I could for my last high school race," VanDyken said after her anchor leg in the 4x400 (4:06.53) where the Eagles lowered their school record time they set earlier this season by over a second.
"It's been a little hard. Just winning three state titles last year and going into this year ranked first in everything and not coming out on top in any of it. It's definitely been really hard," VanDyken said.
"It definitely made this weekend feel a lot better."
Other winners
Taylee Chirrick broke her third record of the meet in winning the girls 300 hurdles in 43.06 to lower the previous mark of 43.68 from 2006 held by Big Sandy’s Kourtney Danreuther.
“It was exciting. I was kind of mad I hit the last two hurdles on the 300 and it probably would have helped my time a little bit, but it’s OK," said Chirrick of her victory. "I’m glad with how it went.”
The personal bests kept coming.
Sunburst junior Claire Bucklin won the girls 100 hurdles in personal best 15.77 a year after finishing as runner-up.
"Losing .05 for first and second last year was heartbreaking and something that I've thought about almost every day and so I'm just glad that I could finally make that jump to first place and realizing that my time will come when it comes," Bucklin said.
But after a bout with mono where Bucklin played through district basketball not knowing she had it, she said she landed in the hospital and on bed rest with enlarged liver and spleen. Once she did hit the track, it took two weeks before she was even allowed to jog and another two before she was allowed to hurdle again.
"So just going from not even being sure if I could run to a state champion is pretty cool to me," Bucklin said.
Whitewater sophomore Shelbi LaBrie won the girls 1,600 in a personal best 5:15.36 a day after her runner-up finish in the 3,200 and fourth-place finish in the 800. It was also a step up from her third-place finish in the 1,600 as a freshman so LaBrie was pleased with the results.
"I PR'd in all my races at state so that's always nice," LaBrie said. "I'd say I did pretty good."
In the girls javelin, Scobey senior Carrie Taylor finished her career in the best way after throwing 131-9.
"I really just wanted to PR," Taylor explained. "I knew I was ranked third so I knew I would have to perform well to perform with the other ladies, they're very talented."
"It's everybody's dream to end with a PR and a state title," she said.
Park City senior Stockton Zimdars also had his personal best performance to win the boys 110 hurdles in 15.62.
"The weather was nice, every hurdle felt good and my start was wonderful," Zimdars said. "I was so excited. I haven't been this happy in ages."
Twin Bridges junior Ayla Janzen picked the best time to win the triple jump for her first time this season after three consecutive runner-up finishes. Janzen won the girls triple jump in 36-3.75 on her second attempt that left the rest of the field chasing her mark.
"It felt surreal," Jansen said. "I've never been a state champion before in any of my sports. We've gotten close, but just never quite reached it so getting that gold was a really cool feeling."
The Lustre Christian Lions started their day off with a victory in the 4x100 relay (43.85) and then followed it up with individual champions in the 300 hurdles with Johnslee Pierre's 39.98 and the boys high jump as Jasiah Hambira leapt 6-6, recapturing a title he won as a sophomore.
"Happy for now, never satisfied," the 6-4 Hambira said after. "This is all I really wanted coming into this year, just to win high jump again and then we won the 4x100 also which is great. It was great to win something with my guys."
Cascade junior Caiden Sekuterski repeated and won the boys triple jump in 45-7.5 on his fourth attempt that was just .25 inches short of the Class C record.
"It gives me something to break next year. I already broke the district record and the divisional record so it gives me something to do I guess," Sekuterski said."I was kind of relieved (to win), like I know I'm the repeating state champion. Not a lot of kids can say that and let's see if we can do it next year too."
When the shotputters arrived at the awards table to get their medals, they joked that they were there for the 3,200. But once they got on the podium, Belt’s Memphis Black was recognized as the Class C boys shot put champion for his throw of 52-1.5 in a continuing of a family legacy.
"My dad (Dennis Black) has the all-class state record and he kind of encouraged me to start (shot put)," Black said.
He came in hoping to chase some records, but fultimately those remained intact.
"There's extra motivation for sure, but I don't feel like there's added pressure just because there's still quite a big difference between what I threw and what he threw (68-0.5)," he said.
Overall though, he was satisfied at the end of the day.
"Ended up making it to state in both my events, took second in disc and first in shot, so I can't complain too much about it," Black said.