Track team opens season in Newcastle

The Custer High School track team got its season off to a strong start last week in Newcastle, Wyo., where it competed in the Laura Chord Memorial.
The meet featured schools from both Wyoming and South Dakota, ranging in size from Thunder Basin High School in Gillette, Wyo., to Midwest, Wyo. (population 283).
The meet was both a high school and junior high meet, and had as many as 180 entries between the two in some events, making for a long day. Custer head coach Karen Karim said the weather was decent until the afternoon, when it became cold and windy.
“We were just happy to get a meet in,” she said. “It worked out.”
The girls team piled up 158 points, good for second place behind Thunder Basin’s 188 points.
Among the champions for the girls was freshman Jayda Bennett, who claimed gold in both the 100 and 300 hurdles, running times of 17.19 and 48.30, respectively.
Jojo Larsen got her season off to a fast start with a championship in the 100 at 12.75, and Taylor Busch won the 400 in a time of 1:02.75.
Rounding out the champions for Custer was Tenlee Stiefel in the pole vault, clearing a top height of 9-6.
Second-place finishes included Addie Sander in the pole vault with a top height of 9-0, and Karyn Ellerton in the discus with a best throw of 113-10.
Two relay teams also placed second, with the 1600 team of Rachel Miklos, Bennett, Busch and Larsen running a time of 4:20.85, and the 3200 team of Mattea Marshall, Ava Miller, Sidney Garcia and Keira Thorp posting a time of 11:08.41.
Custer also had the third-place finishing teams in the 1600 and 3200 relays, with Hailey Woodward, Marshall, Thorp and Miller running 4:42.24 in the 1600 and Woodward, Miklos, Kiran Pesicka and Kelsey Stiefel running 11:49.14 in the 3200.
Brit Wheeler won the team’s lone individual bronze medal, finishing in a time of 5:34.98.
The Wildcats got two fourth-place finishes, with Torri Virtue throwing the discus 105-5 and Sierra Swanson finished fourth in the 1600 at 5:41.10. A fifth-place finish came from Emily Borkowski in the shot put at 34-3 1/2, while sixth-place finishes came from Keira Nelson in the 100 hurdles at 19.44, Ellerton in the shot put at 33-9 1/12 and Borkowski at 10-25 in the discus.
Avari Dorrance placed seventh in the shot put at 33-5, while Katelyn Nelson was seventh in the discus at 100-2. Also placing seventh individually was Kelsey Stiefel in the 400 at 1:07.68 and Pesicka in the pole vault with a top height of 7-0.
Custer’s lone eighth-place finish came from Nelson at 54.42.
The boys team also placed second, although Thunder Basin dominated on the boys’ side of things, piling up 209.5 points to Custer’s 80.
The Wildcat boys had a pair of double champions, as Mical Grace won both the 110 and 300 hurdles, running times of 17.30 and 43.17, respectively, while Drew Lehman won both the 400 and 800 at times of 51.17 and 2:07.22, respectively. The final individual championship came from Cade Lehman, who ripped off a top leap of 43-3 1/4 in the triple jump, a distance that would have won him the state championship last May.
The Wildcat 1600 relay was also victorious, as the team of the Lehman brothers, Jackson Wiles and Sam Gaulke raced to a time of  3:36.00.
The medley team of Bret Zapp, Koleden Niemann, Dalton Marshall and Jared Cooper placed third at a time of 4:33.5, while Gaulke picked up an individual third-place finish in the 400 at 53.07.
Carter Tennyson finished fourth in the high jump with a best height of 5-10, and the 3200 relay team of Tyler Cooper, Jared Cooper, Saylor Rice and Ezra Wollman was fifth at 10:12.00. Placing sixth in the 1600 was Sean Shipp with a time of 4:42.58.
Wiles finished seventh in the 800 at a time of 2:12.88, and the 400 relay team of Delano Weber, Niemann, Bryton Syverson and Marshall was also seventh at 51.66.
Rounding out the placing was Danny Immormino in a pair of sprints, as he placed eighth in both the 100 and 200 at time of 12.00 and 24.01.
“They competed well. We have a lot of young kids who are coming up out of junior high,” Karim said. We got to see times for those kids. Our top returners competed well.”
The Wildcats will be back in action Thursday morning at 9 a.m. when they head to the Sturgis Invitational.