Lehman shatters triple jump record

There’s a new triple jump king in South Dakota, and his name is Cade Lehman.
Lehman, already the school record holder in the event, flew to another new record in the event at last week’s Douglas Early Bird meet.
It wasn’t just a school record, however.
Lehman’s leap of 48-7 1/4 shattered the previous all-time, all-class state record of 47-11 1/2 set by Hot Springs’ Bud Hamilton in 1991. Lehman now stands alone as the best triple jumper in state history, regardless of class.
“It feels pretty cool. I was hoping for it,” Lehman said of the feat, adding he felt it wasn’t out of reach coming into the season. “Getting it, hearing the mark was unreal to hear.”
“I guessed he would break the all-time state record this year, but I’m not sure I thought it would happen right there and by that much,” head coach Karim said. “That was just awesome.”
Lehman broke the record on his very first jump of the meet, and said he knew he had hit a big jump as soon as he hit the sand, saying he was further into the pit than he had been before.
“I knew it was pretty far,” he said.
With both the school and state record under his belt, Lehman said he will now try to go even further. Next week is the Track-O-Rama at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, a place he has set personal records in the triple jump before. If he gets a good wind and a good day for jumping, he has a lofty goal.
“I’m hoping to get 50 feet,” he said.
Video of Lehman’s record-breaking jump can be viewed on the Chronicle’s Facebook page, and has been viewed 70,000 times.
Lehman didn’t limit his record-breaking to the triple jump. He also broke his own school record in the long jump with a leap of 22-9 3/4, which also won him a gold medal in that event.
The boys won two other gold medals at the meet, with one coming from the legs of sprinter Danny Immormino, who won the 100 in a time of 11.43, while Roland Sedlacek won the javelin with a best throw of 158-5.
Immormino also brought home a silver medal in the long jump with a best leap of 20-6, which set a personal record (PR), and finished fifth in the 200 at 24.56.
The Wildcats got a second-place finish from their 3200 relay team of Peyton Krueger, Zach Cooper, Kian Rusch and Jackson Wiles, which finished in a  time of 8:32.76.
The Wildcats received a fourth-place finish in the 800 from Rusch, who ran the race in a time of 2:03.61.
Karim pointed out Rusch missed all of last season with an injury, but has been performing well, including in this race, which she said was “crazy fast” and hindered his ability to run his preferred race.
“He’s just figuring out how to do all this,” she said. “He’s looking good.”
The Wildcats received fifth-place finishes from Wyatt DeFreece in the pole vault at 10-0 and Torin Knight in the javelin at 135-2, while the 1600 relay team of Cooper, Wiles, Dalton Marshall and Zane Gunnell was also fifth at 3:48.78.
A sixth-place finish was picked up by Ezra Wollman in the pole vault at 10-0, and Lincoln Golder was eighth in the discus at 118-3.
On the girls side, Jojo Larsen continued to blister the track, winning both the 100 and 200 in times of 12.21 and 26.33, respectively. Larsen was also a member of the gold medal-winning 1600 relay team, joining Kelsey Stiefel, Jayda Bennett and Siena Schultz to post a time of 4:17.28. Bennett picked up an individual gold in the 100 hurdles at a time of 15.62.
Karyn Ellerton swept the shot and discus, winning the shot put with a throw of 34-7, while setting a PR in the discus with her toss of 126-0.
The final gold medal came from Ciana Stiefel, who won the pole vault at 12-0. She was followed in that event by sister Kelsey in second, also at 12-0, and sister Tenlee in third at 11-6. All three heights would have won or tied for the win in the boys competition.
Rylan Lowe picked up a  third-place finish in the discus with a toss of 97-5, and the 3200 relay team of Makenzi Ham, Mikayla Dennis, Lexi Wilkins and Evelyn Garcia was third at 12:00.23.
Ariyah Bennett was the lone individual fourth-place finisher (she was also fifth in the shot put at 30-5), throwing the discus 97-5, while the team of Myley May, Fiona Weber, Dennis and Ham were fourth in the medley relay at 5:07.73.
The team also picked up a handful of eighth-place finishes, including Tenlee Stiefel in the 200 at 29.56, Riley Messer in the 100 hurdles at 18.40, Keira Alfson in the 3200 at 12:54.03, Ava Hohn in the discus at 84-6, Tenlee Stiefel in the high jump with a personal record of 4-6 and Brook Bennett in the javelin with a best throw of 88-4.
“We were filled with PRs at Douglas,” Karim said. “It was a nice day and we had some big performances.”
Some of the athletes did even better at last Friday’s Queen City Classic on the campus of Black Hills State University in Spearfish, including Larsen, who tied her own school record in the 100 with a time of 12:03  (good for second place) while cracking the 25-second mark in the 200 for the first time on her way to a gold medal with a time of 24.86.
“That’s really fast,” Karim said of Larsen’s 200 time, noting for a long time the school record was in the 26-second range. “She could help our boys in the sprint relays. She looked awesome.”
The meet was a large one, with large schools from Wyoming and North Dakota attending as well as many South Dakota schools.
Ellerton had another strong showing in the throws at the meet, winning the discus with a best throw of 124-1 while placing second in the shot put with a PR throw of 37-7.
The sisters Stiefel again fared well in the pole vault, with eighth-grader Tenlee winning this time with a top height of 12-0, a PR, while Kelsey and Ciana finished second and third with top heights of 11-6.
The 800 relay team of Larsen, Jayda Bennett, Schultz and Addie Sander combined to win a bronze medal with a time of 1:47.11, while Bennett placed fifth in the 100 hurdles at 16.01.
Also placing fifth was the 3200 relay team of Dennis, Ham, Alfson and Kian Pesicka at a time of 10:45.86.
Brook Bennett was seventh in the javelin with a best throw of 99-11.
Sedlacek led the charge on the boys side, uncorking a monster throw in the javelin of 172-4 that not only was a personal record and shattered his own school record but put him in the top-10 all-time in state history in the event.
Lehman picked up right where he left off at Douglas in winning the long jump with a best leap of 22-5 1/4.
Carter Tennyson finished in fourth place in the high jump with a top height of 6-0, while Immormino was fifth in the 100 at 11.29. The individual places were rounded out by Sean Shipp, who was eighth in the 3200 at 10:03.9.
The Wildcats had one relay place, as the 400 team of Lehman, Immormino, Sedlacek and Dillon Hanis was fifth at 44.43.
With weather threatening to hinder meets this weekend some meets have been shuffled, and Custer is competing in the Center of the Nation Meet today in Belle Fourche, while the Track-O-Rama scheduled for Thursday in Rapid City has been moved to next Tuesday, which Custer may or may not attend.