Wildcats sweep team titles at season-opening meet

If the first meet of the season is any indication, the Custer High School track team can expect big things this season.
The Wildcats swept both the boys and girls team titles—and both by significant margins—at the season-opening Laura Chord Memorial Relays in Newcastle, Wyo., last Thursday.
“We were happy to see where some of our kids came out,” head coach Karen Karim said. “We didn’t really know. We have some freshmen we weren’t sure what they were going to come up with. I was excited to see where they were.”
The girls team scored a whopping 193 points, 86 more than second-place Hill City.
The girls were led by the speedy duo of Jojo Larsen and Jayda Bennett, who both brought home three gold medals from the meet.
Larsen won the 100 in a time of 12.35, while winning the 200 at 25.71. She also ran a leg, along with Bennett, Addie Sander and Siena Schultz, in the 400 relay that won in 50.94.
Bennett won both the hurdles events, running the 100 hurdles in 17.03 and the 300 hurdles in 48.47.
Other meet champions include Karyn Ellerton, who tossed the discus 123 feet even, 26 feet better than second-place finishing teammate Rylan Lowe, who threw at 97-7. Ellerton also finished second in the shot put with a best throw of 33-11.
In the pole vault, sisters Tenlee and Kelsey Stiefel tied for first, both clearing 11-6.
One other relay placed first, as the 3200 team of Makenzi Ham, Mikayla Dennis, Lexi Wilkins and Kiran Pesicka won in 12:21.39. Meanwhile, teammates Olivia Wilkins, Ava Miller, Evelyn Garcia and Keira Alfson placed second in the same race at 12:52.30. Also placing second was the team of Olivia Welch, Rachel Adams, Dennis and Ham in the medley relay with a time of 5:10.66.
Alfson picked up a third place finish in the 1600 at 5:58.53, as did Ariyah Bennett in the shot put with a best throw of 31-7. Bennett was also fourth in the discus at 91-9.
Ava Hohn picked up a fourth-place finish in the shot put with a best throw of 29-11, while also grabbing fifth in the discus at 91-8.
Kelsey Stiefel placed fourth in the 200 at a time of 27.17, while Pesicka was fourth in the 800 at 2:42.55.
Fifth-place finishers included Kelsey Stiefel in the 100 at 13.87, as well as Keira Nelson in the 300 hurdles in a time of 51.77. Jessica Hite was fifth in the shot put with a best toss of 29-9, while the 400 relay team of Adams, Myley May, Sunshine Surratt and Fiona Weber rounded out the fifth-place finishes with a time of 57.97.
Schultz picked up a sixth-place finish in the 100 at a time of 13.96, as did Ciana Stiefel in the 200 at a time of 28.25. Riley Messer was sixth in the 100 hurdles at 19.37, and May tied for sixth in the high jump with a best height of 4-1.
May was also seventh in the long jump with a best leap of 13-3, while Nelson was seventh in the 100 hurdles at 19.64 and Tenlee Stiefel was seventh in the 200 at 28.35.
Rounding out the girls placings was Messer finishing eighth in the 300 hurdles at 54.17, Surratt finishing eighth in the long jump at 13-2 and Ella Sheffield placing eighth in the shot put with a best throw of 27-5.
On the boys side, Cade Lehman was the headliner with a school-record leap in the triple jump, an event he was state champion in a year ago. Lehman had a best leap of 46-8 1/4, nearly a foot better than the previous record of 45-9 set by Matt Lyndoe in 2003.
Lehman also was a part of the first-place finishing 400 relay team, as he was joined by Torin Knight, Roland Sedlacek and Danny Immormino to post a time of 45.43. Finally, Lehman was fourth in the 100 at 11.81.
Lincoln Golder won a pair of gold medals at the meet, as he won the shot put with a best throw of 41-2, while winning the discus at 125-3.
Freshman Zach Cooper ran his way to a gold medal in the 400, posting a time of 53.80, while Kian Rusch was victorious in the 1600 at 4:42.87. The final championship came from the 3200 relay team of Jackson Wiles, Austin Drew, Tyler Cooper and Jayse Noem in 9:16.92.
Second place finishes included Sean Shipp in the 1600 at 4:48.78, as well as Carter Tennyson in the high jump at 5-8 and Kallin Thomas in the discus at 110-2. The 1600 relay team of Wiles, Zach Cooper, Rusch and Dalton Marshall was also second at 3:42.16.
The 3200 relay team of Zane Gunnell, Conner Cundy, Saylor Rice and Jared Cooper was third at 9:32.20, while Shipp was third in the 800 at 2:13.99. Wyatt DeFreece picked up a third-place finish in the pole vault with a top height of 10-0, and Immormino was third in the long jump at 19-7 1/2.
A pair of relay teams picked up fourth-place finishes, as the team of Drew, Gunnell, Peyton Krueger and Ian Schiffer finished the 1600 relay at 3:55.33, while the medley team of Ayden Dooley, Jaxson Pomarleau, Ezra Wollman and Owen Arp finished at 4:24.86.
In fifth place was Thomas in the shot put with a best throw of 37-5, and Wollman in the pole vault with a best height of 9-6. A second Wildcat medley relay team also placed fifth, as Noem, Schiffer, Kawika Johncour and Dillon Hanis joined forces to run a time of 4:36.70.
Marshall finished sixth in the 400 at a time of 57.24, as did Immormino in the 100 at 12 seconds, Sedlacek in the high jump at 5-6 and Dooley in the pole vault at 9-0.
Zach Cooper was seventh in the discus with a best throw of 103-1, as was Sedlacek in the 100 at 12.09 and Joseph Prince in the 800 at 2:29.02.
Eighth-place finishes came from Rice in the 800 at 2:30.68, Prince in the 1600 at 5:25.16 and Logan Olson in the shot put at 34-11.
The boys finished with 179.5 points, 54 better than second-place Newcastle.
Karim said the weather couldn’t have been much better for a season-opening March track meet.
“Sometimes you get a beautiful day in March and it might be the last beautiful day for a while,” she said. “We’ve had pretty good weather for practice, too. I keep telling the kids run as many races as you can right now.”
Karim said the returning names on the team performed as expected, while some of the younger athletes stepping up provided some excitment as the team enters the season.
“We saw where a few holes are, some places we want to fill in,” she said.
This week the team will be in Box Elder for the annual Douglas Early Bird meet. The meet is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m.