’Cats win BHCâ��championship

The Custer High School boys track team repeated as conference champions last weekend in Spearfish, having at least one placewinner in every event on the way to 186 team points.

“All the athletes competed well,”â��head coach Craig Black said. “There were a lot of great performances.”

The Wildcats had a pair of double winners, starting with Chad Bryant, who won both the 100 and 200 yard dashes at the meet, with times of 11.26 and 23.39, respectively. Both times also qualified Bryant for the state meet, although Black said it is unlikely Bryant will run the 100 at state. He also finished second in the 400 at 51.90, narrowly missing running a qualifying time in that event.

As he has done most of the season, Tyler Schultz won both the shot put and discus at the meet, breaking the conference records in each event  in the process. Schultz’s winning throw in the shot put was 67-2, while his winning throw in the discus was 178-9. Greg Witt took second in both of those events, with a throw of 51-6 in the shot put and 160-6 in the discus.

Cody Herman was again victorious in the 1600, running a time of 4:36.70, while Jared Thomsen again won the 110 hurdles at a time of 15.65. Thomsen also placed second in the 300 hurdles with a time of 42.04.

Clayton Wahlstrom finished second in the pole vault with a top height of 12-0, and Logan Burns picked up a second place finish in the 3200 with a time of 10:22.34 and Chaze Glazier was second in the 800 at 2:09.40. Third place finishes came from Brennan Witt in the 800 (2:10.89) and the 1600 (4:52.15), Glazier in the triple jump 39-2 1/2, the 400 relay team of David Hernandez, Tanner Eiesland, David Gaston and Thomson (46.09), the medey relay team of Hernandez, Eiesland, Kenneth Myers and Logan Huntington (3.55.45), the 1600 team of Glazier, Witt, Jared Thomsen and Joel Thomsen (3:36.10) and the 3200 team of Myers, Huntington, Glazier and Israel Parsons (8:34.46).

Other placewinners for the boys team were fourth place finishes from Dakota McGee in the high jump, Bryant in the long jump, Flake Frybarger in the pole vault, Brandon Erwin in the shot put and Huntington in the discus. Fifth place finishes came from Parsons in the 800 and Joel Thomsen in both the 110 and 300 hurdles, and sixth place finishes came from Shane Herman in the 1600 and the 800 relay team of Hernandez, Eiesland, Gaston and Joel Thomsen.

The Wildcats easily defeated second place Spearfish, which had 114.33 points, while Douglas was third at 111 points.

It was essentially a two-girl show for the Wildcats on the girls side, as Sam McNeel and Karley Konkol carried the team to a fourth place finish, behind the strength of four individual places for McNeel and two for Konkol.

McNeel finished second in the long jump (16-9 1/2), second in the 300 hurdles (47.74), third in the 100 (13.11) and fourth in the 200 (26.9), the latter of which qualified her for state. Konkol once again won both the 800 (2:20.66) and the 1600 (5:22.82), setting conference records in both events.

Monique Mack picked up a third place finish for Custer in the high jump, clearing 4-11, and Mattie Kelley finished fourth in the 3200 at a time of 12:28.26.

Custer placed in three of the five relay events, with the 1600 team of Tori Dahlstrom, Billie Wicks, Mack and Konkol finishing third at 4:21.55, the 3200 team of Dahlstrom, Wicks, Ashlee Eggers and Nykyla Malinosky finishing fourth at 10:37 and the 400 team of Mack, Wicks, Olivia Dahlstrom and Jade Spring finishing sixth at 56.20.

The Wildcats host the region track meet this Thursday, with the meet beginning at 9:30 a.m. As is usually the case at the region meet, Black said the team will focus more on getting more events qualified for state than trying to win the team titles.