GARRETSON – The Flandreau girls finished sixth and the boys were seventh in the Big East Conference Track & Field Meet on Thursday.
Beresford swept the team titles.
Coach Parsley explained the low team scores from the BEC:
“After a big LCC meet Tuesday with many people doing 3 or 4 events - with several personal bests - we had to dial athletes back for our BEC meet which was only two days later. We really went hard after the LCC, so for Thursday we mainly wanted one or two quality events per athlete, hopefully advancing them in the state top 24.
“The tradeoff with this is not having a strong team score…but this is the part of the season where you want people healthy and fresh, especially as we head into regions and state. It’s not easy holding athletes back at a competitive meet like the Big East Conference, but we needed to keep the big picture in mind.”
Girls
Libby Hursey won the 3,200 meters in 12 minutes, 23.93 seconds.
“Libby had a phenomenal week with PRs in the 800 and 1600 at the LCC Tuesday and then a PR in the 3200 on Thursday,” said Parsley.
Claire Sheppard, Cassidy Keith, Ella Hoffman and Isabella Pavlis placed second in both the 4x200-meter relay (1:52.24) and the 4x400-meter relay (4:19.93).
Katherine Kulm added the team’s other top-three finish, taking third in the discus with a mark of 86 feet, 6 inches- her PR for the season.
Boys
Chase Reed won the shot put with a heave of 43 feet, 4 1/2 inches.
“I am really impressed with Reed as he always has a positive attitude and puts in quality work every day at practice,” noted Parsley.
Bradon Weber, Ethan Hoffman, Alex Anderson and Brenton Westberry ended up third in the medley relay in 3:59.36.
“Many people chipped away at their personal bests throughout the year and this showed at the BEC. Masen Schipper cut 17 seconds off his 800 by the end of the year at Thursday’s meet and Karissa Nolan also ran her best 800 time and improved her season time by 41 seconds. Lurick Dailey also ran an impressive 3200 PR at 11:17.7, slicing 27 seconds off his recent best, earning 5th place in the conference!,” concluded Parsley.
