Rangers track team ‘spars’ in Spearfish

The Hill City High School track team traveled to Spearfish  Friday to compete in the Queen City Classic.

“This is a great meet. We get a lot of AA schools, and some of the big schools from Wyoming, so it ends up being really competitive,” said head coach Joe Noyes.

With several top-eight finishes and multiple champions, Noyes was happy with the team’s performance. 

“It was one of the better days that I’ve had early season with athletes,” he said.

Leading the way for the boys, Tate Grabow claimed first in the 3200 run with his season-best time of 9:36.86. Dax Frandsen also took a first-place finish in the 400, posting a season-best of 50.38.

The relay teams delivered strong performances with the 1600 team of Brensen Veneklasen, Grabow, Mason Buehler, and Frandsen winning with a time of 3:30.52.

“The 4x4 at the end of the day was a pretty epic race,” said Noyes. “We were in fourth place coming into the home stretch, and Dax was able to eat up everybody and edged out the kid from Sturgis by a hundreth of a second at the finish line to win.”

The team of Caleb Sobolik, Wiese, Frandsen and Nick Schroeder placed second in the 800 relay with a time of 1:31.47. The same group finished fifth in the 400 with a time of 44.02.

“It just has me really encouraged about the things we’re doing. I’m doing things a little different on our training side with sprints. To see the kids are adapting and the training is working in the right way is really encouraging,” said Noyes.

Veneklasen added a seventh-place finish in the 110 hurdles with a season best time of 16:55. In the long jump, Schroeder secured fifth-place with a personal best jump of 21-1 3/4

On the girls side, Macie Ham placed fourth in the high jump with a season best jump of five feet.

Alaina Dean, returning after missing last season due to a knee injury, made a strong comeback. 

“Just seeing her get out there and have some success is exciting,” said Noyes.

Dean placed fifth in the long jump with a season-best mark of 17-0 1/2 and finished seventh in the triple jump with another season best of 33-4 1/4.

The girls relay teams also had strong showings Friday.

The 400 relay team of Andee Frandsen, Eden Wildeman, Ham and Dean finished fourth with a time of 51.58. The sprint medley relay team finished fifth, run by Demi Schrier, Ashley Ronning, Jaelyn Peters and Aspen Veneklasen. The 1600 relay team of A. Frandsen, Wildeman, Veneklasen and anchored by Daril Frandsen, finished sixth with a time of 4:20.18.

A. Frandsen recorded season-best times in both the 300 hurdles (47.47) and the 100 hurdles (16.11) placing fourth and fifth, respectively.

“Most of the individual kids were at or ahead of where they were a year ago,” said Noyes. “We’re ahead of schedule.”

In the throwing events, Jaeden Richer threw 31-7 in the shot put, good enough for eighth-place.

“We know that in both guys and girls, we have a very special group,” said Noyes. “We’re going to have fun this year if we just keep finding ways to get a little bit better each week.”

The team’s next meet is April 16 at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology Track-O-Rama meet, beginning at 9:30 a.m. Following that, the Rangers travel to Belle Fourche April 18.