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College track: Outdoor season begins at O'Harra Stadium
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FarkRAPID CITY — The weather wasn’t perfect with a gusty crosswind making its presence felt, but many of the runners were happy to get the outdoor season started Saturday. Several teams made the trip to O’Harra Stadium on the campus of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology to take part in the Bauer Invitational.
While no team scores were kept, several area athletes performed well.
Black Hills State University had several top performances beginning with Shannon Hellman, who won four state hurdle titles while running for Douglas High School, and led the way again on Saturday winning the 100-meter hurdles with ease in 14.15 seconds. The victory continued the success Hellman had during the indoor season.
“It is 40 meters more, but I was pleased with it I guess,” she said of her performance. “My indoor season ended well. I got first at nationals in the 60-meter hurdles and sixth in the pentathlon which is OK and something to build on.”
Hellman said she wanted to put on a show running in her home area, but she was looking to improve with bigger meets still ahead. She finished over three-tenths of a second ahead of the second-place finisher in the event.
Another impressive win came from BHSU’s 1,600-meter relay team that had little problem in taking the top spot with a time of 50.24 seconds despite not being at full strength.
“We were battling not being able to practice outdoors and the wind so we felt we did super good,” said Kelley Aline, who ran the anchor leg for the Yellow Jackets. “We had one girl who was unable to race, so we had to throw one more in.”
Aline, who was also part of the victorious 1,600-relay team, and teammate Kayla Ferguson finished 2-3 in the 800, posting times of 2 minutes, 27.73 seconds and 2:32.78, respectively.
Wendy O’Lexey and Kerry Washburn showed the Yellow Jackets’ strength in the distance by claiming the top two spots in the 1,500, Alicia Verhulst won the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 12:13.93.
The home team got a big performance from Tyler Flattum, who won the 110-meter hurdles and took third in the 100. Flattum’s win in the hurdles gave him two on the outdoor season as he also took the top spot at the University of Colorado Invite a week ago.
Flattum was able to easily lower his time in both events, posting a 14.65 in the hurdles and an 11.38 in the 100.
“It felt a lot better out here than it was last week because it was a little cold,” Flattum said. “I was looking to get a (personal record) in the hurdles and I did that by quite a lot. It feels good to perform in front of the home fans.”
Mines also got an impressive showing from all-american Chandler Caldwell in the pole vault as he cleared 15 feet, 9 inches.
Eric Flores and Jason Boeding went 1-2 in the shot put, discus and hammer throw.
The Yellow Jackets’ Cody Bordewyk won the steeplechase by more than 10 seconds and posted a runner-up finish in the 800 crossing the finish line in 1:59.78.
Chadron State College’s Joe Schultz began the day with a dominating performance in the 10,000 meters putting each of his competitors down by several laps by the end of the 25-lap marathon race. The win came in Schultz’s first try at the event in 31:58.25.
“It is nice to get outdoors when you have been racing indoors for a whole season,” he said. “It was the first 10K I ran on the track but I knew I was in pretty good shape. Anything under 32 minutes was my goal and I just barely got it.”
It will be the Yellow Jackets’ turn to host the Hardrockers Friday when they travel to Spearfish to take part in the Frostbite Invitational.
South Dakota School of Mines' Chandler Caldwell competes in the pole vault at the Bauer Invitational track meet on Saturday at O'Harra Stadium. (Ryan Soderlin/Journal staff)
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