CUSTER - The Belle Fourche boys and St. Thomas More girls won Region 8A track titles Thursday at Wildcat Field. St. Thomas More at last weekend's Black Hills Conference meet to win the region behind a strong all-around performance.

Belle Fourche placed in every event they entered to win its third region title in the last four years, while St. Thomas More's girls simply continued the dominance they've displayed in the region over the past three seasons.

"Once again our kids came to compete," St. Thomas More head coach Shelby Vickers said. "We don't have to ask too much of them because they ask so much of themselves. We just need to support them."

The Broncs bounced back from a fourth place finish behind Douglas, Custer and

"It's a combination of what other teams do and what we did," Belle Fourche head coach Randy Nicholas said. "Some other teams pulled some people back to get them ready in events that they already qualified (for state) in, and the other thing is our people competed better than they did at the conference. I think that we scored points in every event that we entered today, and when it's a total team effort those points start to add up."

The Broncs out-pointed the host Custer team, who got routinely strong performances out of Jared Foote and Darin Smith. Foote ran a 1 minute, 57 second 800-meter dash - the fastest time in Class A this season - won the 400-meter dash and took second in the 200 to St. Thomas More's Nate Jacobson.

"I'm feeling pretty good," Foote said. "I think that me and (Andy) Coy are 1-2 going into state now, but you never know what to expect from that kid. If I can hold him off, I'm hoping to win it."

Foote narrowly edged the Hill City junior to win the 800-meter run, and credited Coy with helping him run as fast as he has this season.

"It's great, he's such a hard fighter," Foote said. "If he wasn't there I doubt I'd be running anywhere close to this fast."

Smith captured the long jump and discus titles in addition to finishing second in the 100-meter dash. Smith's throw of 166 feet, 6 inches was a season's best. He finished second in the 100 to St. Thomas More's Landon White, who also won the 300-meter hurdles but was disqualified from the event after a meet official declared that White's trailing leg went around the hurdle instead of over it. That gave the win to Belle Fourche's Alan Green, who took both the 110- and 300-meter titles.

White's time of 10.8 seconds broke Belle Fourche standout Jay Vetter's record of 10.97 seconds set in 1992. White was also on the Cavaliers' winning 4-by-100 relay team, which set a new meet record of 44.0 seconds, breaking a 1992 mark set by then-BHC member Spearfish.

Hot Springs' Eamin Entwisle was the other double winner on the boys side, capturing the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs.

On the girls side, St. Thomas More's Erin Duffy was the only double-winner as she captured the 100- and 300-meter hurdle titles.

The Cavalier girls will be shooting for their third straight Class A state title next week in Madison and Sioux Falls.

"That last (4-by-400) relay team ran a 4:08," Vickers said. "Now we've got a dilemma in who we're going to have run in what relays. But that's a pretty good problem to have."

The top two finishers in each event are automatically qualified for next weekend's Class A state track and field meet. The first day of the meet will take place May 23 in Madison before the finals move to Howard Wood Field in Sioux Falls on Saturday.