SIOUX FALLS - For St. Thomas More senior Landon White the heartache and wait was certainly worth the reward.

White won his first state title and the school's first-ever state title in a boys' running event in his last try. White topped Dell Rapids' Matt Dunbar and Garretson's Sam Quaintance in the 300-meter hurdles to give him that elusive crown.

"It took me to the last event of high school sports to get one," White said of the championship. "But it was worth it, definitely."

White also helped the Cavaliers' 4-by-100-meter relay team to a third place finish, the 4-by-100-meter relay team take second and he grabbed third behind Sioux Falls Christian's Colin Koth and Bennett County's Corbin Kratovil in the 100-meter dash. For that effort he has been named the Rapid City Journal Athlete of the Week.

"Obviously, Dusty (Nowotny) won all sorts of jumping titles," White said. "But to be the first (boy) to win a running event feels really good."

It wasn't like White came into the meet as a heavy favorite, either. Both Quaintance and Dunbar had run slightly faster times during the season, and Dunbar's preliminary round qualifying time was a fraction faster than White's.

"I knew that they had both run faster times than me during the season," White said. "When I saw that, I knew that I really had to start working harder."

That was a bit of a change from early in the year when White was lulled a little into a false sense of security. He had finished third in the 300-meter event the past two seasons, but the two runners that had finished ahead of him at last year's meet - Lennox's Mark Ellefson and Chamberlain's Brandon Priebe - both graduated. For a while White had convinced himself that meant his work was done.

"I really worked hard, but maybe not so much at the beginning of the year because I knew those two guys had graduated," White admitted. "But then Dunbar and Quaintance posted a 39.9 and a 40-flat and I saw that.

"When I realized they had posted faster times than me that really pushed me to work a lot harder and come out here and get them."

White battled through a 20 to 30-mph headwind down the homestretch in the event to take the title in 40.27 seconds to Dunbar's 40.69 and Quaintance's 41.45. He said that he was actually happy to see the strong wind in his face for the final.

"I actually told Carrie (Maguire) and Annie (Bloom) earlier today that I hope the wind keeps up for the 300 hurdles," White said. "I knew that coming down the stretch that I'd want it more and be able to push through the wind better than those guys. I'm shorter (about 5-foot-8), they're bigger and especially with Dunbar being a sophomore and this being my last shot, I was going to want it more than him. I just knew I could fight through the wind better."

White, who is heading to Montana State University in the fall, isn't planning on continuing his athletic career into college, but he admits that the urge might get him to try to walk on at some point. Still, he thinks that his sporting career is probably going to consist of racing down Montana mountain-sides.

"I'm planning on doing a lot of skiing," he said.

For now he's just happy to be leaving his school with a state title. He was the lone bright spot for the Cavaliers in their 51-13 beating at the hands of West Central in the Class 11A football championship, scoring on a 44-yard run on the Cavs' first possession to give them a 7-0 lead and later scoring on an 89-yard kickoff return when the game was no longer in doubt.

He thinks the state hurdles title will ease some of the sting from that day - and the three second-place finishes in Class 11B championship games before that.

"It definitely erases some of that," White said, with the bad memory still obviously pretty fresh. "I've actually been talking about that with a lot of people today. I finally got a win in there after a whole lot of seconds and third places especially after the 4-by-100, which was our best shot at winning. After we got second in that it put all the pressure on my last race, so it felt really, really good to get that one."

After a "whole lot" of second and third place finishes, White will always be first at his high school - the first boy to win a state title in a running event. That's a reward that was definitely worth all the pain and doubt.

"To finally get this one is just amazing," White said.

"Really, just amazing."