RAPID CITY - No boys athlete from St. Thomas More has ever won a running event at the South Dakota state track and field meet.

Landon White figures it might just as well be him.

The St. Thomas More senior is entered in four events in the Class A portion of the meet, which starts with preliminaries today in Madison, and concludes with Saturday's finals at Howard Wood Field in Sioux Falls.

White will compete in the open 100 and 300 hurdles and will run the opening leg of both the 400 and 800 relays for the Cavaliers.

"I'm really looking forward to the 4x100," said White, who will hand off to Conor Casey, to be followed by Nathan Jacobson and David Schaffer.

Schaffer and Jacobson will switch spots in the 800 relay.

"We're one-tenth ahead of Harrisburg and Sioux Falls Christian. "That's going to be a great race. I just can't wait for that one," White said.

The Cavs' 800 relay team will have to overcome some difficulties with hand-offs due to what White said was inconsistent speed coming into the exchange zone.

"We've yet to have a clean race as far as hand-offs are concerned. We actually got disqualified at regionals, so we hope that doesn't happen again," White said.

In the open 100, Corbin Kratovil of Bennett County and Colin Koth of Sioux Falls Christian lead the pack with identical 10.80's.

White and Custer's Darin Smith, both at 11.10, figure to be in the mix as well.

"I've run against him (Kratovil) a bunch of times and almost beaten him," White said. "Maybe this time I can finally do it."

It's the 300 hurdles that White wants as badly as any event to win.

"I've been second in (the 100) the last two years. I'm third going into it by one- or two-tenths," White said.

Jacobson looks to make a showing in the 200, but the Cavs will have to watch other teams vie for the boys title.

"We just don't have enough people there to have a good shot at winning state like the girls team does. We stand a good chance of scoring more points than we ever have," White said.

Koth, however, is expected to key a strong Sioux Falls Christian run for the overall team title.

Koth has the times to beat in the 100, 200 and 400 dashes and is also expected to score some points in the long jump for the Cougars.

Koth will have to contend with Kratovil in all three sprint events and the long jump, along with Custer's Smith in the 100 and Jared Foote in the 200 and 400.

Kratovil is hoping to defend his state title in the 400.

Lennox, also picked as a team to watch, has Jared Vlastuin in the jumps and throws, Austin Smit in the throws and Tyler Smit in the distance events.

Vlastuin is the defending state champ in the long jump.

Other area athletes to watch include multiple state champ Kiko Mendoza of Cheyenne-Eagle Butte (distances) Belle Fourche's Tanner Willard (second in the pole vault last year) and Alan Green (hurdles), Hot Springs' Eamin Entwisle (defending state champ in the 3,200) and Hill City's Andy Coy (distances).

Foote, bound for South Dakota State, leads the state in the 800 and will anchor the medley relay for Custer.

Complicating the day for Foote is the fact that the medley relay preliminaries and the 800 run finals are back-to-back on the schedule.

Foote and Smith were part of last year's state champion medley relay team for the Wildcats.

"We are hoping that we can get our medley to the second day as many of those people have been using runners that may be running the open 800," said Custer coach Craig Black.

"I would look to Lennox to win the boys title, and St Thomas More to win the girls unless there is an upset," said Black.

"Sioux Falls Christian and Lennox will be the teams to beat on the boys side," said Lead-Deadwood coach Steve Rice.

Rice favors St. Thomas More to win another girls title with Elk Point-Jefferson and Vermillion in the chase as well, he said.

St. Thomas More's girls will be gunning for its third straight Class A title.

The Cavs' strength is in their relay teams and individually with Erin Duffy and Katy Friedel in the hurdles, eighth-grader Caitlin Duffy in the triple jump and Annie Bloom in the 400.

"St. Thomas More's girls are going in stronger this year than last year, I think,"said Hill City coach John Hoag. "They should have a very good state meet and should take the title."

Other athletes to watch include Jordan Wohlleber of Cheyenne-Eagle Butte (distances) Amy O'Neill of Bennett County (sprints, hurdles, jumps), Allison Kostelecky of Custer (First in the 200), Mandi Durch of Newell (100), Megan Mutchler of Newell and Kara Powell of Hot Springs (high jump), Kirsten Goeringer of Belle Fourche (pole vault).