Weston Luetz will run any event Bismarck Century coach Tim Jacobsen tells him to. But when the coach gives the star senior a break from an event, Luetz isn't going to argue.
After setting a Coca-Cola Classic track and field meet record in the 110-meter hurdles, anchoring the Patriots to a win in the 800 relay and crushing the competition in the 100, Luetz finally got a breather.
Jacobsen didn't put the senior in the 1,600 relay, the final event Tuesday at Whitney Stadium.
"Coach didn't put me down," Luetz said with a sound of relief in his voice. "He just decided not to put me in this one. That's fine with me."
By the day's final event, Luetz already had compiled some stellar numbers. When he broke the meet record in the 110 hurdles by .27 seconds with his run of 14.28, Luetz knew he was on a roll.
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"The hurdles felt really good," he said. "I've been struggling a little bit. We've been practicing really hard on getting over the hurdles faster and sprinting between the hurdles, which helped a lot."
Luetz's 11.37 time in the 100 was more than 0.35 seconds faster than runner-up Cory Ploof of Bismarck and third-place finisher Mitch Kudrna of Dickinson High.
He also helped the Patriots edge Minot in the 800 relay with a time of 1:32.03, good enough to qualify for the Class A state meet.
Luetz's only dark spot was a second-place finish in the pole vault, an event he's new to.
"It's nice to have a talented athlete like that you can kind of move around to different events," Jacobsen said.
Some results - including the pole vault - were unavailable to the media and coaches when the paper went to press.
Luetz will take his jack-of-all-trades skills to North Dakota State next year, where he'll compete in the decathlon.
"This season's a lot to do with what's going to happen next year," Luetz said.
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While Luetz was putting together a dominant performance, the Dickinson, Minot and Bismarck High boys teams were vying for the top team spot. The final team scores were also unavailable at press time.
Midgets junior Taylor Bruhschwein led his team to a strong performance in the 300 hurdles with a 40.77 winning time.
Seniors Kelly Huffman and Logan Hippe were third and fourth, respectively.
Bruhschwein also led off the Midgets' 1,600 relay team of Mitch Kudrna, Skyler Beaudoin and Nakoa Baker, which broke a 12-year-old meet record by more than four seconds and qualified for state by clocking a 3:24.
"It was just outstanding. They're gutty kids," Dickinson boys coach Dave Michaelson said. "They run well for each other."
Around the meet
Bismarck St. Mary's distance runner Joash Osoro shattered a 29-year-old meet record in the 3,200 with a 9:35.04 time. The old record was set by Bismarck's DeLane Bauer in 1978.
Dickinson's Myles Salinas qualifed for state in the shot put with a throw of 49 feet, 1 inch, but fell short of meet champion Brent Qvale, a sophomore from Williston who threw 50-11. Dickinson senior Mike Lupo was third at 48-6.
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Minot's Kyle Schatz defeated Dickinson senior Dusty Yates on the final javelin throw. Yates had everyone beat with his throw of 163-7, but Schatz's last toss went 168-11.
