BISMARCK - Lexi Jordheim's year-long odyssey has come full circle.
Last season at the West Region meet, Jordheim suffered a severely fractured ankle after she fell into the pit while competing in the pole vault. Three-hundred and sixty-five days later, the Dickinson High senior returned to regional meet
"It's felt like probably five years or so, it's been long," Jordheim said. "It's been probably a lot harder mentally than it is physically. I don't think a lot of people understand that an injury like that is so tolling mentally rather than physically. So I've just been working everyday and as severe as it was a year ago, I've just been getting more comfortable."
The Midgets girls track and field team took fifth place in the West Region meet following a team score of 75.5 points while the boys team finished in eighth place with 23 points.
Bismarck Century top the team leaderboards. The Patriot boys scored 189.5 points, 34.5 points ahead of runner-up Bismarck High, while the Century girls scored 151 points, 12.5 points in front of second place Minot.
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Jordheim finished third in the pole vault on Saturday, May 19 from the MDU Resources Community Bowl after clearing a height of 10 feet, three inches. But rather than rest on her laurels and bask in the accomplishment, Jordheim intends on working on the basics during the upcoming week of practice as state qualifiers will return to Bismarck on Friday, May 25. There, she'll have a chance to complete her redemption story.
"I didn't quite place as high as I wanted or vault as well as I'd like to, but I'm still proud of how far I've come and what happened exactly a year ago," Jordheim said. "Come next week, I really need to do a lot of mini vaults, a lot of swing-ups, a lot of little technical things to get the fundamentals down. Next week is just going to be a whole week full of fundamentals so I'm hoping that those things carry over to the rest of the vault."
The Lady Midgets tallied a strong portion of their points in the field events.
Junior Meghan Ackerman earned a pair of fourth place finishes in the triple jump and the pole vault. Junior Alanta Tormaschy took fifth in the shot put with a throw of 35 feet, 11 inches. Fellow junior Gabby Jung claimed runner-up in the high jump with a mark of 5-01. She was also sixth in the long jump, one spot behind senior teammate Morgan Kainz.
Peyton Selle turned in Dickinson's top highlights on the track. The sophomore was victorious in the 100-meter hurdles, running the event in 15.60 seconds. In the 300 hurdles, she finished second with a time of 47.67.
"That was definitely the pace I was looking for, that's a good PR for me too," Selle said of the shorter race. "I've had pretty low times the last few weeks so that's pretty good. My pacing is a little bit off in the 300, but I'll try to get that straight for state."
Since last season's WDA meet, Selle has sliced more than half a second off of her 300 hurdle-time and more than a second off of her 100 hurdle-mark.
"Running in between the hurdles, I've gotten a lot better at that," Selle said. "I'm attacking the hurdles more, that's help me improve my time."
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Finishing sixth in the triple jump, Midgets sophomore Jevon Kriedt qualified for state by place after a mark of 41-02. Freshman Brady Yoder earned a fifth-place finish in the 3200-meter run with a time of 9:57.90.
Yoder teamed with freshmen Hunter Gregoire, Mustafa Taylor and sophomore Aiden Jung in the 4x800 relay.
The foursome finished fifth, but were also aiming to qualify by time. Shortly after the race was over, the group gathered near the start/finish line awaiting the results to be announced.
Running the race in 8:23.32, nearly a second faster than the state-qualifying mark, the group exploded into celebration.
"It's amazing, I'm speechless," Gregoire said. "To know that you worked hard all year and it finally pays off in the end, it feels really good."
With each participant running two laps around the track, Yoder noted that each member's performance in the first lap was key in creating the final result.
"We really wanted to set ourselves up in a spot where no matter what, there's no way you are giving up on the race with where you positioned yourself," Yoder said. "The first laps were very important to all of us to having the best second lap that we can have."
Running the second leg of the race, Jung understood the pace that all members of the relay had to set and credited Taylor for performance in the last leg.
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"Qualifying splits for each person is 2:06.06 and we knew that if we wanted to qualify, a couple of us had to step up and run a little faster than that, and that's exactly what we did," Jung said. "We ran a little faster, we had a really good last leg and I think it brought us all home."
WDA Regionals
Results Saturday
Boys
Team scores: 1, Bismarck Century, 189.5. 2, Bismarck High, 155. 3, Bismarck Legacy, 152. 4, Minot, 94. 5, Mandan, 50.5. 6, Bismarck St. Mary's, 37. 7, Williston, 32. 8, Dickinson, 23. 9, Turtle Mountain, 5. 10, Jamestown, 1.
100: 1, Christopher Koester, Ma., 10.90. 16, Connor Hoenke, DHS, 11.63.
200: 1, Calob Larson, BL, 21.94. 12, Mustafa Taylor, DHS, 23.54.
400: 1, Larson, BL, 49.34.
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800: 1, Beau Brannan, BL, 1:55.95. 22, Levi Jacobson, DHS, 2:14.48.
1,600: 1, Brannan, BL, 4:25.03.
3,200: 1, Evan Sayler, BC, 9:37.95. 5, Brady Yoder, DHS, 9:57.90.
110 hurdles: 1, David Kpedeh, BHS, 14.95.
300 hurdles: 1, Evan Leingang, BSM, 40.05. 21, Kaden Selle, DHS, 48.18.
400 relay: 1, Bismarck High, 42.58. 3, Dickinson (Hoenke, Taylor, Isaac Frimpong, Nathaniel Frimpong), 44.48.
800 relay: 1, Bismarck Century, 1:30.09. 7, Dickinson (I. Frimpong, N. Frimpong, Quentin Lewis, Anton Heyes), 1:39.06.
1,600 relay: 1, Bismarck Century, 3:24.25. 7, Dickinson (Hoenke, Taylor, N. Frimpong, Heyes), 3:43.88.
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3,200 relay: 1, Bismarck High, 8:15.90. 5, Dickinson (Yoder, Aiden Jung, Hunter Gregoire, Mustafa Taylor), 8:23.32.
High jump: 1, Dane Allen, BHS, 6-08. T7, Jevon Kreidt, DHS, 5-08.
Pole vault: 1, Andrew Walter, BC, 13-00.
Long jump: 1, Larson, BL, 22-01.50. 10, Hoenke, DHS, 19-10.50.
Triple jump: 1, Allen, BH, 45-07. 6, Kreidt, DHS, 41-02.
Shot put: 1, Levi Rockey, BC, 57-11.50. 12, Matthew Paintner, DHS, 44-05.50.
Discus: 1, Levi Rockey, BC, 176-04. 21, Krew Mathern, DHS, 115-09.
Javelin: 1, Odin Nelson, Mi., 189-00. 8, Martin Lopez, DHS, 149-07.
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Girls
Team scores: 1, Bismarck Century, 151. 2, Minot, 138.5. 3, Bismarck High, 121. 4, Bismarck Legacy, 86. 5, Dickinson, 75.5. 6, Mandan, 63. 7, Jamestown, 60.5. 8, Bismarck St. Mary's 27.5. 9, Williston, 18.
100: 1, Alli McCoy, Mi., 12.49. 16, Naihely Muniz, DHS, 13.65
200: 1, McCoy, Mi., 25.93. 13, Muniz, DHS, 25.95
400: 1, Kaydee Wescom, BL, 58.63. 6, Audrey Rodakowski, DHS, 1:02.00
800: 1, Meghan Ford, J, 2:18.59. 16, Symone Beld, DHS, 2:35.76.
1,600: 1, Ford, J, 5:06.98.
3,200: 1, Eleni Lovgren, W, 11:49.14.
100 hurdles: 1, Peyton Selle, DHS, 15.60. 2, Chloe Lambrecht, BC, 15.85.
300 hurdles: 1, Alyssa Ukestad, J, 46.99. 2, Selle, DHS, 47.67.
400 relay: 1, Bismarck Century, 50.85. 8, Dickinson (Mattilyn Biel, Brooke Ott, Claire Kreidt, Muniz), 53.76.
800 relay: 1, Bismarck Century, 1:46.65. 5, Dickinson (Rodakowski, Selle, Biel, Ott), 1:49.94.
1,600 relay: 1, Bismarck Century, 4:03.05. 4, Dickinson (Selle, Rodakowski, Biel, Emily Keller), 4:12.35.
3,200 relay: 1, Bismarck Century, 9:41.33. 5, Dickinson (Beld, Delaynee Zubke, Kreidt, Keller), 10:18.47.
High jump: 1, Blythe Ehrmantraut, BHS, 5-03. 2, Gabby Jung, DHS, 5-01. 7, Lexi Jordheim, DHS, 4-09.
Pole vault: 1, Ehrmantraut, BHS, 10-09. 3, Jordheim, DHS, 10-03. 4, Meghan Ackerman, DHS, J10-03. 8, Teandra Schneider, DHS, 8-09. T10, Brailyn Betlaf, DHS, 8-03. T10, Addie Kuehl, DHS, 8-03.
Long jump: 1, Ehrmantraut, BHS, 17-07. 5, Morgan Kainz, DHS, J16-07.25. 6, Jung, DHS, 16-05.
Triple jump: 1, Ehrmantraut, BHS, 37-02. 4, Ackerman, DHS, 35-01.50. 6, Madison Lindley, DHS, 33-10.
Shot put: 1, Onna Scheuer, BC, 41-00. 5, Alanta Tormaschy, DHS, 35-11.
Discus: 1, Maddysen Bring, BL, 122-08. 17, Kainz, DHS, 95-10.
Javelin: 1, Taylor Leingang, Ma., 119-083. 13, Kierra Schneider, DHS, 96-09.
