Killdeer boys, Trinity girls take top spots in Southwest Region

The Killdeer boys track and field team made sure Larry Walker's final region meet was one to remember.

After being disqualified in the 800-meter relay, the Cowboys rattled off wins to claim the boys team title at the Southwest Region track and field meet on Saturday at the Badlands Activities Center.

"Isn't it awesome," said Walker, who was named Southwest Region boys Coach of the Year. "It's so cool to be able to finish out like this. It wasn't necessarily me that earned the award. It should go to all of our coaches and all of our athletes for how hard they worked."

Killdeer's push in the right direction was from a senior-led squad of Lewis Keller, Kyle Boster, Nick Klatt and Lane Oversen.

The four seniors combined for four wins and four top-three finishes.

Keller was named Southwest Region Senior Athlete of the Year as he took first in the 100 meters and long jump. He improved his time in the 100 with an 11.11-second performance and jumped 20 feet, 4½ inches in the long jump.

Boster and Klatt stuck with each other in the shot put and discus. Boster holds the top discus throw in Class B at 158-2, though he didn't reach that mark Saturday. He came away with a 148-6. Klatt, nursing a sore hamstring, finished second in the shot put at 44-7.

"We've been working hard all year for this," Keller said. "We got disqualified in the 800-meter relay and we were thinking we might not get it."

The biggest surprise on the day was from a Heart River freshman.

Cade Shypkoski's best jump of the season was 40-0, but that didn't stop him. In fact, he set the bar even higher with a jump of 43-4. The jump leaps him to second in Class B behind event winner Zach Cofer of New Salem-Almont, who went 43-5.

"I didn't really have anything to say," Shypkoski said. "I was all smiles."

Bowman County placed runner-up with 106 points on the wings of juniors Michael Palczewski and Brandon Fischer, senior Tyler Swanke and sophomore Tanner Fischer.

The quartet led the team into a first-place battle with the Cowboys in the final two events on the meet.

"Our running events went really well today," Palczewski said. "We placed really well in the 100 and in the 200 we took first, second and seventh. That helped us with our team scores."

Palczewski currently has the fastest time in the 400 at 50 seconds, but his dreams are to chip away at that time.

"I'm really hoping to break the 50's," Palczewski said. "I'd like to get into the 49s. It's another goal for me. I can't stop there and I always want to raise the bar higher, if I can."

Dickinson Trinity junior Ben Gordon took second place in the javelin (172-0). He tied with Beach senior Jake Hardy on top throw, but Hardy won the tiebreaker. Gordon said going into state meet with the third-best throw is nothing to hang his head about.

"It's whoever had a good day, whoever had a good throw, whoever stays relaxed," Gordon said. "It's up in the air right now. There's about a four feet difference between five of us."

On the girls side, Trinity scored 23 of its 146 points in the 3,200 to win the team title.

"That's what clinched the meet for us," Trinity head coach Craig Kovash said. "Kelli (Pavlicek) and Shannon (Stockert) going one and two is all we needed."

Pavlicek won the event at 13:10.25 and Stockert came in second (13:23.85). Brooke Kuntz and Kara Stegner finished sixth and seventh, respectively.

The Titans added wins in the 1,600 relay (4:23.78) and the pole vault. Trinity added a number of top eight finishes throughout the entire day.

"We had some surprises," Kovash said. "When you have that happen, you can rack up some points pretty quick."

McKenzie Kostelecky won the pole vault, matching her personal-record height of 9-6 that she jumped Wednesday at the Trinity Last Chance Meet. However, Kostelecky believes her best jump will be at the state meet.

"I think at state I'll be able to get 9-9," she said. "I'm so close and I just want to push through it. I know that I can do it."

Bowman County finished runner-up with 123.5 points and its star -- Erika Olson -- was shining.

Olson won the 800, edging Trinity's Katelyn Grinsteinner, and turned around to run in the 200 immediately following the end of the race. It was an exhausting 15 minutes.

"That was tough," she said with a laugh.

Olson was named the Southwest Region Senior Athlete of the Year.

She won the 100 (12.6), 400 (1:02.03) and 800 (2:29.14). She also took second in the 200 (26.53).

"It was my second-to-last meet and I wanted to make it a good one," Olson said. "I'm going to miss track a lot and I wanted to do everything I could."

Olson's main competition was none other than Mott-Regent's Abby Honeyman.

The sophomore went 4-for-4 in her events, winning the 200 (25.82), 100 hurdles (15.11), 300 hurdles (48.71) and triple jump (36-3).

"The competition is really nice, because it gets you ready for state and pushes you a lot, so it's nice to have that competition at regionals," Honeyman said.

Southwest Region Meet

At Badlands Activities Center, Dickinson

Note: Top three in each event qualify for state and state qualify times are noted

Boys

Team scores: Killdeer 119, Bowman County 106, Dickinson Trinity 91.5, Beach 64.5, Mott-Regent 62, Heart River 58.5, Hettinger-Scranton 50.5, Richardton-Taylor 46, Beulah 36, New Salem-Almont 34, Grant County-Flasher 32, Standing Rock-Selfridge 32, Glen Ullin-Hebron 8.

100: 1, Lewis Keller, Killdeer, 11.11 (SQ). 2, Seth Ewoniuk, HR, 11.17 (SQ). 3, Michael Palczewski, BC, 11.28 (SQ). 4, Zach Cofer, NSA, 11.45. 5 (tie), Tyler Swanke, BC, 11.53. 5 (tie), Levi McKitrick, BC, 11.53. 7, Tanner Erickson, Beulah, 11.54. 8, Trenton Alley, Killdeer, 11.6.

200: 1, Michael Palczewski, BC, 22.59 (SQ). 2, Tyler Swanke, BC, 22.59 (SQ). 3, Lewis Keller, Killdeer, 22.73 (SQ). 4, Lewis Dobitz, Killdeer, 22.76 (SQ). 5, Seth Ewoniuk, HR, 22.76 (SQ). 6, Brandon Hill, HS, 23.19 (SQ). 7, Levi McKitrick, BC, 23.44. 8, Zach Cofer, NSA, 23.6.

400: 1, Michael Palczewski, BC, 50.52 (SQ). 2, Lewis Dobitz, Killdeer, 51.52 (SQ). 3, Tyler Swanke, BC, 51.61 (SQ). 4, Bradley Messer, RT, 53.44. 5, Levi McKitrick, BC, 53.46. 6, Gabe White Face, SR, 54.71. 7, Randi Julson, Beulah, 54.96. 8, Logan Schlatter, GUH, 56.47.

800: 1, Elijah Strong Heart, SR, 2:05.41. 2, Paul Gardner, Trinity, 2:05.53. 3, Bradley Messer, RT, 2:10.31. 4, Hunter Lincoln, Killdeer, 2:11.34. 5, Jon Volk, Trinity, 2:16.8. 6, Hunter Lanchbury, BC, 2:19.54. 7, Robert Sauer, GCF, 2:20.54. 8, Conner Swanson, BC, 2:21.39.

1,600: 1, Elijah Strong Heart, SR, 4:49.1. 2, Dylan Gress, Trinity, 4:53.76. 3, Hunter Weinreis, Beach, 4:54.68. 4, Mitchell Meyer, Trinity, 4:56.26. 5, Calvin Aichele, Beulah, 5:10.07. 6, Zack Schmidt, GCF, 5:12.28. 7, Lane Voltz, RT, 5:18.67. 8, Robert Sauer, GCF, 5:18.67.

3,200: 1, Hunter Weinreis, Beach, 10:30.38. 2, Zack Schmidt, GCF, 11:00.29. 3, Calum Blankenship, Killdeer, 11:09.81. 4, Calvin Aichele, Beulah, 11:16.92. 5, Alex Binstock, Trinity, 11:19.79. 6, Dylan Gress, Trinity, 11:23.78. 7, Jacob Kuntz, RT, 11:33.05. 8, Brenden Harrison, SR, 11:43.97.

110 hurdles: 1, Tanner Vesledahl, MR, 16.01 (SQ). 2, Tanner Fischer, BC, 17.18. 3, Logan Haberstroh, MR, 17.4. 4, Tucker Beck, Killdeer, 17.47. 5, Ben Friedt, MR, 18.07. 6, Christian Hughes, HS, 18.48. 7, Calum Blankenship, Killdeer, 18.9. 8, Chad Gullickson, RT, 19.19

300 hurdles: 1, Tanner Vesledahl, MR, 44.12. 2, Logan Haberstroh, MR, 44.98. 3, Tanner Fischer, BC, 45.49. 4, Mark Steiner, MR, 46.93. 5, Ben Friedt, MR, 47.22. 6, Coltyn Nelson, Trinity, 47.83. 7, Chad Gullickson, RT, 49.56. 8, Tanner Sanford, HS, 49.86.

400 relay: 1, HR (Jarek Haverluk, Tyson Kudrna, Cole Hlebechuk, Seth Ewoniuk), 44.96 (SQ). 2, Trinity (Cole Wilhelmi, Mason Heth, Brendin Steiner, Cole Beck), 45.91 (SQ). 3, HS (Dalton Reitz, Justis Caldwell, Stephen Kristy, Brandon Hill), 46.04. 4, Killdeer, 46.88. 5, Beach, 47.19. 6, NSA, 47.51. 7, RT, 47.83. 8, Beulah, 47.93.

800 relay: 1, HS (Kye Erickson, Justis Caldwell, Stephen Kristy, Brandon Hill), 1:38.64. 2, MR (Jacob Greff, Logan Haberstroh, Mark Steiner, Tanner Vesledahl), 1:38.7. 3, Beulah (Tanner Erickson, Randi Julson, Matt Schnable, Matt Krizan), 1:41.5. 4, NSA, 1:44.23. 5, GCF, 1:45.88. 6, BC, 1:47.62. 7, SR, 1:50.64.

1,600 relay: 1, Killdeer (Lewis Dobitz, Lane Oversen, Hunter Lincoln, Tucker Beck), 3:32.94. 2, BC (Tanner Fischer, Levi McKitrick, Tyler Swanke, Michael Palczewski), 3:37. 3, HR (Jarek Haverluk, Tyson Kudrna, Cole Hlebechuk, Dylan Northrop), 3:37.82. 4, Beach, 3:42.14. 5, Trinity, 3:44.07. 6, SR, 3:47.75. 7, Beulah, 3:52.16. 8, RT, 3:55.81.

3,200 relay: 1, HR (Jarek Haverluk, Tyson Kudrna, Cole Hlebechuk, Dylan Northrop), 8:50.64. 2, Trinity (Brady Fettig, Alex Binstock, Cole Wilhelmi, Paul Gardner), 8:57.19. 3, RT (Jared Zent, Lane Voltz, Chad Gullickson, Bradley Messer), 8:59.98. 4, Killdeer, 9:16.85. 5, Beulah, 9:24.71. 6, BC, 9:50.6. 7, Beach, 10:12.3. 8, NSA, 11:04.3.

High jump: 1, Stephen Kristy, HS, 6-2 (SQ). 2, Brandon Fischer, BC, 6-2 (SQ). 3, Nick Klug, Trinity, 5-10. 4, Isaiah Marschner, HR, 5-6. 5 (tie), Carl Muckle, Beach, 5-6. 5 (tie), Justis Caldwell, HS, 5-6. 7 (tie), Jace Kruger, Trinity, 5-4. 7 (tie), Cade Shypkoski, HR, 5-4.

Pole vault: 1, Brandon Fischer, BC, 12-0 (SQ). 2, Brandon Hill, HS, 12-0 (SQ). 3, Mitchell Kovash, Trinity, 11-0. 4, Forrest VanOrmann, RT, 11-0. 5, Mason Heth, Trinity, 11-0. 6, Alex Burke, BC, 10-6. 7, Jace Kruger, Trinity, 10-0. 8, Jordan Allssawi, Beulah, 9-0.

Long jump: 1, Lewis Keller, Killder, 20-4

1/2: Killdeer senior Lewis Keller, middle, finishes ahead of Bowman County junior Michael Palczewski and Heart River junior Seth Ewoniuk to win the boys championship in the 100 meters on Saturday at the Southwest Region track and field meet.

2/2: Mott-Regent sophomore Abby Honeyman leaps to the winning distance of 36 feet, 3 inches in the triple jump. Keller helped the Cowboys to the Southwest Region boys championship. Honeyman won all four of her events.