Gage Mintken of Hay Springs dominated the D-8 District track meet yesterday, qualifying for events at state with 3 firsts and a 2nd.
Mintken won the LJ, TJ, and 100 while finishing 2nd in the 200. He’ll be joined at state by teammates Parker Wellnitz, who won the 1600 and 3200, and and Mason Albrecht, who was 2nd behind Wellnitz in the 16. Albrecht was also a non-qualifying 4th in the LJ, 5th in the 800, and 8th in the 400.
Hay Springs is also sending 2 girls to state, one of them in 2 events. Alaina Raymer won the TJ and placed 2nd in the LJ while Reese Varvel placed 2nd in the 100.Â
Each also came close in other events. Varvel was 3rd in the 200 and the TJ and 4th in the LJ while Raymer was 3rd in the 100 HH and 6th in the 300 hurdles.
Crawford is sending 1 boy and 4 girls to state. The lone qualifier for the boys is 800 runner-up Taylor Homan while the Lady Rams have 800 champion Kiera Brennan, 300-hurdles runner-up Keslyn Vogel, and the winning 3200 relay team of Vogel, Brennan, Kyler Gortsema, and Peyton Osmotherly – who also placed a non-qualifying 3rd in the 4×400 relay.
Victoria Turbiville was the only athlete from Sioux County to place in any event and she did it twice while earning a trip to state by taking 2nd in both the shot put and discus.Â
Others scoring team points with Top 8 finishes for Crawford on the boys side were Payton Horan, who was 6th in the 400 and 7th in the 800, Fayt Anderson, 6th in the 3200, Abi Munoz-Salazar, 6th in the HJ, and Gunner Lemmon, 8th in both the shot and discus.
Additional scoring for the Lady Rams in individual events were Kyler Gortsema, 6th in the 100, Haley Horan, 8th in the 400, Tomi Reid, 5th in the 800, and Kember Mittan, 4th in the 3200 and 6th in the 800. Elianah Summers and Tianna Clark joined Horan and Brennan on the 2nd place 4×100 relay team.