The South Dakota State track teams traveled south to Vermillion for the South Dakota Challenge and to Arkansas for the Red Wolf Open.

South Dakota Challenge

Faith Leiseth beat her own record and had the farthest women’s discus throw in school history with a distance of 174-01.50, good for fifth place in the event. She also placed fifth in the shot-put event.

“Faith comes out against a field of women that had their game faces on,” director of track and field Rod DeHaven said. “Everybody was throwing big and (Leiseth) managed to take down a school record and jump over some pretty big names.”

Also placing in the discus event was Mildred Young, who placed 10th with a throw of 167-06.00, which puts her at sixth all-time for SDSU.

Kaylee Edmonds competed in the pole vault competition, placing sixth in the event, and is the new seventh-place holder on the program’s all-time pole vault list.

Collette Wolfe and Lizzy Gillingham both placed in the 100-meter dash. Wolfe placed fourth with a time of 11.89 seconds and Gillingham took 10th at 12.10 seconds.

Wolfe also placed fourth in the 200-meter dash at 24.84 seconds. Finishing 10th in the same event was Ashtyn Bertram, whose time was 25.27 seconds.

Laura Bogue tied for eighth in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1:06.86.

SDSU had three women place in the 800-meter run. Grace Waage placed sixth at 2:18.83. Running a 2:20.21 in the event was Kasey Klocek who took tenth place, and Harley Fischer who grabbed 14th at 2:21.62 seconds.

The Jacks also excelled in the 1,500-meter run. Earning second place was Nicole Geyer running an impressive 4:41.63, followed by fellow Jackrabbit Caitlin Bright, who placed third at 4:43.62. Kayla Christopherson grabbed sixth with the time of 4:51.89, and finishing at 4:56.01 for ninth place was Bailey Dergan. 

On the men’s side, SDSU took four of the top-10 spots in the 100-meter dash. Leading for the Jacks was Daniel Clarke, who placed fifth at 10.56 seconds, followed by Matthew Stahl in seventh with a time of 10.59. Taking eighth was Emmanual Phoulom-Smith in 10.61 seconds, and Evan Henderson placed ninth with a 10.71-second run.

Stahl competed in the 200-meter dash as well, taking third place with a time of 21.30 seconds, with Jake Werner taking 12th at 21.90 seconds. Phoulom-Smith also competed in the same event, taking 13th.

In the 400-meter hurdles, Tegan Bock took sixth in 56.28 seconds for a personal record, with Braxton Karnik also getting his personal record in 57.52 seconds to take ninth place.

In the hammer throw, Dawson Schroeder threw a 185-08.00, which landed him the 10th-place spot and ninth all-time, followed by teammate Hunter Wallster, who took 11th place with a throw of 184-11.00 and 10th all-time.

Finishing fourth in the shot put was SDSU’s Dominick Etherington. Etherington threw the distance of 56-02.75, followed by Schroeder with a 52-00.00 for tenth.

“I think that’s one of those things where he’s a bit frustrated with not having bigger marks,” DeHaven said. “(Etherington) gets that done and hopefully be able to mix it up with some of those throwers at NDSU and USD that are going to be critical when you start looking at the conference championship.”

Tyler Goehring finished with a distance of 44-08.00 landing him fourth in the triple jump.

Red Wolf Open

Trent Francom took second in the pole vault with a height of 17-05.50, with teammate Jaden Peters ending up in 10th with a personal record of 15-05.00.

In the javelin throw, Tristen Hanna placed fifth with a throw of 182-05.00, his new personal record, and fifth all-time in school history. In the triple jump, Hanna took third in the event, jumping the distance of 47-07.25.

Fourth place in the women’s pole vault was Wendy van Nes, who scored a 12-02.00 in the meet.

In the high jump with a clearance of 5-07.00, Addison Eisenbeisz took third place.

Also placing third was Annie Wendt with the jump of 38-06.75 in the triple jump.

Jaiden Boomsma took home first place in the long jump with the leap of 18-11.25, followed by teammate Wendt who stole the fourth spot at 18-06.50.

Boomsma also competed in the 100-meter dash, where she ran an 11.93-second finish and placed in the runner-up spot.

Up next, SDSU will send its athletes to both Des Moines, Iowa for the Drake Relays April 28-30 and to Lawrence, Kansas April 30 for the Rock Chalk Invitational.