The South Dakota State men’s track team won the title, while the women finished third at the Jim Emmerich Invite Saturday at the Sanford-Jackrabbit Athletic Complex.

There were also impressive individual performances, as many athletes finished on the podium and broke personal and school records.

“I think we competed with a lot of grit,” coach Rod DeHaven said. “Times and marks and all that are going to come as kids get in better condition. I think we competed really hard and we had some really good stuff and I think that is all you can ask for this time of year.”

Men:

The South Dakota State Men’s team narrowly took first in the meet by beating North Dakota State by four and a half points (123-118.5).

Thailan Hallman, Pierre Lear, Reggie Slaba and Reid Pierzinski put their names in the Jackrabbit history book with a 3 minute and 14.40-second finish in the 4×400 which not only won the competition but was also the fastest 4×400 time in Jackrabbit history.

“We’ve had the bodies in the past but just never really aligned perfectly, but on Saturday it did,” DeHaven said.

Luckily for Lear, it wasn’t his only first-place finish of the meet. The Brandon native took first in the 60-meter dash with a time of 8.01, only .05 seconds before Augustana runner Lawrence Lokonobei.

Emmanual Phoulom-Smith finished with a 6.85-second run in the 60-meter dash, good for sixth in school history and fourth overall in that event. He also got the sixth-fastest time in the 200-meter dash, and teammate Pierzinski ran a 21.75, which got him in third place for the meet and fifth all-time in Jackrabbit history.

Hallman, Slaba, Jeremiah Donahoe, Joey Anders and AJ Josephson all recorded new personal bests with Hallman taking third place at 48.55 seconds while the others followed behind with ninth, 12th, 13th and 18th respectively.

In long distance, Daniel Burkhalter earned bronze in the mile at 4:05.62 while Ben Olson placed seventh closely behind him at 4:07.37, personal records for both runners.

The Jacks also owned the 3,000-meter run with three top-five finishers in the event. Joseph Minor-Williams took first place with a time of 8:15.47 while Olson again finished closely behind, only .63 of a second behind him, placing second at 8:16.10. Max Selbach earned the fifth spot at 8:18.91 minutes.

Tom Breuckman placed ninth at 8:24.87, followed by a 13th-place finish at 8:26.49 by Will Lohr and a 14th-place finish from Kyle Nordling.

Tristin Hanna claimed the bronze in the triple jump at 45-05.00. Tre Manning took second place in the long jump at 23-00.00. Also competing in the long jump was Tyler Goehring who placed 11th with a 20-09.25 jump. Matthew Katz finished fourth in the pole vault with a 15-09.00 jump.

Hunter Wallster’s 63-02.00 throw in the weight throw not only earned him third in the meet but sixth all-time. Joining him in fourth place was Dominick Etherington, who also had a personal best throw of 60-03.25. Etherington also took bronze in the shot put with a throw of 58-11.50.

Women:

The women’s track team finished third at the meet with 108.5 points behind division rivals South Dakota (224 points) and North Dakota State (118).

Jaiden Boomsma placed second in the 60-meter dash, running in 7.59 seconds. Brielle Dixon took fifth place in the event, at 7.79 seconds while Ashtyn Bertram took sixth in 7.82 seconds.

Dixon also ran in the 60-meter hurdles where her 8.52 put her in fourth place in the meet and second place all time. Taking seventh in the same event was Savannah Risseeuw in 8.81 seconds.

The Jacks took nearly half of the top 11 spots in the women’s 400-meter dash. Leading the charge was Lauren Van Dyke who took fourth in 56.54 seconds, followed up by Cerington Jones at sixth in 57 seconds and Jenna Johnson at seventh, who ran a 57.59 with Erika Kuntz and  Hannah Whitbread taking ninth and 11th respectively.

Sophomore Laura Bogue took fifth place in the 600-meter run with a time of 1:39.26 and a new personal record.

Holding the second and third places in the event were Grace Waage, who clocked in at 2:15.24, and Tori Glazier, who ran a 2:16.05 in the 800-meter run.

For the 3,000-meter run, taking sixth and seventh place respectively was Mya Kizer and Nicole Greyer. Kizer ran a 10:00.01 while teammate Greyer finished at 10:00.23.

Taking third in the 4×400 was runners Johnson, Jones, Van Dyke and Whitbread with a three-minute and 47.72 second-place finish.

Next up:

South Dakota State will steer its way north to Grand Forks, North Dakota, for the UND Open Jan. 27 and 28.