BROOKINGS – It continues to be a stellar spring for Josh Martin.

The Aberdeen Central senior distance ace has already set three records in his first two indoor meets to start the season, including a pair at the Eastern South Dakota Conference meet in Brookings on Saturday.

Martin established new meet marks in the 1,600-meter run and 600-meter run.

“I really wanted to go for the mile, so I’m pretty happy with the mile, beat my PR by a second,” Martin said of his time of 4:23.03. “And then the 600 was new for me, so I was kind of nervous going into it, but I think I did pretty good.”

Martin overcame a bit of a slow start to win that event in a time of 1:25.95.

“The first guy kind of smoked me on the first 300,” Martin said. “I didn’t know if I was going to catch back up.”

Martin then concluded his day by winning the 3,200-meter run in dominating fashion.

Other top finishers for the Central boys included Aiden Heimann who was second in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles, third in the 60-meter hurdles, and ran a leg on a third-place relay squad.

Central boys’ coach Greg Murley pointed out contributions from a variety of athletes.

“Our high jumpers are pretty young and they really had a nice day,” Murley said. “Just a lot of improvement across the board.”

Brady Rohrbach placed in both throws for the Eagles on the day.

“Both the discus and shot came around today and just a lot of really good things happened,” Murley said.

While the Eagles finished third in team points, they competed without some of their top athletes due to injury.

Murley said it is early in the season and things will look much different when the outdoor ESD meet takes place in May.

“Come ESD time, there’s no secret,” Murley said. “We’re going to run Sam (Rohlfs) in four events. We’re going to run Drew (Salfrank) in four events. We’re going to run Carter Dingman. We’re going to run a list of about 10 guys in four events and we’re going to give it all we’ve got, and no one did that today.”

The Central girls, who were shorthanded due to ACT testing, were also third in team points led by their efforts off the track.

“Field events we had a really good day,” said Central girls’ coach Jim Appl. “Like shot and discus we placed two in each which was a great feeling today. Ciara Frank did a really nice job in the high jump and long jump, gets a couple of places for us there. We got a place in the pole vault as well, a place or two there, so that’s a good day for us.”

Frank finished fourth in both the high jump and long jump. The sophomore is right about where her top marks have been in the past.

“I was just pleased to make it to marks that I had before and improve a little bit on my form,” Frank said.

While jumping takes athleticism and technique, Frank said having the right frame of mind is also crucial.

“I feel it’s about half and half,” Frank said of the split between mental and physical. “You have to have the right mindset and just believe that you can do it in order to actually be able to.”

Although the season is just getting underway, Frank likes the way things have gone so far.

“This is definitely an amazing start to my season,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting it, but I’m happy with the way it turned out.”

Taryn Hermansen finished third in the shot put, and the Eagles also received a pair of third-place finishes on the track from Gracie Rife in the 100-meter dash and Sadie Struble in the 300-hurdles.

“We ended up with some fifth and sixths in the middle distance races which is good to see, so we’re making progress from last week and that’s all we can ask,” Appl said. “When we are so young and so inexperienced on the track, just making progress is what we’re focused on. We’re going to make progress, we’re going to have some fun, and we’re going to go from there.”

Central is scheduled to compete in its first outdoor meet of the season at Pierre on Tuesday before heading to Huron on Friday.

To see complete meet results, click on the following link:

https://results.dakotatiming.com/display.html?event_id=901