IPSWICH – The Ipswich Tigers defended their Lake Region Conference track and field championships on Tuesday and found some points in a new fashion.

The Tigers scored 205 points to roll to the boys’ team championship. Warner was second. Aberdeen Christian tied for fourth. Ipswich scored 173 points to win the girls’ crown. Northwestern was runner-up and Christian was fifth.

The Tigers got a boost in the boys’ division when junior Colby Sylte won the long jump in his first appearance in the event since eighth-grade.

“I haven’t long jumped since middle school,” Sylte said. “My first jump was messed up. I ended up jumping off my opposite foot and scratched that. Second jump I jumped a 20-4 1/2, then my third jump I jumped a 20-foot 10-inches jump.”

That distance was not only good enough to capture first place in the event, it is currently the fifth best jump in Class B this season. Sylte is no stranger to jumping, having competed in the triple jump the past few years. He gave up the long jump a while back to help the Tigers in the triple jump.

“I don’t know if it was because we already had like three guys that were going to beat me (in the long jump) so I wasn’t going to really do anything,” Sylte said, “and we haven’t had a lot of actually good people in triple jump, so I was like I might as well go over there and see if I can do something.”

Sylte is also one of the team’s top sprinters and is a mainstay on Ipswich relay teams, including the 400-meter team that broke a meet record on Tuesday.

He said he feels much more relaxed in individual events.

“Jumping for me, it’s not as stressful really, because I can just kind of do it as my own thing. It’s the same thing with open events. I’m not as stressed out,” Sylte said. “But with our relays, I get really full of adrenaline just because I’ve got more people at risk. So I kind of get a little more worried about that.”

Ella Boekelheide of Northwestern won the 800 and 1,600 meter runs and also ran on a winning relay team.

The eighth-grader, who got way out in front during the 1,600, is constantly looking at her watch to know if she is on the right pace.

“It’s really about the splits. You have to make sure you hit the splits, even if nobody is by you,” Boekelheide said. “That’s what keeps me going, because if I come around and run fast, that means I still have to keep going. It doesn’t mean slack off, it means to keep going.”

Boekelheide said it could be misleading just to pay attention to other runners when the race starts.

“They could go really fast the first lap and I don’t need to be running my race off of them,” Boekelheide said. “I need to be running it off of how I feel.”

The defending State B cross country champion has the best times in Class B this spring in both the 1,600 and 3,200 races. She is undecided which one she likes better.

“I go back and forth,” Boekelheide said. “I used to not like the two mile as much, but I think I’m starting to like it, just because I know how to run it better. I know how to get my strategy better.”

Colton Spitzer of Leola won the shot put and finished second in the discus behind Ipswich’s Zach Geditz. The two have had a friendly competition in both events the past couple of seasons.

“There’s a lot of similarities,” Spitzer said of himself and Geditz. “We’re both tall, lanky, strong. We’re both in multiple sports. I guess that plays a big role in it.”

Spitzer said there is a big difference when it comes to technique between the shot put and discus. He said he likes the shot put better.

“One person told me once, it’s dumb strength,” Spitzer said. “While I happen to agree sometimes, I like it.”

Spitzer has his goals set on qualifying for the final flight at this year’s state meet. He figures it will take a throw of 48 feet to make the cut. He was just short of that on Tuesday winning the event with a throw of 47-feet 9 1/2-inches.

“I’m right there,” Spitzer said. “I’m real happy with that.”

The senior said there is still room for improvement despite his career being down to the final two weeks.

“There’s always ways to improve, it’s just doing it in a ring,” Spitzer said. “Doing it in practice and in a ring are completely different.”

There was a battle in the girls’ high jump between a pair of regular rivals as well.

Frederick’s Sofia Losure won the event in a jump-off against Gracie Lange of Ipswich.

“I did not know these were a thing until now,” Losure said of the tie-breaking procedure. “This has never happened to me before.”

Losure competes in a variety of events from sprint races to distance events in addition to jumping.

The sophomore said there is one common thread that is key to all of the events.

“I would definitely say the mental toughness, because even in a 400 that last 100 is really hard,” Losure said. “In the two-mile that last mile is really hard and then in the high jump once you get up to those really tough heights, it’s mostly mental.”

Losure said the event she enjoys the most is the open quarter

“I really like the 400. I would say that’s my favorite,” Losure said. “I like that it’s long enough that I can kind of outlast some of the really short sprinters, but it’s not too long that I’m totally dead inside.”

There were numerous multiple individual winners on the day. In the girls’ division Northwestern’s Jessica Boekelheide won the 100, 200 and 400 meter dashes, and Ipswich’s Marley Guthmiller won both hurdles races and the pole vault. In the boys’ division Ty Kadlec of Ipswich won the 100 and 200, and Ipswich’s Carter Geditz won both hurdles races.

Aberdeen Christian had multiple first-place finishes. Abe Kretchman started off the meet by winning the triple jump with a leap of 39-feet 8-inches.

“The kids really seemed to feed off of Abe Kretchman’s early win in the triple jump where he hit another best of the year,” said Knights coach Sam Bjorkman. “That started off the meet right and he went on to hit an all-time best (20-7 1/4) in the long jump as well.”

Christian had two individual winners in the girls’ division as Ruth Hulscher won the discus and Rachel Beaner won the 3,200-meter run.

Christian also won a pair of girls’ relay races. The Knights won the 800-meter relay. Members included Joy Rohrbach, Shawnteah La Croix, Payton Skarin and Ali Isakson. Christian also won the 3,200 relay with a squad comprised of Grace Steger, Grace Kaiser, Katie Steger and Beaner.

Holden Bartel finished second in the boys’ 3,200 with a personal best.

In the sprints, La Croix was second in both the 100 and 200, while the boys’ 400 and 800 relay teams and the girls’ 400 relay team, all had season-best and school-record times.

“The Lord gave us a beautiful day to compete,” Bjorkman said, “and everyone on the team did exceptionally well.”

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

https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/meet/472756/results/all