BROOKINGS – The Aberdeen Central track and field squads combined to win three events and finish second in three others during the Ruth Marske Invitational indoor track and field meet in Brookings on Monday.

Ciara Frank won the high jump with a leap of 5-feet 4-inches, while Breckan Santjer won the pole vault at 9-6 to help lead the Golden Eagles to fourth place in the girls’ team points.

While Central girls’ coach Jim Appl was pleased with the top four finish, that wasn’t his main concern.

“That’s not our goal. Our goal has nothing to do with any of that right now,” Appl said. “Our goal was let’s set a mark and work on improving and go on from there.”

The Central boys’ 1,600-meter relay team finished off the meet by beating the field in a time of 3:30.32. Members were Aiden Heimman, Gabe Johnson, Carter Dingman and Drew Salfrank. The Golden Eagles were seventh in the boys’ team points with 38.

“It’s always nice to finish a meet on the award stand with the winning 4X4 relay,” said Central boys’ Greg Murley. “I think we had a great showing for our first meet with experienced athletes earning some great times and places, and young athletes competing hard and earning experience at a big meet.”

Madison Hochstetter was second in the 100-meter hurdles and Juna Ramey was second in the 3,200-meter run. Frank was third in the long jump, and Regan Lust finished fourth in the high jump.

As expected the Central girls excelled in the field events. Appl praised his assistant coaches and the athletes.

“That’s a combination of coaching and kids, understanding each other and understanding what to do when we’re indoors,” Appl said.

Appl noted that Central is still behind other schools which have had the opportunity to go outside and train.

“We’re still far behind when it comes to that stuff,” Appl said. “I thought we did a nice job overall competing with those kids.”

Heimann was second in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles, and fourth in the 110-meter high hurdles. Salfrank was fourth in the 400-meter dash and Dingman fifth.

“Aiden Heimann competed well in both hurdle events. All of our quarter miles put up some nice beginning times today,” Murley said. “Field events also went well with Ethan Fergel vaulting 11-6, Brian Johnson throwing well, and freshman Tyler Bain jumping at 6-0.”

Central will have mostly JV athletes competing at a meet at the Barnett Center today, before heading back to Brookings on Saturday for the Steve Berseth ESD Invitational indoor meet.

“It was a good day for these kids to get out and compete,” Appl said. “It was just fun watching them compete, and now we have a mark and we can improve on it this Saturday.”

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

https://results.dakotatiming.com/display.html?event_id=1112