BRITTON – A strong, persistent wind could not deter athletes from having a memorable day at the Orville Pfitzer Relays track and field meet on Monday.

There were multiple personal record performances throughout the meet.

Leola’s Dustin Wurtz produced a PR by more than four feet in winning the shot put.

“It feels great. I was not supposed to win this,” Wurtz said. “I came into this my PR being 46-6, and I just PRd by five feet.”

The junior said he wasn’t sure how he was able to get a mark of 50 feet, 8 inches throwing in the windy conditions.

“I have no idea,” Wurtz said. “I really don’t know what happened, but I’m glad it happened.”

He said he could tell in warmups that it might be a big day.

“My second warm up throw was right by the 50-line,” Wurtz said, “so I knew it was either going to be a good day or I wasn’t going to able do it again, but I did it again.”

Wurtz later finished second in the discus.

Webster’s Sarah Zubke also had a stellar day, setting a personal record by three inches on the way to winning the high jump.

The freshman said getting off to a good start is crucial in the event.

“I was doing pretty good in the beginning, so it got easier as I was going on.” Zubke said.

Zubke, who cleared 4 feet, 11 inches, said having a positive mindset is one of the keys in the high jump.

“If you don’t think that you’re going to make it over, then you just stutter step,” Zubke said, “you’re just not going to do your best.”

Zubke also won the triple jump, but said there is more of a feeling of accomplishment when getting over the bar in the high jump.

“I’d say high jump now is probably my favorite,” Zubke said.

Aberdeen Christian’s Shawnteah La Croix had a hand in three victories and also a runner-up finish. The sophomore won the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes, and ran a leg on the winning 400-meter relay squad.

La Croix set the tone on her opening leg of the 400 relay, making up the entire stager around the first curve to hand the baton off first.

“Honestly, I thought I did really bad on that. I’m not going to lie,” La Croix said. “That was definitely all God. I was so tired after all my other races, I was ready for a nap.”

Instead, it was La Croix who helped to put that victory to bed as the Knights won the race going away.

While La Croix won a pair of individual events, she takes more satisfaction from relay victories.

“I just feel like it’s more fun to do the relay, because we’re all working together to get the baton around,” La Croix said. “Just seeing each of my friends do good handoffs, see all the work we put in pay off, it’s just really fun.”

La Croix said she didn’t mind the conditions, which featured a 30 mile-per-hour wind with much higher gusts throughout the day.

“It is really tough running against it, but personally I feel like I do better against the wind,” La Croix said, “because I feel like I push myself so much harder against the wind and so it’s just fun. I just like the wind in my face. It’s great.”

Aberdeen Roncalli’s Parker Grieben also thrived in the windy conditions on the way to winning both the 110-meter high hurdles and 300-meter intermediate hurdles.

“You feel it, but you don’t really think about it at all,” Grieben said. “You’re like yeah, it’s windy, but there’s a hurdle coming up. You’ve got to jump it.”

The junior said he would rather be cold than hot, so he was fine with the elements.

“I like this cold weather,” Grieben said. “I don’t like it too hot, so this was nice.”

Grieben was able to outduel teammate Aiden Fisher, who finished second in both hurdles races.

Grieben said the two make each other better.

“It’s great, because it happens in the race and it happens in practice,” Grieben said. “We both just want to beat each other, so it’s just back and forth.”

Tri-State’s Kaleb Foltz continues to have an impressive spring. After breaking the school record in the 400-meter dash last week, the senior won the 800-meter and 1,600-meter runs on Monday, recording a blistering time of 1:57.51 in the 800.

Roncalli’s Rylee Voeller won the discus with a personal best mark of 104 feet, 1 inch.

Grieben’s time in the 110 hurdles was also a nine-second personal record.

The Cavaliers were instructed beforehand not to bring up the elements during the meet.

“I told them on the bus before we got here, I said, I don’t want to hear anything about the wind and I haven’t honestly,” said Roncalli co-head coach Sarah Lux. “They’ve been really good and it must be a mindset that they have. We try to encourage them to embrace the elements.”

The Cavaliers not only embraced the elements, they ended up thriving in them.

“It’s good to see that they’re just fighting through it and still searching for those PRs,” Lux said.

It was also a big day for Christian’s Ali Isakson, who set a personal record in winning the long jump with a leap of 14 feet, 9 3/4 inches.

“Ali Isakson broke her personal best in the long jump. I think she jumped 14-5 before,” said Christian assistant coach Sam Ellyson. “She jumped 14-9 today. That was on her last attempt, so that was nice seeing that.”

Isakson was also a member of the first place 400-meter relay and runner-up 800-meter relay squads.

“We’re trying to get our handoffs down this time of year,” Ellyson said. “In the 4X1 and the 4X2, I think we had seven good handoffs out of eight. Early on in the season, that’s kind of what you want to see.”

Both Roncalli and Christian are scheduled to compete in the Tiger Relays at Ipswich on Saturday.

To see complete results from Monday’s meet, click on the following link:

https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/meet/532460/results/all