WARNER – It had been a long time coming, but a track and field meet once again took place in Warner.

Athletes found the remodeled facilities to their liking on the way to recording victories during the Dial-A-Move Last Chance meet on Tuesday.

Faulkton’s Savanna Hayes won the shot, discus, and javelin events on the day. She enjoyed the surroundings of the shot put, nestled in between a row of trees on each side.

“It was really nice,” Hayes said. “I love everything they have going on right here; good area.”

Hayes talked about the key to her win in the shot put.

“It’s just technique,” she said, “just being able to put your arms the right way, and keeping a mindset the whole time.”

The senior took a lead into the finals and then briefly fell to second place after a solid throw by Northwestern’s Ana Ratigan. However, Hayes climbed right back into the lead on her next throw to win the event.

Hayes said Ratigan’s throw motivated her on the winning attempt.

“You just have to stay on your toes the whole time,” Hayes said.

While the majority of the athletes were experiencing the surroundings for the first time, it was a familiar feeling for Warner senior Hunter Cramer, who practices at the facility all the time.

Cramer won the 110-meter high hurdles as well as the javelin.

“It’s fun,” Cramer said. “It’s real nice to be at home, too.”

Cramer said that technique is a key in both the hurdles and the javelin, but his mindset is a bit different.

“The hurdles, that’s more of a technique thing, javelin is too, but I have no technique,” Cramer said. “Javelin is more of a mess around, have fun type deal.”

Footwork is also a crucial element in both, according to Cramer.

“It’s a lot of practice. You just don’t want to think about it too much,” Cramer said. “You starting thinking about it, it will get in your head and it could go downhill.”

Footwork is also a big part of the triple jump, where Northwestern’s Ty Boekelheide continues to have a banner season. The freshman won the event on Tuesday, and just missed a personal record on an attempt where he was slightly past the board.

“On that scratch, it felt like it was a really good jump,” Boekelheide said. “I thought I might hit 43 (feet), but I was really discouraged when I saw there was a scratch.”

Boekelheide then had an attempt where he failed to complete his run through, before finishing with a pair of solid jumps. He said the event, which includes multiple jumps, takes a lot of technique as well as mental toughness.

“The technique is a really big part of triple jump. It’s probably one of the most technical events. You don’t want to get hurt or injured. If you jump too far on one phase, you might not have as good of a second phase,” Boekelheide said. “It’s really difficult to come from scratching one and not even being close to the board, and then having to do this technical thing. The mental aspect is huge.”

Interestingly enough, Boekelheide doesn’t compete in the long jump and he explained why.

“I have a long legs, so it’s good for the triple jump, but then for long jump it’s a lot more like the sprinting part of it, and I’m a distance runner,” Boekelheide said, “so I feel like triple jumping is easier for me.”

It wasn’t very long ago that Aberdeen Christian’s Shawnteah La Croix wasn’t a long jumper, either. That changed about 10 days ago and now the sophomore has the second best distance in Class B in the event.

“I literally haven’t practiced at all,” said La Croix, who won the long jump on Tuesday. “I’ve only come to meets and just done it, so there’s a lot of things I need to work on.”

She has picked up a few tips from her teammates Ali Isakson and Maggie Fites, who are also long jumpers.

“I can see what they’re doing, how they’re landing and how they’re starting and stuff,” La Croix said, “to get a little pointers on what I should be doing.”

Now, La Croix plans on competing in the long jump at the state meet next week. She knows she can improve on her form and landing in her new-found event.

“I just really have to work on form, obviously,” La Croix said. “I just need to get out to a track and just practice, because I haven’t really done any practice, so I just really need to do that.”

La Croix is still a sprinter at heart. She also won the 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash and ran on a wining relay.

Athletes who won two open events on the day included Leola’s Dustin Wurtz in the shot put and discus, and Northwestern’s Ella Boekelheide in the 400-meter dash and 800-meter run.

Roncalli’s Joe Perkins won the 3,200-meter run.

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

https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/meet/560138/results/all