SISSETON – Milbank won both championships at the Northeast Conference track and field meet on Thursday. Webster finished second in the boys’ division, while Groton was runner-up in the girls. Aberdeen Roncalli took third place in boys.

“It was a fun day,” said Roncalli co-coach Brady Lesnar.

A pair of athletes won three open events and ran on a winning relay.

Hamlin’s Zac VanMeetern and Milbank’s Siera Wenzl each won the 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash, 400-meter dash, and ran on first place relay squads.

Roncalli won the boys’ 3,200-meter relay with a team comprised of Paul Gutenkauf, Aiden Fisher, Ben Bradley, and Joe Perkins. The Cavaliers were also second in the boys’ 1,600-meter relay.

Meanwhile, the Roncalli girls foursome of Addison Cassady, Hazel Kannegieter, Sarah Schmidt, and Paige Schmidt were second in the sprint medley, third in the 3,200 and fourth in the 1,600.

Lesnar noted that the boys’ 3,200-meter relay team had an 11-second improvement and the girls’ 3,200 squad dropped 25 seconds off its previous best time.

“They both got themselves in the top 24 which is really nice to see and same for the 4X4s,” Lesnar said.

Lesnar said that Cassady ran strong legs on each of those three relays.

Perkins was runner-up in the 1,600 and 3,200 to Milbank’s Payton Brown, who clocked a 1:56.76 in the 1,600.

“Payton Brown had a fantastic meet,” Lesnar said. “Our guys were hanging right there with him.”

Parker Grieben was second in both hurdles races to Milbank’s Emmett Hanson.

Lesnar also talked about a couple of younger members of the girls’ team. Eighth-grader Gabby Thomas was second in the long jump, while seventh-grader Kadince Glynn placed in the 100 and 200, and was third in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles with a quality time.

“As seventh grader, she’s only about two seconds away from being in the top 24,” Lesnar said of Glynn, “which is really cool for her second time ever running it.”

Roncalli also had three of the top five spots in the boys’ pole vault with Beau Price second, Matthew Peterson third, and Isaac Price fifth.

Other athletes who won a pair of open events included Hamlin’s Cristhian Rodriguez in the discus and javelin, Sisseton’s Chloe Langer in the shot put and discus, and Shayne Fritz of Hamlin in the long jump and triple jump.

After losing multiple meets because of the weather, Roncalli has a full week ahead. The Cavaliers will be at Hamlin on Monday, send a few athletes to the Aberdeen Central Field Event meet and the Warner meet on Tuesday, and then head to Webster on Thursday.

“It’s a busy week, but this is only our fifth meet we’ve had today,” Lesnar said, “and we’ve just got to get them in and give the kids opportunities.”

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

https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/meet/550123/results/all