Some used opponents, while others used teammates to help bring out their best during the Northern State Invite indoor track and field meet on Tuesday at the Barnett Center.
Groton’s Faith Traphagen won the 800-meter run. Interestingly enough, the senior actually lost track of the number of laps remaining on the way to her victory.
“Personal opinion, I like the five-lap indoor. It feels shorter to me than the two-lap outdoor for some reason,” Traphagen said. “I’m not gonna lie, when I hit that second lap, I thought I was on my third lap. That was like a dagger. I was like, ‘Dang it, I still got another three laps.’ I really thought I was ahead another lap.”
The senior, who will run for the University of Sioux Falls next season, said she actually felt better at the finish than she normally does.
“I felt good. I really did feel better than I normally do. … I was just miscounting in my head,” Traphagen said. “It felt really good. … I had a big kick at the end, and I’ve never really had that kick. I normally lose the last 100.”
While the meet might have been just the start of the season, it managed to bring out the best in Traphagen.
“So I get really stressed out, especially, because it’s my first meet and it goes into athletic.net,” she said, “so to me it still counts.”
Oh, and there was another motivating factor: her younger teammates.
“My biggest goal, I was running against some my younger teammates,” Traphagen said.
She did not want to give the younger runners the satisfaction of beating a senior leader.
“It’s like I don’t care what happens,” Traphagen said, “I just want to beat the younger girls.”
Lucas Johnson of Great Plains Lutheran is chasing a goal this season in the high jump. While he won the event on Tuesday, he said the best is yet to come.
“We kind of eye-balled some of my marks,” Johnson said. “I ended jumping closer to the pit than I wanted, so that’s what happened on the last one, I hit the pit because I was too close.”
Johnson also ran in the 200-meter dash. The junior said he likes field events better.
“A field event you get a break in between all your stuff most of the time,” Johnson said. “A running event is as hard as you can for as long as you can, until you finish or pass out or something.”
Johnson said high jump is more mental than it is physical.
“I would say about 60 is mental and 40 is physical,” Johnson said. “You need to get up there, but you need to clear it in your head first.”
His goal is to clear a height of 6-feet 7-inches this spring.
“My personal best is 6-5,” Johnson said, “so a two-inch increase from last year, but that should be attainable.”
A pair of standout sprinters used each other to help bring out the spirit of combination during the meet.
Breanna Jochim of Herreid-Selby Area edged Shawnteah LaCroix of Aberdeen Christian in the 55-meter dash before LaCroix turned the tables in winning the 200-meter dash.
“Honestly, I loved her being here today,” Jochim said, “because last year I didn’t have a lot of competition and she just helped me push myself.”
Jochim, a junior, recalled last year’s final in the 100-meter dash at the state meet.
“Last year I ran against her at state. We were right side-by-side at about the 50 and then she got me with her top-end speed, because she’s taller than me,” Jochim said. “She’s got a really good top-end speed.”
Like Jochim, LaCroix also likes to be pushed in her races.
“I feel like when I run against people that are faster than me, it obviously helps to push myself more,” LaCroix said, “so I do appreciate that.”
The junior said she tries to concentrate on running her own race instead of focusing on the competition.
“I just kind of focus on my own race most the time,” LaCroix said. “I’m not really aware of everything else that’s going around me.”
Miller’s Pierce Baumberger found plenty of competition in the distance races, mostly from North Dakota. The senior fell behind early before finishing strong in the 1,600-meter run.
“It gives me just more motivation to kick it in, try to catch them,” Baumberger said. “That’s what I was trying to do those last two laps.”
Baumberger said the start of the race featured a quick pace.
“Everyone went out really, really fast, so I was trying to match that,” the senior said. “I didn’t have a great start, so I couldn’t really match that at first, but I caught up to them, and caught them one by one.”
Baumberger, who also competed in the 800-meter run, was pleased his times in the initial meet of the season.
“I had a really good start,” he said, “and I’m excited to see where the rest of the season takes me.”
Christian ran a bit light on the boys’ side as the Knights boys’ basketball team just competed at the facility in the State B basketball tournament a couple of days ago.
“Can’t wait to get the guys, obviously from basketball,” said Christian coach Sam Bjorkman.
The girls had some solid performances, including a runner-up finish in the 1,600-meter relay in addition to LaCroix’s races.
“Good to get them out and running,” Bjorkman said. “They’ve been working hard, a lot of them for the whole off-season, so it’s good to get them in some competition.”
Aberdeen Roncalli also competed in the meet, and like Christian, gave members of the basketball squads a break before heading into track and field competition.
“It’s a blessing to be able to come to an indoor meet,” said Roncalli coach Mark Stone. “It’s not our favorite, we all love outdoor meets more, but imagine if you start practice on March 3, and you don’t go to indoor meets, and the first two weeks of April are bad, then you compete for six weeks with no competition. That’s not good either.”
He said the meet gave the Cavaliers a chance to get out and compete.
“Our goal today was to get kids into an event or two, get an opportunity to compete, participate,” Stone said, “and then we can learn from that, we can grow from that.”
To see meet results, click on the following link:
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