WATERTOWN, S.D. — The Watertown girls track and field team captured three event titles en route to a fourth-place finish at the Eastern South Dakota Conference Meet on Saturday at the Allen Mitchell Athletic Complex.
The Watertown girls accumulated 96.5 points, while the Watertown boys placed seventh with 50 points.
Malia Kranz secured an individual conference championship for the Arrow girls, winning the discus with a throw of 148 feet, 9 inches. Kranz also added an eighth-place finish in the shot put (34-11.5).
Watertown dominated the sprint relays, sweeping both the 4×100 and 4×200 events. The team of Carighan Klatt, Anna Hirtz, Ashlynn Andrews, and Alayna Smith won the 4×100 relay in 48.67 seconds. Klatt, Hirtz, and Smith then teamed up with Brooke Grajczyk to take the 4×200 relay title with a time of 1:42.86.
Smith and Hirtz also delivered strong individual performances in the sprints. Smith placed second in the 100-meter dash (12.01) and third in the 200 (25.23). Hirtz followed closely, taking third in the 100 (12.14) and fifth in the 200 (25.54).
On the distance side, Grace McElroy paced the girls with a third-place finish in the 3,200 meters (11:25.85) and a fourth-place finish in the 1,600 meters (5:15.90). In the field events, Mayla McGhee took third in the high jump (5-4), and Hensley Hogue placed third in the pole vault (11-0).
The Watertown boys were led by a busy day on the track from Dane Stark, who earned three top-eight finishes. Stark placed second in the 800 meters with a time of 1:57.66, took third in the 1,600 meters (4:40.02), and added an eighth-place finish in the 3,200 meters (10:05.17).
The Arrow boys found significant success in the pole vault, where Charlie Whiting finished as the conference runner-up with a vault of 14-6, and Asher Young placed third at 14-0.
Mason Iverson and Marrik Engels cleared identical heights of 6-1 in the high jump to finish fourth and fifth, respectively.
Other top performers for the Watertown girls included Allison Konrad, who took sixth in the shot put (35-5.5) and seventh in the discus (111-8); Shauna Evenson, who placed sixth in the triple jump (35-4.5); Grajczyk, who finished seventh in the 100 hurdles (15.69); Jordan Remmers, seventh in the javelin (105-8); Reese Munger, sixth in the high jump (4-10); and Makenna Blank, eighth in the long jump (16-6.5).
Rounding out the top performances for the boys were Jonas Geier, who placed sixth in the javelin (151-0); Kye Paulson, seventh in the long jump (19-9.75); Nathan Esche, seventh in the triple jump (39-1.75); and the 4×100 relay team of Holton Schutt, Noah Dagel, Dominic Zaug, and Tyson Miller, which finished seventh in 44.88 seconds.
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