On Friday, May 26, LHS varsity track athletes began a memorable weekend at the State track meet. The first day of the weekend-long meet was held in Brandon, SD, while the second day moved to Howard Wood Field. Going into the weekend of the final meet, both the boys and girls sides were undefeated in all team scored meets for the second year in a row, but they wanted to continue their success and go a full two seasons unbeaten. At the end of Saturday’s 4×4 relays, both LHS teams accomplished just that, winning back-to-back state titles.

The first day of the meet proved to be as exciting as advertised, as both LHS teams came out on top of the standings after about half of the events were scored. For the boys, Gabe Peters got second in the 800 and won the 3200, Collin Brison placed first in the preliminary rounds of the 200, Malik Redd placed second in the triple jump, David Bizimana got third, Eric Looby won the long jump and Henry Klitzke placed third in the 3200. For the girls, Caroline Sudbeck placed third in the 800, Jade Thomas placed eighth in prelims for the 100, Liz Bindert got fifth in the 800, both Josephine Dal and Ryley Heier made it to Saturday’s finals in both the 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles, as well as many other impressive performances from the LHS athletes heading into day two. Heier also won the triple jump and placed second in the long jump. LHS also had all of their relays on both the boys and girls sides place into finals for Saturday, unlike many other schools that failed to earn points from relays.

LHS came into the second day of the state meet in the lead of the standings on both boys and girls. Since all of the races were finals, some of them came down to the wire, making it for a very interesting day. With the meet at Howard Wood Field, events started at 9:30 a.m. with the girls 100 hurdles. Heier placed third and Dal placed fourth in both the 100 hurdle finals and the 300 hurdle finals. Heier was named field MVP after her performances the previous day in the triple jump and long jump. The Pats got impressive performances from Collin Brison as well, winning gold in the 100, 200, 4×1 and 4×2 en route to earning the MVP of the meet. LHS continued their distance dominance, claiming both 1600 titles with Gabe Peters and Courtney Klatt, with other LHS athletes placing in the top eight as well. Many other athletes earned points for LHS, as it was an all-around effort to take home both state titles.

At the end of the day, LHS took home both boys and girls state championship trophies, multiple relay championship awards, combined team champions and two MVP awards. For full results or to see certain event winners, go to: http://m.timerhub.com/eddea82ad2755b24c4e168c5fc2ebd40.html#_event_index

Overall, it was a great weekend for Patriot athletics and LHS as a whole. With the wins for the boys and the girls track teams following a great weekend and state championship from the boys tennis team, LHS has secured the KELO Cup for 2017. This is the fourth consecutive year the Patriots have taken home the cup symbolizing the best all-around athletic program in the state.

Come celebrate with your LHS track teams with a ceremony in the gym at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

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