Sara Kraft (Photo by Noah Clooten)
The Devils Lake boys’ and girls’ track and field teams came in first and second, respectively, in the Clark and Shaaron Lloyd Memorial held Tuesday in Fessenden.
The boys finished first out of 12 teams with a team score of 301. The girls placed second out of 14 teams with a score of 210.
New Rockford-Sheyenne also performed well, finishing fourth on both the boys’ and girls’ side. The Benson County girls placed third, while the Benson County boys came in fifth. The North Star boys and girls also participated and came in 12th and 13th, respectively.
Rugby was the only team to beat the Devils Lake girls, with a score of 331.
Girls’ meet
Devils Lake sophomore Sara Kraft continued to add events to her list of state qualifiers. She placed second out of 74 runners in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.77, which tied Emily Black for the school record. She also qualified for state in the 4×100 and 4×200 relays, alongside Ella Wass, Siri Bryce Volk and Raeleigh Myklebust. They posted a time of 51.91 in the 4×100 and 1:49.93 in the 4×200.
That makes five events that Kraft has qualified in already. She’d previously qualified in long jump and 100-meter hurdles.
Kraft also won the triple jump on Tuesday with a 32-10.00.
Junior Aubrie Lebrun placed second in the 400-meter dash, while freshman Dottie Goss placed second in the 1600-meter dash. Sophomore April Miller and eighth-grader Emily Kraft came in fifth and eighth, respectively, out of 45 contestants in the long jump.
For the third-place Benson County girls, junior Aubrey Kenner placed second in the 800-meter dash with a time of 2:32.30. It was her season record but not her personal record. She also came in fifth in the 300-meter hurdles.
Freshman Addisyn Faul placed third in the 300-meter hurdles, fourth in the 100-meter hurdles and ninth out of 74 runners in the 100-meter dash.
Kenner and Faul previously qualified for state in the 300-meter hurdles.
Junior Kale Williams won the pole vault with a score of 8-00.00. Senior Shayna Gossen placed third in the long jump with a 14-09.50.
Junior Haley Scevers and freshman Lacie Fautsch placed second and third, respectively, in the discus. Scevers also came in fifth in the javelin, while sophomore Kaitlyn Maddock placed eighth in the javelin out of 42 contestants. Fautsch also placed third in the shot put.
For the fourth-place NR-S girls, sophomore Emmie Belquist qualified for state in the 100-meter dash with a fourth-place time of 13.02. She also qualified in the 100-meter hurdles (16.26, third place) and 300-meter hurdles (47.90, second place). The 4×100 relay team of Belquist, Neecie Swart, Ava Peterson and Jaida Schumacher also qualified, posting a time of 52.35 and coming in third place.
Belquist has qualified in five events so far this season.
Schumacher also placed second in the 200-meter dash, while Peterson finished second in the javelin.
For the 13th-place North Star girls, senior Jorie Ahlberg placed sixth in the long jump, 16th in the 200-meter dash and 24th in the 100-meter dash. Her younger sister, seventh-grader Genevieve Ahlberg, placed eighth in the 200 and third in the 400-meter.
Boys’ meet
The Firebirds won the boys’ competition, led by Adam Sobolik, Oliver Wirth and Zane Bennett, among others.
Sobolik, a senior, won the 400-meter dash out of 27 runners with a time of 52.66. It was his season record, but not his personal. He also placed second in the 200-meter dash and 300-meter hurdles, along with being a part of the first-place 4×400 relay team (alongside Noah Azure, Bennett and Grant Quam).
Wirth, also a senior, won the high jump with a six-foot jump. He already qualified for state in the high jump earlier in the season. He also placed fourth in the 200-meter and seventh in the 100-meter.
Bennett, a sophomore, won the 800-meter dash with a time of 2:09.79 and the 1600-meter with a 4:46.43. He also placed second in the pole vault.
Senior Joel Nelson placed second in the shot put with a throw of 46’7’’. He also came in fourth in the 800-meter dash, third in the high jump and seventh in the javelin. Quam placed second in the high jump.
Sophomore Aiden Ackerman won the 3200-meter dash and placed sixth in the 1600-meter. Azure finished fourth in the 1600-meter.
For the fourth-place NR-S boys, senior Porter Granger had a big day. He recorded a 22-foot long jump to not only come in first place and qualify for state but break a school record, passing the likes of Deng Deng and Bo Belquist.
Granger also won the 100-meter and 200-meter dash. He, Koy Zeiman, Bennett Meier and Easton Benz won the 4×100 relay as well, posting their season-best time of 45.07.
Benz and Meier placed sixth and 10th, respectively, in the 100-meter. Freshman Aiden Jackson came in ninth in the 400-meter. Eighth-grader Gabe Smith placed second in the 3200-meter. Junior Francis Belille placed fourth in the shot put, while senior Kage Walford and Belille placed sixth and seventh, respectively, in the discus. Walford also came in second in the javelin, while Zieman placed fourth in the triple jump and Meier fifth in the high jump.
For the fifth-place Benson County boys, senior Holdyn Jacobson placed second in the 800-meter and 1600-meter.
Senior Carter Engebretson once again won the shot put; he’d already qualified for state in the event and broke the Benson County co-op record in the process. He also won the discus with a personal-record 139-11.
Grant Engebretson won the pole vault, and placed second in the long jump and sixth in the triple jump.
For the 13th-place North Star boys, freshman Brian Kurtti placed fourth in the 110-meter hurdles and eighth in the 300-meter hurdles.
The Devils Lake track teams are back in action Thursday in the Shanley Invitational and then Tuesday in the Fargo North High Five Invitational. NR-S competes in the Hanneman Memorial on Friday and then the Darwin Gorder Maroon & White Invitational on Tuesday.
Benson County has the VCSU HS Open on Thursday and the Fargo Elite Meet on Saturday, then continues on to the Peace Garden Conference Invite on Tuesday. North Star has three meets in three days: the Langdon Invite Varsity on Thursday, Bottineau Varsity Meet on Friday and Fargo Elite Meet on Saturday. The Bearcats will also be in Tuesday’s Peace Garden Conference Invite.
