Bismarck boys amass 200 points at state

State Meet Highlights

 
The North Dakota A and B Championships take place at the Bismarck Community Bowl and there were strong performances in both divisions. While a number of state meet records tumbled, the Bismarck girls broke an all-time state record in the 4x200, Lauren Gietzen broke the all-time pole vault record, and Lexy Wittmayer tied the all-time best in the high jump. Soaring temperatures reached 88 degrees, which had an effect on the distance races.

Top Performances:

 
- Lexy Wittmayer, a 6-2 sophomore from Rolette-Wolford, cleared a personal best 5-10 in the B high jump and needed all of it to defeat Vanessa Johnson of Northern Cass, who went 5-8.

 
- Lauren Gietzen of Century won the Class A pole vault with 12-5, and improvement on Kelsey Aide's 2006 mark of 12-4 as the all-time state best.

 
- Landon Jochim of Century was the state's undisputed top sprinter and won the 100 in 10.89, the 200 in 21.58 and the 400 in 47.84. He also anchored the Century 4x400 to a victory in 3:21.00. Everything but the 100 was a state meet record and his 400 was just a whisker shy of the all-time state best 47.80 of Blake Bowers (2006).

 
- Brittany Brownotter of Bismarck capped her career with four victories in Class A. She won the 800 in 2:18.72, the 1600 in 5:03.29 and the 3200 in 10:53.33. She also anchored her team's winning 4x800 relay, which broke a meet record.

 
- Matt Gotta of Bismarck spearheaded his team's dominance in the distance races. He won the 1600 in 4:16.59 and the 3200 in 9:15.42, and also anchored the 4x800 to an easy win.

- Kayla Hochhalter of Carrigan won the Class B shot put (44-1) and javelin (143-0) and was second in the discus (124-3).

- Asha Smith of Watford City, a sophomore, matched Brownotter's wins in Class B. She won the 800 in 2:14.54, the 1600 in 5:00.47 and the 3200 in 11:16.99.

- Myandra Merkel of Century won the 100/200 girls Class A double with 12.06 and 24.97, both wind-aided.

- Jon Thoraldsen, a junior at Bismarck, launched a US#12 63-4 mark in the shot put to win that event. He was also second to teammate Stanley Jones in the discus.

- The Bismarck girls 4x200 relay, which included a pair of freshman, took down the state record with 1:42.69.

Top Teams:

The Bismarck boys piled up tons of points in the distance events – and almost every place else – to score a whopping 200 points for the Class A title. Bismarck got 27 points in the 800, 23 more in the 1600 and 21 in the 3200 – 71 in just three events. And Bismarck only failed to score in one event. Almost as dominant were the Century girls, who piled up 169 points.

In Class B, Carrington's girls won the title with 87 points and Kindred's boys won with 81.

Top Competition: The hurdles races between McKayla Orr of Jamestown and Chelsea Peterson of Mandan were hotly contested. In the 100-meter hurdles, Orr got it by the slimmest of margins, 15.11 to 15.12. In the 300 hurdles, Orr was pressed again but won in 44.12. Peterson got there in 44.92.

Record-breaker: Lexy Wittmayer just barely missed the state record at 5-11 and will have to settle, for now, with an all-time North Dakota record tie with Halley Odegaard of Kindred (2005). In two previous state meets, Wittmayer had gone 5-4 and 5-3 (in 2013). Her 5-10 jump is US#9, the highest ranking performance in the meet.

Results