By Matt Gade

605 Sports

CUSTER — For three straight years, Custer’s Ciana Stiefel stood atop the podium as the Class

A girls’ pole vault champion. And then last year, Ciana was joined by her sisters Kelsey and Tenlee, becoming possibly the first-ever 1-2-3 finish among siblings at a state meet.

After watching Ciana set a Class A record and second-all-time record of 12 feet 9, inches. Tenlee and Kelsey were not far behind, recording 12-5 and 12-6 last season.

Now as heading into the start of the 2026 season, without older sister Ciana to set the tone, Kelsey and Tenlee are looking to top the Class A girls pole vault podium once again.

In her first meet of the season, Tenlee, a freshman, already broke Ciana’s top mark in the pole vault with a vault of 13 feet at the Chadron State High School Invite on March 21 in Chadron, Neb.

“It felt really cool,” Tenlee said of clearing the height. “It was a pretty small meet, so it kind of was like, a little bit like, ‘Well, whatever.’ But it was still cool after the fact to realize that I kind of made my goal, the first meet of the season. It was pretty amazing.

“It feels kind of crazy. I mean, (Ciana) definitely has more challenges with her height and everything, so I kind of got a little step stone being short. But, yeah, it feels kind of crazy,” Tenlee said of breaking Ciana’s mark.

Tenlee said she was just nervous to even make the opening height, let alone clear 13.

Tenlee’s 13 feet is now the second-highest vault in state history, bumping Ciana down to third.

Tenlee said the wind and cold conditions made things more difficult, and they didn’t have the poles they probably should have.

“I knew it was in her wheelhouse to do it,” Tenlee’s dad and Custer’s pole vault coach Chris Stiefel said. “Just wasn't sure how it was going to go, because we went to the meet and end up being kind of windy down there to start with, and we didn't even bring a smaller pole to do her four or five step…So it started off kind of rough, and I was feeling bad as the coach, like, ’Geez, I didn't even think about wind and having to do five steps.’ Obviously, you never know what the weather's going to be like. But she made it work on a five, and then she got her confidence back.”

While Ciana is now vaulting for the University of South Dakota, the freshman Coyote was on hand to watch her sister vault in Chadron and Tenlee said she was glad to have her older sister back to enjoy the moment with her.

“It was amazing,” Tenlee said of Ciana being at her meet. “ I was really glad that she was there to see me do it and give me a hug after, kind of like old times at Howard Wood and state.”

Chris said Tenlee had cleared 13 feet on the bungee in practice on more than one occasion, so he was confident she could do it. Just a matter of when.

While Tenlee sits atop the all-class standings currently with her Class A state record of 13 feet, older sister Kelsey isn’t far behind.

With constant weather cancellations and a slow start to the season because of pain in her back, Kelsey has only competed once thus far. At the Laura Chord Memorial Track Meet in Newcastle, Wyoming. Despite wind and wet weather, Kelsey went 11-6 and is sitting third in the state and second in Class A behind Tenlee.

Custer's Kelsey Stiefel competes at the state meet last season. (Matt Gade/605 Sports)

“It felt good to get back on the runway, especially after having to sit out the first meet,” Kelsey said. “I wasn't blessed with too great of weather. Unfortunately, it was raining and freezing cold, but I was just happy to be jumping. I wish the height would have been there, but for what the conditions were, I was pretty happy with how the meet ended up going.”

Kelsey said Tenlee’s mark gives the junior Wildcat something to push for this season. 

“Having Tenlee jump so high very early on is definitely good, because it's definitely going to push me, but it also puts more pressure on me to jump a little bit higher,” Kelsey said. “But I like the fact that she jumped higher, because then it pushes me, and I can learn off of her a lot more. Because her top end is a lot better than mine, so it's nice to watch hers and kind of study off her jump.”

With Ciana now competing at USD and no longer with them, looking at last year’s state meet and finishing 1-2-3 as sisters means even more for Kelsey and Tenlee in hindsight.

“Looking back, it feels more surreal,” Kelsey said. “Like in the moment, it was ‘Oh, yeah, whatever.’ But now looking back, it's like, ‘Dang, I wish we would have had more time to jump together.’ Like that moment, just kind of took it for granted. So it's definitely sad. I wish we would have another year or two, but it was definitely fun while it lasted.”

The Stiefel sisters, led by Ciana (holding the phone) take a selfie following the Class A girls pole vault event last year at the state meet. (Matt Gade/605 Sports)

Tenlee said reaching her benchmark goal in the first meet of the season has made her have to adjust her goals a little differently for the rest of the season. 

Tenlee said she now just wants to continue to improve rather than a specific height, but did say the state record is the ultimate goal by her high school career’s end.

The state record is currently held by Watertown’s Leslie Brost, at 13-5.25, set in 2008.

After standing on the podium together with their older sister, Ciana, Tenlee and Kelsey said they are motivated to be back on top again. With which one of them in that number one spot, up for grabs.

They said they know there are no guarantees, and why they’ve put in the work season last track season to compete at the top once again. 

“Hopefully we can,” Kelsey said of a Stiefel standing atop the podium. “I mean, it would be nice to hopefully have it up until Tenlee graduates, but you never know. I mean, you could have an off day, and something goes funky, but hopefully we're able to keep the Stiefel name up at the top.”

Kelsey and Tenlee said their focus this year is once again the pole vault, but they are going to be competing in other events as well. Kelsey was a part of multiple sprints and relays for the Custer Wildcats. While Tenlee did the high jump last season and said she was going to try more running events this season.

Kelsey, Tenlee and the Wildcats compete later today in the Queen City Classic at Black Hills State University in Spearfish, where Spearfish’s Laila Ratzsch and Reese Nida round out the top four in all-class girls’ pole vaulting with marks of 11-9 and 11-3 so far.