SIOUX FALLS — All season long the Brandon Valley girls have been chasing down some of the top relay teams in South Dakota history. 

On Thursday at the South Dakota state track meet the Lynx won the race (9:07.03) and became the second fastest girls 3,200-meter relay team in South Dakota history. 

“We’ve been working really hard all season so we knew it was possible,” said junior Mia Wentzy, who is Brandon Valley’s anchor runner.

Elite records in the AA distance relays are hard to come by. 

At the 2023 Howard Wood Dakota Relays the Brandon Valley girls just missed the meet record (9:08.61, Sioux Falls Roosevelt, 2005). The time in early May was a school record and the fifth fastest 3,200 meter relay time in South Dakota history. 

On Thursday in Sioux Falls the Lynx broke the 2004 state meet record of Rapid City Stevens (9:10.26, Blackler, Pagel, Hattervig and Schwengler).

“We knew coming in we were about two seconds off the record,” Wentzy said. “It was a great day, we all ran our best and fortunately that was enough.” 

All four relay athletes are underclassmen and will likely be looking to take down the South Dakota state record Yankton (Storm, Bies, Kuchta, Kavan, 9:01.19 2005) next season. 

The relay was Wentzy’s only race of the day and she said she planned to hang out in the shade and cheer for her teammates the rest of the day. 

Don’t be shocked to see the Lynx approaching other meet records this weekend. 

The Brandon Valley girls have run (4:14.07) in the medley relay this season. The Lynx and Sioux Falls Lincoln both have a chance to approach the meet record from the 2017 Brookings team (4:08.57 - Tetzlaff, Rystrom, Gray, Abraham).

The Brandon Valley 1,600 meter relay team has run (3:58.27) in the 1,600 meter relay. That time is about four seconds off the state meet record of Rapid City Stevens (3:53.49, Pagel, DeVries, Jansen, Garner).