By Matt Gade

605 Sports

SIOUX FALLS — For the first time in her career, Spearfish’s Peyton VanDeest stood atop the podium as an individual state champion.

The Spartan junior claimed not one but two state gold medals, winning the Class A girls’ 3,200-meter run and 800-meter run, setting all-new state meet records in both events.

“I like to think of it as my time at the top,” VanDeest said. “For the past five years, it’s been Ali Bainbridge, Libby Castelli and now even Brianna (Reilly) is right up there now as a legit competitor, but it’s my time now to be up there. And it’s just really an awesome feeling to be up there at the top and see all that hard work pay off. “

To start day two of the South Dakota High School state track and field championships, the 3,200-meter runs were the first races of the day.

VanDeest stayed with Harrisburg’s Brianna Reilly for the majority of the first six laps before starting to distance herself and come away with a new personal record, state meet record time of 10:17.40, defeating Reilly, who finished in second with a time of 10:22.46.

VanDeest didn’t take much time to celebrate. The junior, who was named the South Dakota Gatorade Cross Country athlete of the year back in the fall, was gearing up for the 800.

Her favorite race.

VanDeest wanted to leave no doubt when it came time to the 800. She took off to a strong lead and never really let anyone get close.

VanDeest set the new state meet record with a time of 2:08.21 to Reilly’s second-place mark of 2:11.77.

“Yeah, the 800 this year, I found you can't settle during the race. It's basically a half-mile sprint,” VanDeest said. “So going out on that first quarter mile, like hard, is what really matters, and sets you up for a good race. My PR was very close to it (the state record) and while I knew after the two mile, it would be really hard, I just wanted to go out there and give it my best… I just wanted to go for it.”

VanDeest was in a good mood to start the day, Friday, as she was fresh off being a part of the Spartans’ Sprint Medley team that set a new state meet record on Thursday.

The Relay team included Gabrielle Ranek, Adelyn Bouman, Daniela Rodriguez and VanDeest running the final 800 meters. They clocked in a 4:01.13, beating second-place Rapid City Stevens with their time of 4:11.56.

“It's really awesome,” VanDeest said of winning three golds. “I’ve never before done that and now I've come away with three so far this weekend. We have one more race, so we'll see how that goes tomorrow. But it's been really fun being able to stand up on top of the podium.”

VanDeest still has the 1,600-meters on Saturday, where she is seeded second in the event just behind Reilly.