By Rich Winter

605 Sports

SIOUX FALLS — It wasn’t just Rapid City Stevens’ Simeon Birnbaum bringing notoriety to South Dakota distance running this summer. 

At the same Brooks PR Invitational in Seattle where Birnbaum ran a sub 4-minute mile, two Sioux Falls Christian middle-school runners had top five finishes in the middle school mile runs. 

Sioux Falls Christian eighth-grader Ellie Maddox finished fifth in the mile run (5:04.61) while seventh-grader Levi Vander Leest was fourth in the boys middle school mile (4:51.04). 

For Maddox, the 2021 Class A state cross-country champion, the Brooks PR meet in Seattle was an opportunity for redemption after what she said wasn’t a great state track meet.

“I had some big expectations for the state meet and I didn’t have the meet I wanted to,” she said. 

Maddox finished sixth in the Class A 3,200-meter run and was second in the Class A 1,600-meter run. In Seattle she ran her season's best time, breaking the Sioux Falls Christian, 1,600 meter record in the process. 

Vander Leest made the varsity cross-country team at Sioux Falls Christian last fall. Three weeks before the state meet he came down with appendicitis. The resulting surgery kept him from competing at the state meet, although his Charger teammates were crowned the Class A team champions. 

His run in Seattle was an opportunity to finally compete against kids his age. 

“The race in Seattle was fun because I hadn’t seen any kids in South Dakota my age that could run that fast,” he said. 

The 4:51.04 was good enough for fourth place but Vander Leest felt he could have gone faster.

“I was hoping for a sub 4:45,” he said. “I didn’t have a great race that day but overall it was such a great experience to compete at that level.” 

Maddox said she’s taking a two-week break from running following the Seattle race and noted that running against competition from around the country gives her some added confidence heading into cross-country this fall. 

“It was odd to hear other people say they were from New Jersey or were running on a club team,” she said. “Seeing Simeon do so well left me wanting more and I want to race in those kinds of meets and win like he did.” 

For Vander Leest, family friends with the Birnbaum's, the seventh grader was blown away when his friend Simeon broke four minutes in the mile run. 

“That was awesome and hopefully someday if that is God's plan I’d like to be able to do what Simeon did,” he said.

Miedema places fifth at Nike Nationals

EUGENE, Ore. -- Sioux Falls Washington's Kael Miedema captured a fifth-place finish at the Nike Nationals over the weekend. 

The Washington senior-to-be unleashed a personal best throw of 62 feet and 3.75 inches, earning All-American honors at historic Hayward Field.