SIOUX FALLS —- When Burke senior Piper Hanson felt Colman-Egan’s Daniela Lee come up on her during the anchor carry of the Class B 800-meter relay she made up her mind that second place was not an option.

In the final 10 meters, Hanson surged past Lee, one of the most decorated Class B sprinters in South Dakota history to give the Cougars their first relay title since the 1980s in a time of (1:46.52). 

“When she caught up to me and went by me I think a lot of people thought I was just going to give up and go for second,” Hanson said. “But I really didn’t want to do that because of how my morning started and I knew I needed to pass her for team points.”

Hanson’s morning started off on a sour note in her specialty, the 100-meter hurdles. Leading eventual state champion Ashton Massey of Menno, Hanson clipped the third-to-the-last hurdle and her dreams of an individual state title were gone as she finished second (:15.31). 

“I was just starting to pull away when I hit that hurdle,” she said. “I was pretty disappointed but I had to let that go because we had the relay coming up.” 

Hanson’s three running mates on that relay, Braelyn Dueffeldt, Addi Hood and Breckynn Pistulka were nervous before the relay but their senior leader calmed them down.

“There was a lot of pressure coming in because Colman-Egan had the three-peat in that event,”  Hanson said. “I put some liability on my teammates to give me a lead and I knew they could because I’ve seen how hard they work.”

Burke entered Saturday feeling good after Emily Diekmann won the high jump and Paige Bull the discus on Friday. Hanson said those two titles kept the Cougars amongst the top teams entering Saturday’s finals.

“We knew today was a big day and that we still had to get stuff done,” she said.

The Cougars placed fifth in the 400-meter relay (:52.29) and Hanson chipped in with eight more points after finishing second in the 300-meter hurdles (:46.44). Burke also added two more points with a seventh-place finish in the 1,600-meter relay. 

When the final numbers were tallied the Cougars were crowned Class B state champions with 58 points, ahead of Arligton (51) and Chester (49). 

“Winning a state title just puts the cherry on top of my career,”  Hanson said. “I think people think of Burke as a volleyball school but we’re also really good at track”