By Matt Gade

605 Sports

RAPID CITY — A season ago, the Rapid City Stevens quad of Ella Bradeen, Ava Holzwarth, Maya Khachikian and Riley Willet stunned themselves in setting the state record in the 400-meter relay. 

With all four relay members returning this year, the girls have continued to surprise not only themselves but also their coaches.

The four have broken their own state record in the 4x100 on three separate occasions this year. While having only run the same four runners at five meets.

Last season, the Raider girls posted a season best 47.68 at the Black Hills Classic track meet. Then, despite a tough crosswind for a portion of the race, the squad broke their record for the first time at the Track-O-Rama meet on April 16 with a 47.56. Then again, at the Howard Wood Dakota Relays, with a 47.54. 

But it’s their latest mark, a 47.09, that might be their most impressive.

While competing at the West River Last Chance Track and Field Meet on May 19, Bradeen and Holzwarth found themselves up against the clock. 

Competing in the girls' long jump at the meet, the duo requested that they could do their final jumps first, as they had the 4x100 relay race coming up fast.

Bradeen and Holzwarth, who finished 1-2 in the long jump with marks of 19 feet even and 19 feet, six inches, didn’t even have five minutes after their last jump til their race.

“It feels great, just like waiting for the time,” Holzwarth said of breaking their own record. “I'm third leg, so I'm walking back, and I always like to see all the girls' reactions, to see how we really did, but it feels amazing. We've all been putting in so much hard work in the off-season and working together during the season, and to have this big of a PR, it feels really great.”

The team consists of Khachikian running first, followed by Willet, then Holzwarth, with Bradeen in the anchor spot.

For Stevens’ sprint coach, Jeff Fierro, he said the girls continually surprise him. 

“They're so impressive, impressive as athletes, impressive as people. They work hard, they're super dedicated to what we do,” Fierro said following the girls' race at the last chance meet. “We talk to them about how there's this sweet spot in your preparation on the day of the meet. You can get ready too much, or you can get ready too little, but there's this sweet spot. Sometimes they just want to sit around, and that's not what you want to do. You want your body ready to do something impressive and explosive. So today's a great example of that. That they can go do six jumps and be explosive.”

Outside of the relay, all four of the girls stand out in their respective events. Bradeen and Holzwarth have been battling out for the top spot in the long jump all season. Holzwarth is currently second all-time with a best mark of 19 feet, 10.75 inches, while Bradeen’s 19 feet, six inches at the last chance meet moved her into fifth all-time. In the 100-meter dash, Bradeen is seeded third (12.12) and Bradeen is eighth (12.23). While teammate Willet is 18th (12.53). In the 200-meter dash, Holzwarth is third (24.67) and Bradeen fourth (24.87) while Willet is in 24th (26.27).

Lead runner, Khachikian, is having a standout season in the hurdles with the second-best mark in the 100-meter hurdles with a 14.42.

As the lone senior on the squad, Bradeen said she’s just been enjoying getting one last run with her teammates.

“It's just so fun,” Bradeen said of running with her team. “I'm so grateful to have all three of these girls on one team to run with. We even push each other in practice, which just makes all of us better athletes, and I'm just so grateful, and it's so fun.”

While Bradeen is the oldest member of the team, Willet said, as the youngest one on the team, she’s loving being a part of the team.

And like most high school kids, the four all have their other interests outside of the track. In particular, Holzwarth, who also competes in club soccer, and Willet, in rodeo, they are competing in other sports throughout the spring as well.

When it comes to balancing everything, it’s not easy, the girls said. 

“I don't really balance it. It's track, horses and I go home, and then I just repeat — school, track, horses,” Willet said.

Hendry commended the girls on their academic performance as well.

Stevens' head coach, Paul Hendry, said he knew these girls could and should break their own state record this season. 

But even he has been surprised by how consistently they’ve done it.

“We've always had some good four-by-one teams, and we thought we were fast before, but this group has just kind of raised the bar, set the standard,” Hendry said. “We used to be happy when we could run 49s, and then if you could break 49, it was like ‘Wow.’ I think the big thing about this group of girls is, they just work hard.”

Hendry said they’ve bought into what Fierro and he have been talking about for years. 

At the start of each spring, Fierro said every runner tries exchanges to see how it works, and these girls have always taken it seriously.

“It's a thing that makes or breaks the whole race,” Khachikian said. “If you don't have a fast handoff, then you're losing tenths of a second, and if you're gonna lose those tenths, then you might not win at state.”

Especially for Bradeen, who’s been running the 4x100 relay since her eighth-grade year. 

Having worked with Fierro on relays for the past five years, Bradeen said she’s actually become accustomed to tuning out everyone else once she starts running. Even if Fierro is shouting at her. 

“I'm in my own world,” Bradeen said. “Every time, I just think someone's right behind me. I don't know why. I just tell myself that maybe to make me run faster, but I am always just in my own world, just thinking about what I need to do to run faster. So I never even hear it.”

Fierro isn’t the only one shouting at Bradeen as Holzwarth, the third leg of 

A key part of what has made the girls continue to get better all season long is that they all say the relay is the one event where none of them feels any pressure. 

“It’s the fun race,” Bradeen said. “In the 100 and the 200, I feel like me and Ava are both stressing, and we're like, ‘Oh, I'm nervous,’ but when I get to the four-by-one, I'm like, genuinely, just so excited.”

Running together, the quad tried their luck in the 800-meter relay just once as a complete squad this year. In their one race with all four together, they broke the school record in the event with a time of 1:41.94 at the Black Hills Classic.

Hendry said the girls are such a tight group of friends that even though they’re racing each other, they’re making each other better and celebrating for each other.

“Especially between Ava (Holzwarth) and Ella (Bradeen), they both run the same events, and so, yeah, they are going against each other almost every meet, but they push each other; it makes them better,” Hendry said. “They both want to be number one, but I think at the end of the day, if they can go 1-2, I think they're happy with the results, the points for their team.

“Yeah, they probably want to be in that one spot, but if they finish second, they want to finish behind their teammate.”

With just the state meet left, beginning on Thursday at Howard Wood Field in Sioux Falls, the girls want to get under 47 seconds but also send out Bradeen on a high note.

Bradeen will compete at South Dakota State University next year.

“We want to have Ella finish, knowing that she did all of this for us,” Khachikian said. “She kind of helped build our team.” 

Being held by her teammates, Ella Bradeen is the sole senior on the squad joined by juniors Maya Khachikian, left, Ava Holzwarth, center, and Riley Willet. (Matt Gade / 605 Sports)

“I've done two legs out of the four, and I think just as my years progress, I really want to put it all into this last state meet for Ella, because it's her senior year, and really finish off this four by one as a team this year,” Holzwarth said.

The Raiders' first chance will come Thursday with the 400-meter prelims scheduled to start at 2:40 p.m. (CST), beginning with Class B then Class A and AA last.

Finals will be Saturday, with the Class B girls’ race starting at 12:10 p.m. (CST).

“We always talk about focusing just on the process. Don't chase records, don't worry about times and results, just focus on little things that you're capable of controlling, and just run,” Hendry said. “And good things will happen.”