By Rich Winter

605 Sports

SIOUX FALLS — The South Dakota state track meet has always been the event I most look forward to during the year. Usually after the meet my mom will ask how it was and I tell her that it is going to take a few days to mentally download all the fantastic efforts thrown down by our South Dakota youth. In some cases the year-ending state track meet is the final athletic event some seniors will ever compete in after traversing various school programs for more than a decade. 

South Dakota 800-meter runners set the bar incredibly high at 2023 state track meet

State meet records were falling all over the place during the recently completed South Dakota state track meet but as I watched the meet unfold it became clear that South Dakota athletes have found another gear in the 800-meter run.

It wasn’t just the individual 800-meter runs but the 3,200-meter relay and the sprint medley relay where good 800-meter runners are chomping at some of the elite marks this state has ever seen. 

In the Class A boys 800-meter run, Sioux Falls Christian’s Isaac Davelaar broke the meet record with a 1:51.11. The flow of athletes behind him was astonishing as nine other athletes broke the two-minute barrier. Seemed like five years ago you ran 2:00.00 you were guaranteed a very high podium spot. In the boys AA 800-meter run Rapid City Stevens senior Simeon Birnbaum cruised to the win (1:53.02). By the time the running clock had reached two-minutes 10 young men had already crossed the finish line. 

No records in the girls 800-meter runs but Reese Luze and Berkeley Engelland scared meet records in the Class B and Class A races and four AA athletes crossed the finish line in less than 2:14.26.

The 3,200-meter relay records and the girls sprint medley records, all anchored by 800-meter runners, knocked some elite teams from South Dakota top-ten lists. 

After being on cruise control Simeon Birnbaum gives South Dakotans one last glance

Rapid City Stevens senior Simeon Birnbaum is an elite talent unlike anything South Dakotans have seen before - Rodney Haas / 605 Sports

Can’t ever remember a Class AA guy winning four gold medals in such a quiet fashion. Late Thursday, Birnbaum anchored the Stevens sprint medley team to a state title 3:34.12. That time was off the meet record from a year ago but just enough to win. On Friday, Birnbaum started in the 3,200-meter run, drifted into last place, stayed there for about a lap, worked his way up and dispatched the field over the last two laps when he decided to go. 

Birnbaum had been taking care of an injured hamstring since early May and every race and every move within each race at the state track meet had been calculated. 

“There are a lot of encouraging things about slow paces,” Birnbaum said. “The first one was my hamstring injury and second it is a way to make sure I win.”  

On Saturday, Birnbaum felt good enough to jump out in front of the field then dug deep on his final lap to clock 4:02.78 in his final high school race while competing on South Dakota soil as a prep athlete.

An appreciative Howard Wood field crowd gave Birnbaum a standing ovation as he finished the race and again as his name was announced as the winner of the 1,600-meter run. While on the awards stand Birnbaum flashed the crowd a heart sign and said the support of the crowd had always felt cool but on Saturday it was a little special. 

The making of a championship 400-meter relay from the Platte-Gedde boys

The run of relays from the Sioux Falls Christian track teams was astonishing. The Chargers girls won all five relays and the Charger boys four-of-five relays.

The Platte-Geddes boys 4x100 relay took two seconds off their time over the final three weeks of the season to win a state title. Rodney Haas / 605 Sports

The one Class A relay the Chargers didn’t win was the boys 400-meter relay (2nd place, :44.08). The reason they didn’t win was because Platte-Geddes did something absolutely remarkable over the last month of the season. 

Rewind to the Howard Wood Dakota Relays and the Panthers didn’t even have a team contesting the 400-meter relay. The Black Panthers ran a :46.07 on May 2, and then things progressed in that relay in a way we as track fans don’t often see. 

The quartet of Skyler Hanten, Trevor Rolland, Hayden Sprik and Aiden Bultje ran a :44.98 at the Southeast South Dakota Conference meet on May 9. Two days later, at the Buck Timmins meet the group ran a :44.78 and then on May 18 at the Region 5A meet the group clocked a :44.43. 

Massive improvement over the course of about three weeks but the Black Panthers weren’t done, not even close to done. 

In Friday’s preliminaries the team ran :43.98 and then in the finals they beat Sioux Falls Christian, and every other team to the tape in :43.80. 

The gains in time weren’t a fluke, they didn’t come right away but with steady gains made through four young men that were absolutely dialed into track the last month of the season. At the beginning of the track season if you had told any of those 4x100 runners or the Platte-Geddes coaches the team would run (:43.80) they would have laughed and said no way. No one has talked about this but Aiden Bultje’s hair was spectacular every day of the three days state track meet. 

Ipswich track coaches push every button correctly

Prior to attending the meet I wrote preview stories for boys and girls, every class. Didn’t really mean for it to happen but I unintentionally left the Class B boys for last. 

Thought about who was going to win that class for a while and then put that preview together knowing the Class B race was going to be a hard-fought battle that might come down to a chess match between coaches. 

On Friday, just as the meet was wrapping up I ran into an Ipswich assistant coach. He told me that he and the rest of the Tiger coaching staff had gone the rounds trying to figure out every possible scenario for their team and for every other Class B team they thought was going to be contending. 

On Friday night the Ipswich 3,200-meter relay and sprint medley relays both finished fourth ahead of where they were seeded. On Friday night the Ipswich vaulters Rasmus Loken and Brody Davis finished above their seeds coming in third and fifth to garner additional points. 

The rest of the weekend the Ipswich boys picked up points as they came. 

Track and field coaches always say if it’s going to be close it has to come down to the mile relay. Well the Class B team race did come down to the 1,600-meter relay and even down to the last few steps as Gregory’s Luke Stukel passed Menno’s Kayden Ulmer inches before the finish line as Gregory and Ipswich tied for the Class B team title, each scoring 54 points. 

Each year it seems so many memorable athletes graduate. It might be a few years before we see the likes of Gracelyn Leiseth and Simeon Birnbaum come through, but it is always refreshing to see some young talent on the rise. 

• Keep an eye on Deuel freshman Oliver Fieber who finished fourth in the Class A 100-meter dash (:11.04).

• Clark/Willow Lake seventh grader Kamryn Nesheim finished 18th in the Class A 1,600 meter run. That class is loaded with talent and Nesheim is going to be a handful.

• Bennett County seventh-grader Reagan O’Neill was seventh in the long jump and 100-meter dash. Those familiar with track know the O’Neill name and there are a slough of young O’Neill kids that are going to be turning heads for well over the next decade. 

• Wolsey-Wessington freshman Caleb Richmond is an absolute stud. The gap he covered to win the sprint medley relay was astonishing. He won the 800-meter run Friday (2:01.88). Not just track, watch for this guy in football and basketball. 

Ipswich coach Bryce Malsam gets ready for a hug with Gracie Lange - Ryan Deal / 605 Sports

There is also a tinge of sadness at the state track meet that hits on the last day. As these athletes count down their final races, their final steps and the final moments they get to spend with their coaches. Doesn’t seem like it is talked about enough but these coaches do so much for our young people, outside of just sports during the four years they have with them in high school. Not only do they make them better athletes but they guide them through those difficult teen years and then send them on to the next phases of their lives, having cared for these young people like they were their own children. 

Late on Saturday the smiles got brighter and the hugs got bigger as athletes and coaches celebrated the last few moments of their years together.