By Matt Gade

605 Sports

SPEARFISH — For the third straight year, a Spearfish Spartan finds themselves heading into the state track meet as the front runner for gold in the AA girls’ pole vault.

It’s also the third year in a row, Spearfish could potentially go 1-2 in the event.

Last year, Spearfish’s Reese Nida, then a sophomore, claimed the gold with a jump of 11-7, and then teammate Gretchen Adamski took silver with the same height, with placement determined by attempts.

This season, sophomore Laila Ratzsch has emerged as the Spartans' top vaulter.

In back-to-back weeks, Ratzsch has set personal bests of 11-11 at the Black Hills Conference on May 13, followed by a vault of 12-0 at the West River Last Chance meet on Thursday.

“I’ve been able to work really well getting on some more poles and my coach has been really great at giving me really good advice and helping me find new ways to get up there,” Ratzsch said. “My teammates have been really supportive too.”

With the vault, Ratzsch enters the state meet tied atop the Class AA rankings with Aberdeen Central’s Jaidyn Forsyth.

Just behind Ratzsch is teammate and junior Nida, who’s sitting fifth heading into state at 11-5. Ratzsch said Nida pushes her in practice and challenges her to keep getting better. Nida also owns the Spearfish school record at 12-1 set last year.

After just making the opening height at state last season, 9-7, Ratzsch is excited to go back now as one of the favorites.

“It’s definitely more stressful,” Ratzsch said of competing at state. “The competition is way harder than I thought it would be, and it’s really pushing me to keep going.”

Ratzsch said it would be a dream for Spearfish to go 1-2 in the pole vault again, no matter which teammate was to take gold and silver.

For most of the season, Ratzsch has found herself competing against the Stiefel sisters of Custer, who are 1-2-3 in the All-Class rankings, with each having gone 12-5 or higher.

“That’s the only negative part of having the Stiefels at every meet. If you clear 12 feet, then you can move it to 12-1 or 12-2 if you're the last one left,” Spearfish head coach Aaron Nida said. “But when you have them in there, it's always going to be a six-inch move. So it's good to have that competition, but it’s that much tougher.”

Spearfish's Laila Ratzsch clears 12-0 in the girls pole vault during the West River Last Chance Meet on Thursday at O'Harra Stadium in Rapid City. (Matt Gade/605 Sports)

Ratzsch took fifth at the Howard Wood Dakota Relays on May 3 with the Stiefel sisters as the only other South Dakota competitors ahead of her.

Coach Nida, who is also Reese’s dad, said things have just started to click for Ratzsch, who was struggling at the start of the season but is figuring it out just in time for state.

“It's been really fun to watch her. She was 10 -6 coming in from last year, and was kind of stuck there for a bit, and then she kind of figured out a couple things and just took off,” he said. “She's just been progressively getting better. Now it's just a matter of getting on bigger poles.

“There's a lot of kids right up there in that top group, and for her — when somebody else gets better. She goes and matches it. So that's a big deal where she's stepping up.”

The girls' class AA pole vault will start at 1 p.m. Thursday, on day one of the South Dakota High School State Track and Field Meet at Howard Wood in Sioux Falls.