Pioneers sprinters steal the show at regionals

The Okoboji girls' track and field team has posted some impressive times all season long in the sprint relays, and the Pioneers made all of the hard work they have put in pay off by qualifying for state in eight different events including the 4x100 and 4x200-meter relays at the Class 2A regional meet Friday, May 15 in Cherokee.

"We came close in a couple events, but still finished the night strong," said Okoboji head coach Nate Dau. "Nobody really complained about how hard our district was and ultimately I think it's a good thing. There were a lot of wild cards that got in because we had such good competition. Overall, we ran real well. We had our best times and heights in a couple of events."

The Pioneers placed fifth in the 12-team field with 65 points. Unity Christian clinched the district title with 134.5 points. Sioux Central came in second with 83. Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn followed in third with 77. East Sac County also placed fourth with 66 points.

The 4x200 relay team of Taylor Poppema, Miley Hunziker, Bryanna Wittrock and Brandi DeMuth jetted to a first-place clocking of 1:47.45.

"Our 4x2 ran their fastest time of the year," said Dau. "We have the third or fourth fastest time going into the state meet, so I really like that. We deserve to bring a medal home in that event."

The 4x100 quartet of Kendra Klinetobe, DeMuth, Hunziker and Poppema had the quickest qualifying time entering the meet, but was knocked off by H-M-S by .16 seconds. The Pioneers crossed the finish line in 51.58 seconds.

DeMuth sprinted to one of two top performances for Okoboji -- placing first by nearly a second over SC's Brittny Rebhuhn with a time of 25.93.

"Brandi has the second fastest time in the 200 entering state," said Dau. "Dike-New Hartford has an outstanding runner in a number of events that I hope Brandi sees in the (200) finals. I think that girl will push her and she can definitely medal down there."

Dau was most excited about one of his seniors making a trip to state with a third-place jump of 5-foot-1 in the high jump. Defending state champion Kendra DeJong of Unity Christian won the high jump after clearing 5-4.

"Cecilia Eckard had her career-best jump of 5-1," he exclaimed. "To me that was our highlight of the night. Talk about doing it at the right time in the last meet of your senior year. She is definitely a kid that deserves to get down there as a senior."

The Pioneers made their mark in the discus as well. The Pioneer duo of Makenzi Anderson and Amanda Dunn both earned at-large berths with qualities throws. Anderson placed third with a toss of 116-7 while Dunn ended up fourth with a heave of 113-11 1/2. Defending state champ Becca Fischer of Sheldon came in second behind Sable Lems of Western Christian in the most competitive event of the meet.

"In the discus, we had a defending state champ that happened to get second. We got third and fourth and still got both of our girls through," Dau said. "We had a lot of high caliber discus throwers in our regional. It was probably the best regional for discus in the state for our class."

Poppema also earned an at-large berth in the 400 low hurdles after finishing with a personal-best clocking of 1:07.66. The sophomore finished third behind DeJong and Mallory Mork of ESC.

"Taylor in the 400 lows took four seconds off her time the first time she ran that this year, so she showed a lot of maturity and growth because of the work she put in during the summer," Dau said. "She hasn't been pushed much this year besides by Kendra DeJong a few times, and I think when she's pushed by a good group of girls that she'll be dangerous. I think she'll put down a good time down there at state when she does get pushed."

The final state qualifying event for Okoboji was the shuttle hurdle relay. The Pioneers were running away with the race when anchor Brandi DeMuth slipped and fell midway through her 10-flight leg. The junior hurdler recovered in enough time to storm back to a second-place finish in 1:10.23.

"The shuttle hurdle made me cringe. Brandi fell there and Sibley ended up passing us, but we still ended up beating every other team in our heat. It has just got done raining and I don't know if Brandi hit a wet spot or what, but she hit a hurdle, fell all the way down and nearly did the splits," said Dau. "It was one of our worst times of the year, so we'll be running against some slower teams, but we'll see what we can do down at state. I still feel very confident about the shuttle hurdle and how good all of our events can do down at state."

The Pioneers enter the state meet with high aspirations after being ranked in the top 10 of six events.

"It's an accomplishment to get down to state, but we're bringing that same group of girls back that ran down at state last year, so now we need to bring back some medals," Dau said. "If we run well we should be able to score some points and bring back some medals, which would be really awesome for these kids."

Class 2A Regional Meet (CENTERED AND BOLD)

Team scores -- 1. Unity Christian 134.5; 2. Sioux Central 83.5; 3. Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn 77; 4. East Sac County 66; 5. Okoboji 65; 6. Sheldon 62; 7. Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley 60; 8. Sibley-Ocheyedan 49; 9. Western Christian 48; 10. Sioux Center 37; 11. Maple Valley-Anthon-Oto 30; 12. Cherokee 29.

Shot put -- 14. Camille Anderson 29-9; 17. Becky Dunn 25-10.

Discus throw -- 3. Makenzi Anderson 116-7; 4. Amanda Dunn 113-11 1/2.

High jump -- 3. Cecilia Eckard 5-1.

100 dash -- 17. Regan Miklo 14.31.

200 dash -- 1. Brandi DeMuth 25.93; 17. Regan Miklo 32.20.

400 dash -- 11. Melissa Nissen 1:12.47.

100 hurdles -- 8. Kelsey Crosgrove 17.45.

400 hurdles -- 3. Taylor Poppema 1:07.66.

4x100 relay -- 2. Okoboji (Kendra Klinetobe, Brandi DeMuth, Miley Hunziker, Taylor Poppema) 51.58.

4x200 relay -- 1. Okoboji (Taylor Poppema, Miley Hunziker, Bryanna Wittrock, Brandi DeMuth) 1:47.45.

Sprint medley -- 4. Okoboji (Kendra Klinetobe, Bryanna Wittrock, Miley Hunziker, Kristin Ellrich) 1:58.93.

Distance medley -- 9. Okoboji (Cecilia Eckard, Landi Hunziker, Faith Bartlett, Kaylee Schmeling) 4:54.17.

Shuttle hurdle -- 2. Okoboji (Kelsey Crosgrove, Bryanna Wittrock, Taylor Poppema, Brandi DeMuth) 1:10.23.