Riders Take Region Crown
The Red River Boys won the East Region title on Saturday, narrowly defeating Fargo Davies and Fargo South. The win is the sixth East Region title in program history and the first since 2009. The Roughriders previously won eight Northeast Region titles from 1969-1980 before the formation of the East Region (EDC) in 1981.
Here’s how things unfolded on Saturday, where all athletes who met the qualifying standard or who placed in the Top-6 earned a trip to the State Meet in Bismarck:
Field events started first and the high jumpers, a strength for the team all season, delivered as expected. Tyler Enerson cleared 5’10 for a state qualifying 3rd Place, while Devon Pope and Alex Holmes tied for 4th at 5’8. Mo Kamara added an 8th Place finish to land four Roughriders in the Top-8 and score 15 points. Across the track, Carlos Horcacitas continued his fine freshman season and hit a state qualifying leap of 20’11.5 in the long jump. In the discus ring, the big story was first year thrower and Czech exchange student Martin Buchbauer, who qualified for state with a 3rd place PR throw of 135’9.
After just missing the qualifying standard on two occasions this season, the 4×800 Relay team needed to place in the Top-6 to earn the right to run in Bismarck next week. With state on the line, the team of Dalton Byrne, Marcelles Sartwell, Noah Quidera, and Parker Carroll finished in 6th Place (8:45.33) to get the long-awaited qualifier. Enerson followed with a 5th Place run in the 300m Hurdles (42.65) to add more team points. The 4×200 Relay team of Kassim Nsibirwa, Devon Pope, Jaeden Holt, and George Nyanforh, already a qualifier by time, followed with a 4th place finish in 1:33.09.
After a 60 second first lap, Ty Boucher settled in to run a 4:32.53 1600m, good for 2nd Place. Tim Dunham, Will Valentine, and Ben Hutchison all ran hard here but finished just outside of scoring in 9th, 10th, and 11th Place. Another 4th Place relay finish in the 4×100 from Kamara, Nsibirwa, Parker Wenzel, and Pope in a season-best 44.56 left the Riders in 3rd behind Davies and South at the break. With the team’s highest scoring events still remaining, the outlook still remained bright.
While Russell Dukes (3rd-48’10) and Carter Buelow (7th-45’11) were taking care of business in the shot put, Kishen Patel secured himself a spot in Bismarck with a 5th Place pole vault clearance at 12’. In his first year out for the sport, Patel continues to make vast improvements since clearing 7’ in the first indoor meet. Holmes matched his PR here at 13’6 to win the competition, the first RR East Region pole vault champion since Mike Gardner in 2001. Sandwiched between these two events was the javelin, which saw Daniel Pierce lead most of the event. Still recovering from an injury, Pierce only took two throws, his best a 173’9 effort. Ty Ogren sat in second for most of the competition, but surpassed Pierce with his last throw at 174’3 to earn his first East Region title. Roughrider javelin throwers, led by Hall-of-Fame Coach Tim Tandeski, have now won two of the past three East Region titles and eleven of the past thirteen. Newcomer Sam Schumacher also recorded a big PR here (141’4) to finish in 8th and give the Riders 19 points in the event. Occurring simultaneously was the triple jump, where Pope and Horcacitas entered with the first and third seeds. Pope led for most of the meet at 43’, but had to sit and wait for Carlos to return after the 110 Hurdles. Once again responding with big jumps after completing a different event, Carlos managed a 43’7.5 effort to earn his first East Region title and complete the RR 1-2 sweep.
On the track backstretch, workers began preparations to run the sprint hurdles with the wind. This provided the perfect backdrop the view the aforementioned field events, as well as the team’s feature event, the 110m Hurdles. Starting fast and finishing strong, Kamara defended his 2015 Region title in 15.17. Zimney’s hurdlers have now won seven of the past eight Region titles in this event. Enerson continued his impressive meet with a new PR at 15.23 to finish in 2nd Place. Peter Wysocki finished in 15.61 for 5th, which brought the hurdle point haul to 22 points. In a matter of nearly 30 minutes, the Roughriders scored 81 points and moved into first place.
Boucher and Hutchison ran tough to place 2nd (9:49.53) and 7th (10:03.77) in the 3200m Run and add ten more team points before the 4×400. Team totals still unknown at this point, team members gathered whatever strength and energy they had left for the final event. Not only was the team race on the line, but the 4×400 had not yet qualified either. Nsibirwa led off with a fantastic leg, the team’s fastest split of the year. With just over ten minutes of rest from the 3200, Boucher ran second with an admirable effort after a long day of distance running. Horcacitas got the baton in third place and kept the gap close. When anchor George Nyanforh got the baton, he had to make up nearly 15 meters on the leaders. With a ferocious kick over the last 100, George chased down the GFC team and just missed passing West Fargo. After the next heat ran and the dust settled, their season-best time of 3:34.74 was good enough for 4th place and a trip to state. Shortly afterwards, team scores were announced and the Roughrider faithful celebrated their first East Region team title in seven years.
Final Team Standings:
1) Grand Forks Red River 147
2) Fargo Davies 137
3) Fargo South 132
4) West Fargo 92
5) WF Sheyenne 71
6) Fargo North 56
7) Grand Forks Central 29
8) Wahpeton 27
9) Devils Lake 20
10) Shanley High 19
11) Valley City 11
Full meet results here.
Meet photos here.
