Roughriders Finish 5th at State
Aside from a 30 minute downpour Saturday afternoon, beautiful weather greeted athletes and fans at the 2016 ND State Track and Field Meet in Bismarck. After the dust settled, the Red River Boys finished in a tie for 5th Place. Here’s how things unfolded:
First off Friday morning was one of top projected events for the Riders, the javelin throw. Daniel Pierce, with the top seed entering the competition, rose to the occasion and managed a 184’2 throw. The mark bettered his personal best by nearly three feet and was good enough for 2nd Place, just behind Bradyn Thomas of Bismarck High who finished 1st in 186’8. Ty Ogren had a great competition and placed 5th with a throw of 167’4 to give the Riders their first 12 points of the meet.
Multiple Roughrider athletes competed well Friday but found themselves just outside of the Top 8 places required for the podium or the Top 9 performances needed to make finals. Tyler Enerson (300H-41.63, PR) and Carlos Horcacitas (LJ-20’0) both placed 10th and 13th, respectively on Friday. The 4×200 Relay team of Kassim Nsibirwa, Devon Pope, Tyler Burian, and George Nyanforh ran a season best time of 1:32.39 and just missed making the finals in 10th.
In the pole vault, Alex Holmes made things interesting on several occasions with third attempt clearances at 13’3 and 13’6 before finally failing to clear 13’9. His 13’6 clearance matched his season best and was good enough for 5th Place and a spot on the podium. Kishen Patel cleared the opening bar at 11’6 to tie for 11th and finish his tremendous first season with track and field and the pole vault. A nearly perfect race strategy in the 1600 put Ty Boucher in a furious kick over the last 100 meters with a familiar foe, GFC runner David Hettich. Hettich barely managed to outlean Ty in 4:24.11 to Boucher’s 4:24.13. The effort placed Boucher 6th in the strong field and moved him to #4 All-Time at RRHS.
In the 110m Hurdle prelims, Enerson (15.36) and Mo Kamara (15.62) both advanced to the finals. Unfortunately, Kamara tweaked his sore hamstring in the race, causing him to back out of the 4×100 prelims. Burian filled in for Kamara on the first leg, with Nsibirwa, Jaeden Holt, and Pope rounding out the rest of the team to run 45.07 and finish in 14th. The 4×800 team of Will Valentine, Dalton Byrne, Marcelles Sartwell, and Parker Carroll ran hard, matching or bettering their PR splits to finish 12th in 8:36.92. Without any seniors, the group gained valuable experience and look to make some noise next season!
Saturday morning started with the discus throw, where Czech exchange student Martin Buchbauer threw well but failed to make finals, finishing 16th in 124’7. This capped an impressive season for Buchbauer, who had not competed in competitive track and field before joining the team this spring. The high jump followed, an event in which Pope, Enerson, and Holmes all were entered. Unfortunately, neither athlete was able to score, with Pope and Enerson both tying for 9th at 5’10. Shortly afterwards was a legendary 3200m Run, one that saw some of the fastest collective times in state history. Again, Boucher executed a great strategy and finished in 9:30.78, placing 4th. The time puts him at #3 All-Time in school history. Ben Hutchison also put together a great race with a 9:43.73 effort to finish in 11th Place. The time moves him to #5 All-Time at RR.
After an update on the team scores revealed the Riders to sit in 7th Place, everyone knew some people needed to step up if the team was going to move into the Top-5 and take home a trophy. Luckily, this season’s two highest scoring events were still to come. Despite a battered hamstring, Kamara gutted out a 15.67 time for a 6th Place finish. Enerson, 7th a year ago, improved to 4th in 15.47. The track events moved quickly while the field events stalled as athletes moved back and forth between events. With the triple jump still going on, the 4×400 Relay turned into the meet’s second-to-last event. Here, the team of Nsibirwa, Boucher, Enerson, and Nyanforh ran 3:36.98, finishing 5th in their heat and 13th overall. At the triple jump, Pope had quieted most of the competition early with a 44’6 jump. Horcacitas also jumped well in the prelims with a 43’7 effort that put them 1-2 heading to finals. After Bismarck Century’s Talon Staudinger jumped 44’3 in finals, Horcacitas responded with a fantastic 44’2 to finish in third and set a new PR. The competition now won outright, Pope put an exclamation point to his victory with a PR 45’9.5 jump. The mark lengthens his RR Junior Class Record, is #2 All-Time in school history, and now sits #9 All-Time in Class A Boys in North Dakota.
With the loss of only six seniors, look for the Roughriders to have another strong season in 2017!
Results can be found here.
Photos can be found here.
Final Team Standings:
Men – Div A – Team Rankings – 19 Events Scored
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1) Bismarck Century 141 2) Bismarck High 103
3) Bismarck Legacy 65.50 4) Fargo Davies 55
5) Grand Forks Red River 48 5) Minot 48
7) Mandan 40 8) Fargo North 37
9) Williston 31 10) Fargo South 30
11) West Fargo 28 12) WF Sheyenne 25
13) Jamestown 22 14) Bismarck St. Mary’s 19
15) Grand Forks Central 14 15) Wahpeton 14
17) Dickinson 12.50 18) Shanley 5
19) Devils Lake 3