By John Rittenhouse
The Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth track teams turned in a strong showing at the annual Howard Wood Dakota Relays in Sioux Falls Friday and Saturday.
Competing in the Class B version of the event, the Patriots turned in three top-10 performances while competing in a total of 13 events.
Considering there were more than 150 teams on hand for the meet, H-BC-E made quite an impression.
"All in all, it was a fantastic meet for us," said Patriot coach Tom Goehle.
"We had one disappointment (having a relay team disqualified after turning in an outstanding effort), which is a minor thing because it doesn't take anything away from how well the kids ran and competed in that race."
The event in question is the boys' 3,200-meter relay, a race H-BC-E placed second in on the track with a time of 8:20.7.
Brad Haak, Greg Van Batavia, Tyler Bush and Lee Jackson finished the race just shy of a school record, but their celebration was cut short when meet officials disqualified the team for violation of a uniform code.
All runners are expected to wear exactly the same uniforms in competition. Three of the Patriots wore white biker tights, while another wore royal blue. Meet officials spotted the infraction and disqualified the team.
"The kids were disappointed right away, but they accepted it later on. They ran a fantastic race. It was an unfortunate thing, but I'm glad it happened at this meet and not at the sub-section or section meets later on," Goehle said.
H-BC-E did place second in the boys' sprint medley relay with a time of 3:42.65.
Chris Reid, Jesse Leuthold, Bush and Haak formed the medley squad.
Haak also was in the spotlight when he ran in the meet's Special Event Friday night.
Haak placed third in the 400-meter dash with a time of 50.47.
The H-BC-E girls produced a 10th-place finish in the sprint medley relay.
LaDonna Sandstede, Bev Wurpts, Erin Boeve and Cassi Tilstra completed the race in 4:33.98.
Here is a look at the rest of H-BC-EÕs performances during last weekend's meet.
H-BC-E boys
12th place: Reid, long jump, 20-11 1/4.
18th place: 1,600 relay (Bush, Jackson, Lee Walraven and Reid), 3:41.45.
28th place: 400 relay (Tyson Metzger, Walraven, Jackson and Leuthold), 48.24.
32nd place: 800 relay (Metzger, Van Batavia, Cody Scholten and Leuthold), 1:40.95.
H-BC-E girls
13th place: 3,200 relay (Brittney Rozeboom, Mya Mann, Tilstra and Wurpts), 10:39.99.
15th place: 1,600 relay (Wurpts, Mann, Boeve and Tilstra), 4:20.59.
22nd place: 400 relay (Melinda Feucht, Danielle Fransman, Sandstede and Boeve), 54.68.
30th place: 800 relay (Sandstede, Feucht, Rozeboom and Kelly Mulder), 2:00.2.
Other performances: Boeve, long jump, 15-9 1/2.