Ram senior Jackson Morton earned second place in the Class 2A 100m hurdles at the State Track & Field Meet. Morton finished the prelims in third place with a time of 14.80 seconds. He trimmed his time to 14.64 seconds in the finals to win the silver medal, less than one second behind gold medalist Jack Latham of Sprit Lake. Latham’s time was 13.81 seconds.
Morton was also the final leg of the third place shuttle hurdle relay team. With teammates Landyn Venteicher, Bryce Stalder and Nathan Black, the team placed sixth in the prelims at 1:02.08, and third in the finals with a time of 1:00.73. Spirt Lake won that race in 1:00.5. Latham was the fourth man on that relay team as well.
The Rams qualified three other events for the state meet. Stalder placed 14th in the long jump with a leap of 20’ 3.75”. Winning jumper was Beau DeRocher of Hinton at 22’ 4.75”. Black placed 19th in the high jump, clearing the bar at 5’ 10”. First place went to Derek Weisskopf of Williamsburg at 6’ 7”. Morton placed 23rd in the 400m hurdles with a time of 1:02.43. Greg Peterson of Sioux Central won the race in 55.10 seconds.
All Ram boy track and field competitors are seniors.
The girls team qualified four events for the state meet. Olivia Shannon had the highest finish of the girls, placing seventh in the 200m dash with a time of 26.15 seconds. She improved from her preliminary race, when she placed eighth in 26.70 seconds. Winner was Panorama’s Jaidyn Sellers in 25.04 seconds.
Shannon was ninth in the long jump with a leap of 16’ 6.75”. Winner was Reese Brownlee of Clear Lake with a jump of 18’ 7”.
The 4 X 200m relay team of Shannon, Katrina Heupel, Natalie Heupel and Isabella Schroeder placed 14th with a time of 1:49.70. Winning time was 1:44.36 posted by Kingsley-Pierson/Woodbury Central.
The same lineup placed 22nd in the preliminaries of the 4 X 100m relay with a time of 53.32 seconds. Winning time in the finals was 49.91 seconds set by Williamsburg.
Shannon, both Heupels and Schroeder are juniors.
