Miners Face the Ups and Downs of the State Meet

The Miners competed in the State Track & Field Championship in Bismarck on Thursday May 22nd through Saturday May 24th. The Miners took 16 total athletes to the State Meet 14 of which were underclassman. The State Class B had 76 Teams, that have individuals at the Meet. The Miners had a lot of ups and downs during the meet. (Writing some of this was hard to write because I hate writing about the down moments)

Day 1 started with The Miners having both Malayah Williams (Shot Put) and Addison Schepp (Long Jump) competing in the first set of events of the day. Malayah had a throw in Prelims of 38' 1" which put her 6th going into finals. After all the finals throws Malayah ended 8th with her throw of 38' 1". This put the girls on the board for first team points of the meet. At the same time Addison was jumping in long jump. Addison hit her first jump of 16' 3.25". After that jump Addi struggled getting on the board and fouled her next 2 jumps and finished 11th overall. Next the Miners had the 4x200 teams going. The girls team with members Elva Jasso, Braelyn Hottman, Emma Dschaak, and RyLee Yantzer were running a great race and were on pace for a personal record but had a bad hand off and were out of exchange zone on the last hand off. This resulted in the relay team being disqualified (DQ). The Boys were next with members Zyon Phelps, Shane Schmidt, Jonas Braun, and Cooper Schepp. The boys ran a decent race with a time of 1:37.14 which was 4th best time the boys had ran all year. The team placed 26th overall out of 32 teams. This ended day 1.

Day 2 had more going on with Discus, hurdles, 1600, Javelin and the 4x100. The day started with girls discus with both Malayah Williams and Paige Sailer competing in the event. Both girls struggled to get things going with Malayah throwing 90' placing 33rd and Paige throwing 91' 3" placing 29th out of 37 athletes. On the track we had Addison and Cooper Schepp going in the 300 hurdles. Addison ran 1st and ran a good race and with a time of 47.40 which placed her 11th out of 23 and just missed finals. Cooper ran a good race as well and a time of 42.86 which placed him 12th out of 21. We headed back to discus for the boys and Anthony Hallett was up to compete. Anthony started of with a throw of 129' 8". Anthony threw around that mark the next few throws and placed 19th out of 37. We went back to the track with RyLee Yantzer in the 1600m. RyLee ran a great race and had a PR time of 5:33.20 and placed 14th out of 31 athletes. After the 1600 it was time for the 100/110 hurdles with Addison and Cooper. Addison was up first and was looking to show what she does every hurdle race. Addison was running a great race and time when she clipped the last hurdle causing her to fall to the ground. Addison being the person she is got up quick and finished the race as fast as she could. Her time after that was 16.53 which had to be broken by a tie with another girl. Both girls unfortunately missed finals by .08 and Addison finished 11th out of 23. Cooper was up next and his race had some chaos as well. The lead runner hit the last hurdle causing Cooper and 2 other athletes to be interfered with. Cooper did get through the race 2nd overall in his heat which would put him in the finals automatically. But do the interference the 3 athletes would have to rerun if they for sure wanted to qualify for finals. So Cooper and 2 others would have to wait until the end of the day to rerun this race. While all this was action finishing up we had Emaley Keller going in the Javelin. Emaley had a good throw of 110' 6". This throw placed her 11th out of 21 and had her just miss finals. What was suppose to be our last events of the day was the 4x100 teams. The girls team with members Emma Dschaak, Braelyn Hottman, Hannah McGraw, and Maci Schnaidt had a great race and got the baton around the track the fastest they had all year with a time of 52.22 and placed 17th out of 33. They boys turn was next with members Rhyse Unruh, Shane Schmidt, Jonas Braun, and Cooper Schepp who did not have as good as luck as the girls and did not run a good race and ran a 47.04 which placed them 31st out of 33. After watching all the 4x800 relays and a rerun in the class B boys 300m Hurdles it was time for the 110 hurdles rerun with Cooper. Cooper and the 2 others got started off neck and neck until the midpoint of the race when Cooper and one other kid pulled away. Cooper finished 2nd in the race with a time of 16.04. This new time still put him 2nd in the heat and into the finals. Coopers time re-broke his school record time during this race. This finally ended a wild and crazy day for the Miners.

Day 3 had only 3 Miners still going. They had Hannah McGraw in Pole Vault, Cooper Schepp in the 110 hurdles, and Addison Schepp in Triple Jump. The morning started off with pole vault and Hannah. Hannah came in at a height of 8' 6" and had all clean jumps through the height of 9' 6". Hannah attempt the height of 9' 9" three times with good effort but was now out of the competition due to missing and would place 5th out of 19. Hannah was the second girl to place at the state meet. Hannah finished her high school career on the podium at the state meet. Between the end of Pole Vault and the 110 hurdles we had a former Miner get inducted into the the Track and Field Hall of Fame in Christine Hoper. Christine still has school records in the 200m, 400m, 800m, 300m hurdles and is part of the 4x400 and 4x800 relay records as well. She was a 17 time state placer and won 8 events at the state meet during her career. Congrats to Christine Hoper on being inducted to the Hall of Fame.

Cooper was now on the track in the 110 hurdles. Cooper ran a good race and held off two other athletes and placed 7th and ran a time of 16.21. Cooper put the boys on the board for points. The last event for the Miners was the Triple Jump and Addison Schepp. Addison was a bit beat up from her fall the day before but Addison gave it a good effort and jumped 33' 10.25". All 3 jumps were in the 33' range. Addison placed 16th out of 30. After this event this ended the Miners State Meet and 2025 season.

For Full Results of the State Meet please go to https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/meet/606392/results/all

Coach Brown and myself knew coming into the state meet it would be a learning experience with most our athletes having 1 or no years of state competition experience and 2 previous state placers. The Miners probably had a lot of down moments with some good moments but we know that these moments are hopefully great learning moments. The Girls team had a total of 5 points at the State Meet and place 34 out of 46 scoring teams or 76 total teams. The girls point total is down a bit from last year total of 12. The Boys only scored 2 points and placed 43 out of 45 scoring teams or 76 total teams. This breaks the scoreless hiatus as the last points the Miner boys scored were in the 800m run on the last day of the 2023 state meet. At the end of the long 3 days of the state meet we know that all the kids had fun whether at the meet or hanging out at the meals and hotel as well as giving it their best effort. No matter the outcome we are always proud of all our athletes. Now the off season works begins with the weight room and camps. Thank You All for a great season.