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DLB-LC scores with three state champions, boys take fourth

Photo special to MDN/Al Christianson Des Lacs-Burlington/Lewis & Clark senior Kari Fritel takes her second attempt in the Class B girls shot put. Fritel won state with a throw of 39-feet, eight and a half inches.

By ALEX EISEN

Staff writer

aeisen@minotdailynews.com

BISMARCK — Smooth hand-offs, a one-lap sprint and one last-ditch heave brought home three state championships for the Des Lacs-Burlington/Lewis & Clark track and field team on Saturday at the Bismarck Community Bowl.

Carried by those victories, the Laker boys finished fourth in the team standings and the girls placed 11th.

Senior Mark Medalen took home two of the championships in the 400-meter run and the 4×200 relay. Senior Kari Fritel won the other individual title in the girls shot put.

In total, the Lakers scored points on 17 separate occasions on Saturday.

The hand-offs proved to be the difference in the state record breaking 4×200 relay with a time of one minute and 29.76 seconds. Tyson Akers, Tommy Burke, Josh Knutson and Medalen transferred the baton with ease and went from the middle of the pack after 300 meters to leading after the second hand-off at the halfway point.

“That was a beautiful hand-off,” Medalen said.

Burke added: “We worked on it this morning too, that helped us… We have always had one (hand-off) be off, but all of them were gold.”

Medalen interrupted: “Good time for us to get them all working, right?”

Medalen then went on to defend his state title in the 400 from last year with a time of 49.76 seconds.

“At the start I kept with (Lisbon’s) Maverick Coleman till about the 200,” Medalen said. “Then after that I knew I had to just give it all I had. (Noah) Sickler gave me a hell of a run.”

In a tight finish, Medalen held off Dickinson Trinity’s Sickler by two hundredths of a second.

“I feel like I just had to defend it, which made me a little more nervous leading up to the race and even during the race,” Medalen said. “But, it feels good now that I have done it.”

His relay teammate Knutson suffered a tough second place in the 110-hurdles after posting the fastest time in the preliminaries. Knutson also took fourth in the 300-hurdles.

One of the first events of the day on Saturday was the Class B girls shot put. Fritel set the stage early by throwing the best mark in the preliminaries, but faulted on her first throw in the finals.

“I wasn’t worried about it,” Fritel said. “I just tried to focus on what I needed to do.”

She came back with a 37-8 throw in round two to move back up the leaderboard. Trailing Nelson County’s Paige Haakenson (37-11.5) and Lisbon’s Makayla Froehlich (37-09.5) going into Fritel’s last throw, Fritel composed herself to launch the shot put 39-08.5.

“It feels awesome,” Fritel said. “You just get a big smile on your face and you feel great.”

Junior sprinter Caitlyn Vogel also had a busy day. She took fourth in the 100- and 200-meter dash. She improved from her ninth-place preliminary time for sixth in the 400. Lastly, she anchored the seventh place 4×200 relay team consisting of Trisha Billadeau, Kyle Lauf and Brooke Bailey.

The Class B boys state champion was New Town with 85 points with Dickinson Trinity (71) and Kindred (51) rounding out the podium. Hazen won the Class B girls state championship with 78 points.

Alex Eisen covers Minot High School, Minot State athletics and high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @AEisen13.

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