Minot High's Cullen Sisco attempts to clear the bar during the high jump event at the Minot Invite on Monday, April 20, at Magic City Campus. Mike Kraft/MDN

A high ankle sprain put a damper on his senior season on the football field, but a healthy Blake Anderson has picked up where he left off with the Minot High boys track & field team, winning meet after meet in both the shot put and discus.

It was more of the same at the Minot Invite on Monday, April 20, at Magic City Campus, where Anderson again took the top spot in his two specialties, setting a personal best in both.

The future Minot State two-sport athlete began his day with a victory in the shot put, recording a personal-best toss of 57 feet, 2 inches. He took the crown by just under 3 feet over Bismarck Century’s Braxton Dahl, with his best distance covering 54 feet, 3 inches. Minot North’s Ethan Howey took third with a toss of 54 feet, 2 inches.

“He’s shown that he’s locked in,” Minot High coach Josh Knutson said. “He’s been locked in since the beginning and he’s shown at practice that he’s taking everything seriously. He’s really shown the discipline to really be the best and push himself as hard as he can.”

Anderson topped his previous best distance he set just a few days prior where he recorded a throw of 55 feet, 5 inches at the BPS Invite. He now has five victories in five meets in the shot put event.

A couple hours later, Anderson was back in the field, this time with a discus in his hand. Anderson was coming off a second-place finish at the BPS Invite with a season-low toss of 159 feet, 3 inches, edged out by Century’s Jamison Lee. He had won his first two discus events before being upended by Lee.

No one came close to touching Anderson this time around, as he launched a personal best discus 184 feet, 1 inch to capture the title. The distance bested his WDA-winning throw of 180 feet, 9 inches from a year ago. Dahl was a distant second on Monday with a throw of 157 feet, 8 inches.

Even with a pair of victories, Anderson said he can still get better.

“There’s a lot to improve on in both,” Anderson said. “I’m trying to PR in every meet and just get better at every practice. There’s still a lot to come. “You have to be strong, of course, and then it’s really just explosiveness and your technique. Once you have all three of those, you can make it to the top.”

Anderson is among the favorites to win a state title in the discus. He is the defending WDA champion and state runner-up. He finished behind Century’s Ole Taylor at state last year, but with Taylor having graduated, Anderson enters this season as the top returning athlete in the event.

“It really doesn’t matter what you’re ranked,” Anderson said. “You just have to perform on that day. I’m still trying to reach that high of last year. There’s a little bit of pressure, but it’s just like any other thrower. It doesn’t matter who graduated or who you’re against. It’s just you against you.”

Anderson was responsible for two of Minot High’s four event victories on the day in which the Magicians finished eighth overall in the 10-team event with 46 points. James Pallotta had a hand in the other two – one individually and one as part of the relay team.

Pallotta notched his third victory in the 100 meters in four meets this season. He ran a 10.96, just shy of his personal best of 10.74 he set 10 days prior at Minot High’s first home meet. Pallotta held off Mandan’s Brandon Baker, who finished with a time of 11.22.

“(James) has come in with a lot of excitement,” Knutson said. “He’s really stepped up as a leader in our sprint group and he’s come in wanting to learn quick and fast. He’s trying to absorb as much as he can and be the best athlete that he can.”

Pallotta was third at state in the 100m last year behind St. Mary’s Colby Fleck and Bismarck High’s Deegan Staudinger. Fleck graduated and Staudinger – a senior – has yet to compete in an event this season. Pallotta will also be competing with Bismarck Legacy’s Zayden Horne, who broke his own state record in the 100m at the BPS Invite, running a blistering 10.27. Horne didn’t compete in the 100m on Monday, but did win the 200m in a time of 21.36.

“I just run my own race. As long as you can execute, that’s as much as you can do,” Pallotta said. “Anything can happen at state. The crazy goal would be to win. If I can get top two or top three again, that would be good.”

Minot North’s Cian Hannon had a pair of top-six finishes in the 100m and 200m, respectively. He placed fourth in the 100m with a time of 11.34 and took sixth in the 200m at 23.21. Hannon has finished in the top six in all four of his meets in the 100m, setting a personal best time of 11.11 at the BPS Invite. The Sentinels had the top finish among the two Minot schools, finishing sixth with 63 points.

Pallotta took part in the 4×200 relay for the first time this season as the Magicians rolled out a new team consisting of Tariq Bell, Pallotta, Andrew Van Pelt and Jack Stevick. Pallotta had been paired with Bell, Van Pelt and Logan Ludwig in the 4×100 relay in two meets this season. Minot High is the defending state champion in the 4×100 relay, but lost two legs of that relay team to graduation in Aric Winczewski and Aaron Prestwich.

The new team delivered a win for the Magicians, besting the field with a time of 1:30.61, a little over a second faster than Bismarck High. With chemistry being an important aspect to a successful relay team, Knutson said he doesn’t expect to make many changes – if any – to the relay teams going forward, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t competition internally.

“We so far have been sticking with the same group, but I know there’s a fight to be on the rally team,” Knutson said. “All the kids want to be on it coming back as state champions. We have quite a few kids who are hungry and want to be in the last spot.”

Pallotta said that developing chemistry takes a bit of time, but he’s confident it will be there in plenty of time before the WDA and state meets.

“Name-wise it will be different, but overall speed-wise, we haven’t really executed a great relay yet, but I think time-wise, it will be similar to last year,” Pallotta said. “Chemistry probably takes 10 practices or so, but we’re getting there.”

Minot North’s 4×400 relay team of Ephriam Boayke, Jayce Wendt, Vincent Cardoso and Aaron Garza took third with a time of 3:37.91. Bismarck High took the top spot in 3:29.73.

One event Knutson said he was excited about seeing develop over the course of the season is in the hurdles, both at 110m and 300m. The Magicians qualified two hurdlers for state at the BPS Invite with Logan Ludwig and Ryder Sutton. Ludwig posted a season-best time of 16.41 on Monday and finished fifth in the 110m hurdles.

With only a handful of seniors on the roster, the Magicians field a much younger squad than in prior years. As upperclassmen, Anderson’s and Pallotta’s performances on the track and in the field have helped set the example for the younger athletes.

“Just having one of them in track and one of them in field pushes everyone around them,” Knutson said. “The other kids get to see how hard they work and they can follow suit. It makes the kids hungry. It makes kids become leaders younger, so it really sets us up for the future as we grow the next couple of years.”

The Sentinels won two events with Jon Folk claiming the title in the 3200m. He ran a personal-best 10:55.12. Following behind him in second place was teammate Jonah Ahrens, crossing the finish line in 11:52.61. The 4×800 relay team of Jayce Wendt, Jace Hoagland, Lester Luis Fuentes and Folk, was the lone participant in the event and clocked a 9:00.77.

Luis Fuentes also had a runner-up finish, running a 2:08.25 in the 800m.

Dickinson won the event with 115 points. The Mavericks took first place in three events. Bismarck was a close second, finishing with 112.5 points and four event wins. Century (100.5), Legacy (92.5) and Mandan (73.5) rounded out the top five. Seven teams won at least one event.