Sports

Aide sets state record, captures third title

By Tyler Ohmann

05/28/2013

The Bottineau track and field teams had quite a weekend this past Friday and Saturday in Bismarck at the Class B track meet.

It was especially a strong meet for Braves junior Harrison Aide, who was a big piece in four events.

Aide was a big part in all three Bottineau relay teams, that finished in the top eight, including a top two finish in the 4x100 meter relay.

The crowning achievement for Aide, however, was his third consecutive pole vault state title after clearing a state-record height of 15-feet. It vaulted Aide to atop the record books again. After breaking school and region records with his 14-foot, seven inch vault last weekend, this 15-foot vault broke the 2001 Class B boys record of Scott Carlblom of Lisbon, who had cleared 14-feet, seven inches.

It was yet another accomplishment that Aide cleared literally and figuratively in his lifetime.

“After I got 14 feet I just got in my rhythm,” Aide said. “It felt good after I got in my rhythm and made 14-eight, then my first try at 15 I should have had, and my second try at 15 was probably my best vault.”

“At 15-four I had few good vaults at it, but I just didn’t get it,” Aide added.

The junior does still have something to shoot for though, since he was unable to clear 15-feet, four inches, the height that was his father’s (who is his coach) best.

“My goal next year will be 16 feet, so I still got a ways to go,” Aide said.

Seventh grader Riley Gallagher also competed in the event, but was unable to clear the first height.

It wasn’t Aides only trip to the podium for the Braves though as all three relay teams also had strong finishes.

“The boys had a real good meet, and they showed it by making it to the award stand,” said Bottineau head coach David Hoff. “All of our relays had season-best times and we had a good corps of boys runners that did well.”

First the 4x200 meter relay team consisting of Aide, seniors Trevor Wettlaufer and Alberto Moncera and sophomore Ethan Kerslake took seventh place with a time of 1:33.44.

Next the 4x400 meter relay team of Aide, Wettlaufer, Kerslake and senior Ty Domben finished in sixth place with a strong 3:35.79 time.
Lastly and most impressively the Braves finished as runner-ups in the 4x100 meter relay, which was of the same makeup as the 4x200 meter relay team, with a season-best 45.71 second finish, falling to first-place Kildeer by only .57 of a second.

“It’s so much fun when you’re at the state meet and you’re placing in events,” Aide said. “We ran really good this weekend, so I’m happy about that.”

It was an impressive farewell performance for Wettlaufer. The senior, not only part of all three relay teams, but also had a personal best in the 400 meters on Saturday as well.

Wettlaufer ran a strong finals time of 51.57 to capture fifth place. Aide was impressed with how the senior did over the weekend.

“He ran excellent today,” Aide said about the senior. “It really helped us.”

Other finishes for Bottineau included Moncera in the 100 meters, who finished seventh in his heat of the race at 11.74 seconds, which didn’t qualify him for the finals.

Kerslake also was unable to make the finals in the 400 meters as he finished in 16th in the prelims with a time of 54.43.

Lastly for the Braves boy’s was senior Owen Furby, who tossed the shot 43-feet, seven inches and finished in 17th place.

Bottineau finished with 20 team points on the boys side.

“I think it went good for everyone,” Aide said. “We came in ranked not very high, and we finished better than what we got ranked, so it was a good weekend.”

Hoff was also happy with how the Braves did over the weekend.

“I think we competed really well,” Hoff said. “In most cases our kids exceeded where they had been coming into the meet.”

“Maybe we didn’t get on the platform for everything, but you want best efforts at the state track meet and I think we did a pretty good job at getting real good efforts,” Hoff added.

The Stars side of things included some good efforts as well.

Junior Courtney Gallagher locked in a 10th place finish in the 100 meters after finishing in 13.08 seconds.

Maria Diepolder earned two points after finishing in seventh in girls pole vault. She cleared a height of eight-feet, six-inches, which bettered her region height.

In long jump two Stars qualifiers fought hard, but came up short. Gallagher leaped 15-feet, 7.5 inches and finished 12th, while Stephanie Brenden jumped 15 feet, 1.5 inches and finished in 19th place.

As for the two relay teams that qualified the 4x100 meter relay and the 4x400 meter relay, neither team made it to the finals.

The 4x100 meter relay team of Gallagher, Diepolder, Megan Fix and Bailey Neubauer finished just shy of making the finals with a 53.34 mark. They were second-alternates for the finals.
The 4x400 meter relay team of Gallgher, Diepolder, Brenden and Sydnie Nelson were disqualified.

Hoff thought that all the Stars performance personified the hard work that each athlete put into the season, which culminated at the state meet.

“I think hard work pays off, and you have to focus at the right time,” Hoff said. “We wanted to have a good region meet, but we talked about having one good meet beyond the region meet. You don’t want to think of that (regions) as the pinnacle, this is really the weekend that you want to be the best.”

He said that he was proud and happy for all the athletes, not just those that made it to the podium for top finishes.

“I think our kids did a really good job and competed hard,” Hoff said. “It wasn’t just the people who were up on the awards stand. We had a lot of kids that did well, but just weren’t in the top-eight in the state.”

The weekend was really Aide’s to bask in though, as he soared to another record.