Sports

Dunham ends on a high

By Matthew Semisch

05/27/2014

BISMARCK - Coming into this year’s North Dakota state high school track and field meet, Adair Dunham had been charged with what many might call an unenviable task.

Namely, while competing in Bismarck, she was all alone in representing her entire team. Dunham was the only Westhope-Newburg track and field athlete, male or female, to qualify for the state meet at the MDU Resources Community Bowl.

This meant that she and Sioux track and field head coach Anthony Lee traveled to Bismarck safe in the knowledge that, while they would be attending the state’s premier high school track and field event, Westhope-Newburg wouldn’t have a chance at competing for a team title.

The school did end up on the scoreboard, though, and that’s something other teams with more than one member present last Friday and Saturday in Bismarck could’ve said.

Dunham is a senior living in Maxbass who moved to the town a year ago from Drummond, Mont., a year ago. On Saturday, she finished sixth in the North Dakota Class B girls’ pole vault event with a height of nine feet even.

She had finished fourth in the 2013 Montana Class C state track and field meet at that same height.

After the final event of her high school career, she felt pleased with what she’d accomplished both for herself and for her school.

“It’s great for all of us,” Dunham said. “I was hoping to be able to place here at state because I’d done the same last year in Montana, and I’m just really glad I was able to do it again this year.

“The competition here was really good, and I could have just as easily ended up not placing.”

Dunham, who is set to attend and hopes to vault for Minot State University, has wowed Lee all year, and he felt her success Saturday in Bismarck was a just reward.

“She most desfinitely deserves this,” Lee said. “We found out pretty quickly after she moved out here that she sets really high goals for herself, and she works so hard to reach them. She’s a great leader for our track team, just a great kid.

“She’s really happy that she’s placed here, and she should be. It’s awesome to have witnessed what she’s been able to accomplish since coming out here.”