The Brandon Valley relay teams have a long history of making history and this year’s team has done that on a couple of occasions.
At the ESD meet on May 12 the 4x800m relay team of Mia Wentzy, Lily Rude, Addison Scholten, and Sarah VanDeBerg ran a time of 8:59.50, setting an all-time state record and running the eighth-quickest time in the nation.
On Thursday at the Last Chance Meet, Brandon Valley's girls medley team of Scholten, Wentzy, Kyra Weiss, and Madison Pederson shattered the state record with a 4:01.38 time. That mark has the team ranked fourth in the nation.
“It's just that wonderful tradition. They see those things, they want to attain those goals,” Brandon Valley track and field coach Troy Sturgeon said of breaking state records. “I think it's one of those things that is so, so binding with them because they care about each other so much because they're such a tight-knit group, and that makes the difference.”
The Brandon Valley track and field team has been able to reach these heights through team camaraderie and the collective and individual competitiveness of their team members. Iron sharpens iron, and the Lynx runners compete against each other in practices and workouts daily, which helps them improve and be their best for each other when it’s time for a meet.
The 4x800m relay team has been racing together for the past two years. They’ve developed a close relationship through hours of practice and competition.
“I think we always put our relationship before our competitiveness for each other and just our relationship with each other drives us to be better,” Wentzy, who was part of both record-breaking teams, said. “We all love hanging out with each other. I mean you can't not like hanging out with each other after hanging out all the time every day after school.”
That team has been striving to break the state record since its inception but after breaking the state meet record last year and seeing where their time ranked in the all-time state rankings, they felt like they had a real chance.
“I think it's been something in the back of their minds and in their training and everything all along,” Sturgeon said.
The team, along with distance coach Tony Thoreson, pinpointed the ESD meet as the perfect opportunity to go for the record.
“Fortunately, they told me over a year ago, they had promised me that they were going to get that record,” Thoreson said.
The 4x800m relay team was locked into their time during the ESD meet. They knew exactly what times they should be hitting, what their splits should be during the race. As Wentzy turned the final corner she saw not only her team, but a lot of the other teams at the meet standing at the finish line.
“Everyone knew that we were going for it, so everyone was cheering for us,” she said.
The senior kicked it into high gear, not wanting to be the reason the team didn’t break the record, and as soon as she crossed the finish line she knew they were under.
“I was more excited than tired after that, just because we had been wanting it for so long,” Wentzy said. “We immediately all just got together. We were super happy.”
The Brandon Valley track and field team will have plenty of representatives at the state meet later this week from May 23-25.
Jonathan Fernandez covers high school and college sports for the Argus Leader. Contact him at jfernandez1@argusleader.com. Follow him on Twitter at@JFERN31
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