Blue Jays sweep Ellendale boys title, girls finish second strong

Jamestown track and field showed more than one hot hand over a busy spring weekend. The Blue Jays’ boys stormed to the Ellendale Quarterback Club Invitational title with 194 points, the girls placed second with 129, and the program also held its own against larger fields at the Howard Wood Dakota Relays in Sioux Falls.

The boys’ margin in Ellendale was wide, and the wins came from across the lineup. Aiden Skari delivered a triple victory, taking the 100 meters in 12.02 seconds, the 200 in 23.56 and the triple jump at 41 feet, 11 inches. Grady Eckart stayed unbeaten in both hurdle races for the third straight meet, winning the 110 hurdles in 18.04 and the 300 hurdles in 46.51. Peacemaker Tukumunde added a long jump victory at 18-8, and Jamestown also won the 4x400 and 4x800 relays.

The girls’ side was just as revealing. Jamestown finished four points behind South Border, a narrow gap that reflected strength in multiple event groups rather than a single standout performance. Layna Hoffer won the 300 hurdles and the high jump, while Hayden Olson swept the horizontal jumps with victories in the long jump and triple jump. That kind of spread matters late in the season, when team points often come down to who can score in sprints, hurdles, jumps and relays instead of relying on a few automatic wins.

The Blue Jays also tested themselves on a bigger stage at the 101st annual Howard Wood Dakota Relays, held May 1-2 in Sioux Falls. The meet, which traces its roots to 1923 and was later renamed for Howard Wood, drew much deeper competition than a typical weekend invitational. Jamestown answered with Cody Berreth placing fifth in the shot put, and two relay teams finishing eighth.

That combination of results points to a program with postseason potential. Jamestown had already shown it could pile up points at the VCSU High School Open in Valley City on April 23, when the boys won with 163 points, 81 ahead of Ellendale, and the girls also produced wins in the sprint medley relay, high jump and triple jump. With Skari, Eckart, Hoffer, Olson and Berreth all contributing, the Blue Jays are building depth in the exact places that usually decide the bigger meets.