Vermillion to host <br />Big 8 Conference meet

Vermillion to host
Big 8 Conference meet By Parker Knox
Sportswriter It's rare that Vermillion High School track and field athletes get the chance to stay at home to compete in a track meet, but that will happen next week. VHS will host the Big 8 Conference track and field meet on Thursday, May 14, with competition slated to start at 3 p.m. That will be the last meet of the regular season before the Tanagers reach the do-or-die stage of the campaign with the Region 4A meet at Elk Point on May 21, followed for qualifiers by the state meet at Spearfish and Rapid City May 29-30. Vermillion's girls 1600-meter relay team, facing competition from two states, earned a fifth-place finish in that event at the Howard Wood Dakota Relays in Sioux Falls last weekend. "They won their heat handily," said Coach Lenni Billberg, "and they were able to place in the finals though coming from the slow heat." The foursome of Kayla Munger, Morgan Erickson, Mariah Dodson and Sarah Day gave promise of great things to come in future seasons for the young Tanager girls squad.  Relays have been a strong suit for the VHS girls all spring. At Howard Wood they finished in 4:19.08, behind the winning Adrian, Minn., team, which won in 4:08.85, as well as Winner, Aberdeen Roncalli and Canton.  After Vermillion came Clark/Willow Lake and Windom, Minn. Billberg said the VHS girls 4×100 and 4×200 teams came close to placing.  "Wyatt Hunter was just out of the running in the shot put," Billberg said, "and Will Mart also continued his personal-record assault, throwing the discus 136'10"."