The Philip Scottie boys' and girls' track and field teams represented their school with honors at the 2010 South Dakota State "B" Track and Field Meet.

The Scottie boys earned first place team placement with a score of 61, beating out Wessington Springs' 53. Other local teams included Wall taking 18th place with 13 points and New Underwood finishing in 25th place with nine points. Philip's Jeff O'Connell was awarded the most valuable player for the State "B" boys. O'Connell set a new Philip High School long jump record of 22'02.25".

"I've had some good seasons, but nothing like coming home with the boys' state championship and the girls' earning 12th place and a total combined team earning second place. That is just phenomenal," said Philip head track coach Jerry Rhodes. "As track coach, you always want your athletes to qualify for state, but the icing on the cake is coming home with the medals that we did. They know that they can compete with the best in their class in the state."

"Obviously Jeff O'Connell had a superb meet, and was rewarded with a well-deserved MVP," said Rhodes. "Karch Foley really came through as one of our in-the-clutch performers at state, scoring a total of eight points between the shot and the discus."

"Going into the last event of the day, we were tied with Wessington Springs, and we ended up getting second in the 4x400 boys meter relay, giving us another eight points and the championship. Another clutch performer, who allowed us to juggle some for state in the relays, was Troy Guptill. This allowed us to move Cvach and O'Connell into individual events, which still kept our relays very strong," said Rhodes. "The other three clutch players of Cvach, Brandon O'Dea and Rob Williamson, could always be counted on to give 110 percent, as they did all year. All of the athletes ran when they were hurt or sick, but all ran with the heart of a champion."

"The girls were overshadowed by the boys this year, but when it was all said and done, they had a tremendous year. They won the Western Great Plains Conference and Region 7B meets, and took 12th in the state." said Rhodes. "The ladies, just like the gentlemen, performed with the hearts of champions. I just couldn't ask any more out of them. They set a new school record in the 4x400 meter relay, which has been around since 1993. They also set a 300 meter hurdles record."

"The nice thing about the girls' team is most of the members will be back next year," said Rhodes. "We will be missing two seniors, Kenzy Pinney and Emily Schofield."

Rhodes concluded, "The season wouldn't have been possible without the kids and their God-given talent. They dug down and left it on the track. Most importantly, I give the amount of success we've had to our assistant coaches, Tom Parquet and Ralph Kroetch. They were both my right hand men. Plus there was Pat Guptill, Brandon West and Scott Pinney. All of these men made my job a whole lot easier."

During the boy's 400 meter dash preliminaries, Philip's Casey Cvach ran an official FAT time of 49.87, which set a new PHS record. In the boys' 4x400 meter relay, the Philip team of O'Connell, Casey Cvach, O'Dea and Williamson ran an official FAT time of 3:31.34, also setting a new PHS record. William Coyle achieved his personal best in the 3200 meter run.

The Scottie girls came home with 21 points for 12th place. Other local teams included Wall earning eighth place with 30.5 points, Kadoka Area taking 18th place with 14 points and New Underwood ending in 38th place with four points.

For the girls' 4x400 meter relay preliminaries, the team of Kaeley Fenhaus, Molly Coyle, Misty Johnson and Josie Guptill ran a time of 4:14.34, a new PHS record. The girls' 4x800 meter relay ended up running a full six seconds better than they had all season, a personal best.

The combined Philip boys' and girls' teams earned second place overall.

The South Dakota High School Activities Associations' boys' and girls' 2010 State "B" High School Track and Field Meet was held May 28-29 in Sioux Falls at Howard Wood Stadium. A total of 2,395 boys and girls qualified to compete, representing 150 member "AA", "A" and "B" schools. Class "B" qualifiers included 406 girls and 460 boys.

Boys

Discus

Karch Foley, 4th, 139'09"

Shot put

Foley, 6th, 4:14.10h, 46'03.00"

Long jump

Jeff O'Connell, 1st, 22'02.25"

Triple jump

O'Connell, 1st, 43'10.00"

Pole vault

Blake Martinez, No Height

Austin Pinney, NH

200 meter dash

Casey Cvach, 6th, 24.54 (finals)

Troy Guptill, 10th, 24.54 (preliminaries)

400 meter dash

Cvach, 2nd, 50.50

3200 meter run

William Coyle, 11th, 10:52.95

4x100 meter relay

Cvach, Guptill, Brandon O'Dea and Rob Williamson, 3rd, 45.40

4x200 meter relay

O'Dea, Williamson, O'Connell, Guptill, 2nd, 1:33.87

4x400 meter relay

O'Connell, Cvach, O'Dea, Williamson, 2nd, 3:31.34

1600 Sprint Medley

Colter Cvach, Guptill, O'Dea, Williamson, 20th, 4:00.08

Girls

Pole vault

Kaci Oliver, 14th, 6-06.00

100 meter hurdles

Josie Guptill, 5th, 16.78

300 meter hurdles

Kaeley Fenhaus, 2nd, 47.75

Guptill, 7th, 49.09

200 meter dash

Fenhaus, 6th, 28.05

3200 meter run

Holly Iwan, 9th, 12:45.94

4x200 meter relay

Guptill, LaRae Van Tassel, Fenhaus, Molly Coyle, 7th, 1:53.70

4x400 meter relay

Guptill, Misty Johnson, Fenhaus, Coyle, 7th, 4:19.62

4x800 meter relay

Emily Schofield, Johnson, Iwan, Coyle, 10th, 10:36.74

1600 Sprint Medley

Krista Wells, Van Tassel, Johnson, Coyle, 15th, 4:41.64