State track and field predictions by John Papendick (based on school color)

I made 120 predictions of who the winners would be at the South Dakota high school state track and field meet.

 Like normal, most of those picks were based on school color. I don't go in for these agonizing, researching, analytical type of predictions.

 I make my NCAA Division I men's basketball picks in minutes. It takes me only a couple of hours to pick all the winners in a complete NFL regular season.

 I don't/can't dwell. Who has the time for that?

 So here is how I did on my team picks:

Class AA girls: Rapid City Stevens (Aberdeen Central won).

Class AA boys: Sioux Falls Washington (they won).

Class A girls: Sioux Falls Christian (St. Thomas More won).

Class A boys: Custer (they won).

Class B girls: Ipswich (they won).

Class B boys: Parker (Herreid-Selby Area won).

 I don't predict team points, because I probably would base that on how much rainfall each community got in the past year. And that would be just plain silly.

 However, I did predict a winner for each of the 19 events in each of the six classes. Thus, the 120 predictions when you add in the six team predictions.

 So, here is how I did on my individual picks:

Class AA girls: I picked nine of the 19 events correctly, including Aberdeen Central's Hannah Kastigar in the 800, Alexis Clark in the pole vault and the 3,200-meter relay team (Lexi Weisbeck, Sydney Waterman, Brynn Flakus, Kastigar).

Class AA boys: I picked 14 of the 19 events correctly.

Class A girls: I picked five of the 19 events correctly, including Danielle Waldner of Redfield/Doland in the shot put and Stephanie Gemar of Mobridge-Pollock in the discus.

Class A boys: I picked 11 of the 19 events correctly, including Daniel Roberts of Mobridge-Pollock in the discus and Ephram Albrecht of Redfield/Doland in the triple jump.

Class B girls: I picked eight of the 19 events correctly, including Sierra Stotz of Eureka-Bowdle in the 100 and the Ipswich winners of Macy Heinz (400, 800 and 1,600), Tori Moore (3,200), Shekota Myer (shot put), Autumn Pitz (pole vault) and the 3,200-meter relay team (Maci Gauer, Heinz, Taylor Loken, Moore).

Class B boys: I picked nine of the 19 events correctly, including Austin Iverson of Herreid-Selby Area in the 110 hurdles and his teammate Dakota Thorstenson in the high jump.

 That means I picked 59 of the 120 winners. You can always count on me to give a 49 percent effort.

 

John Papendick is the managing news-sports editor for the American News: jpapendick@aberdeennews.com.

Twitter: @jpapendick