The Howard Wood Dakota Relays is unique based on its history – this Friday and Saturday marks the 94
th year of a meet that began in 1923 – but it is also distinctive because it includes both high school and college events.
As such many of the University of South Dakota men's and women's track teams' 34 home-state athletes are extremely familiar with what they'll be part of this weekend in Sioux Falls.
A Division I spring track schedule takes the Coyotes all over the map this time of year with several weather-friendly trips to Texas and California. There remains, however, a special place in a lot of Coyote hearts for the annual trip to Howard Wood Field.
The opportunity is there for several USD athletes to add to what in many cases is already an extensive list of memories. In doing so, the program continues to be a strong supporter of a track meet that is woven into the state's sports history.
"It's a really cool to be able to go back and compete in that meet again," said
Haley Bruggeman, a senior hurdler and multi-event athlete at USD who graduated from Harrisburg. "It's great to get the opportunity to show the kids in high school that this is still fun for us."
Like many of her teammates, Bruggeman remembers clearly when she was on the other side. As a senior at Harrisburg High School, she'd committed to compete at USD the next year. She made sure she was wearing a Coyote cap that weekend.
"I'd completed the recruiting part of it and I was going to USD," Bruggeman said. "I remember watching the USD athletes and thinking 'Holy Cow, that's going to be me in a year.' We get the chance to be role models, especially to the high school kids. It's great getting the chance to go back and get that opportunity."
Teammate
Macy Heinz did not put Ipswich on the map exactly, but her exploits for her tiny high school definitely reminded track fans around here that there was such a place. And furthermore, that this place had a very talented young runner.
Heinz won the Howard Wood Dakota Relays "special event" as both an eighth-grader and as a sophomore for Ipswich, turning back some of the best runners in the upper Midwest in the process. She went on to become one of the best smalltown track athletes the state has ever seen.
"I was really nervous for that first one – I was young and it was really quite an opportunity," Heinz said. "It turned out very well. Coming back and winning it again was that much more special. I was glad I got the opportunity to do two because I was able to enjoy the second one a lot more."
As an eighth-grader it was a starry-eyed young teenager shocking this little corner of the world with her ability. As a sophomore, everyone in the Howard Wood seats knew who she was.
"The second time was more about enjoying the experience," Heinz said. "The second time around I realized how cool a moment it really was."
Like Heinz, former Parker standout
Zack Anderson hails from a small school. Also similarly, he can pinpoint specific moments where this meet made an indelible impression on him and his life as a track athlete.
"It's the one meet on my calendar that I never want to miss," said Anderson, who won three Class B state high jump titles for Parker. "We were a small 'B' school – we idolized that meet. We got to compete against the bigger schools, something we didn't get many chances to do in Parker. It was high stakes for us – definitely the meet we chose to get in to."
Anderson won the high jump at the Howard Wood meet as a sophomore and senior in high school. Moving ahead several years, last spring at Howard Wood he executed a 7-foot jump. There was not a better time nor a better place to deliver that kind of effort in his opinion.
"My freshman year at USD it was like 'Oh man, I finally get to go back home and compete and everyone can come out and watch," Anderson said. "It ended up being about my worst meet of the year. That was probably just a lot of psyching myself out. But I think that lit the fire. I wanted to be competitive. And last year was better – I finally gave South Dakota the seven-foot jump. It was awesome to go 7-1."
It was the first time he'd eclipsed seven feet as a collegian in his home state. He comes into the 2019 meet having cleared the magic mark in his previous eight consecutive meets, so there has been significant growth over the years. But the novelty has not worn off when it comes to Howard Wood.
"You go to Long Beach, California, and you measure the bar – it's going to be the exact same seven feet that it's going to be here," he said. "But there is a big difference in making it here. Here you have a bunch of people supporting you. You don't get that thousands of miles away."
Whereas Bruggeman, Heinz and Anderson are accustomed to competing at the meet as collegians, former Sioux Falls Lincoln High School sprinter
Collin Brison, a USD freshman, will be competing for the first time in Coyote colors.
"As a high schooler you see some of the college athletes running around," Brison said. "For some of them it's "That's going to be me some day.' It's definitely going to be a good time coming back and seeing people that supported me in the years prior."
It's not a coincidence that USD customarily hears its athletes' names called out as winners more often than the other colleges participating. The Howard Wood experience historically falls a week before the Summit League meet, making participation at least a little inconvenient for many athletes.
But instead of USD coach
Lucky Huber and his staff to steering his best athletes away from competing, they encourage the Coyotes to make the most of a chance to perform in the area in front of local fans of the sport. Showing up and posting top efforts has become part of the USD brand.
"It's almost like a home meet for everybody," Brison said. "I always watched these guys run when I was in high school. Looking at them it was like 'Oh wow, these guys run at the Division I level and they see everything in the nation. For them to want to come here to Sioux Falls and Howard Wood, must be a pretty big deal, too.'"
Along the way, the South Dakotans on the roster do a good job of selling teammates from outside the state on the meet's inherent charms. It doesn't take too long.
"That first year I think people see it on the schedule and go 'Oh, that's not Austin, Texas, that's not Long Beach,'" Anderson said. "But basically after your first time there it's 'Geez, this is special. People really love to support this.'"
