On Thursday, the South Dakota High School Activities Association Board of Directors unanimously approved a second reading on two proposals for the high school state track and field championships.
One will turn it purely into a one location event, while the other expands it from a two-day event to a three-day event.
Currently, the first day of the state track and field meet is spread out to three separate locations with each location having its own class of competition. Then on day two of the event, all three classes come together at one location. With this new setup, all three boys and girls classes will compete at the same location. Because there will then be more action taking place at a single site, the decision was then to expand the event to three days of action.
This new format will go into effect in the spring of 2022.
“Basically they’re on a year delay, if you will. So 2021 will still be in Rapid City with the offsites of Spearfish and Sturgis (for day one) and then going forward it would look to being a single site event,” explained SDHSAA Assistant Executive Director Dr. John Krogstrand. “So in the spring of 2022 when we’ll be back in Sioux Falls it’ll only be at that one site, Howard Wood Field.”
This proposal initially came from the Track and Field advisory committee. These changes will allow spectators to watch student athletes from all three classes throughout the entirety of the event, and it takes away the requirement for fans and teams to travel to a different town on the first day of the event.
Rapid City and Sioux Falls will continue to be the only two cities who host the high school state track and field meet, which is currently on a two-one rotation in favor of Sioux Falls.
