
Rylee Peters, a standout hurdler from Freeman High School, has established herself as one of South Dakota's top Class B girls hurdlers. As she approaches the end of her junior season, Peters aims for another strong finish after consistently achieving podium finishes since seventh grade.
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May 12—FREEMAN, S.D. — For nearly five years, Rylee Peters has steadily built a reputation as one of the premier Class B girls hurdlers in South Dakota.
From the moment she stepped onto the varsity stage as a seventh grader for the Freeman High School track and field team, Peters has consistently delivered podium finishes at the state meet. Now entering the final stretch of her junior season, she appears poised for yet another strong finish to her season.
Peters' rise has been built on consistency, growth and an understanding of what it takes to separate good hurdlers from elite athletes. As a seventh grader, she immediately made her mark by placing third at the state meet in both the 100-meter and 300-meter hurdles. She followed that performance with runner-up finishes in both events as an eighth grader, proving early on that she could compete with the best in Class B despite being younger than many of her competitors.
Now a veteran presence for the Flyers, Peters has elevated her performances yet again this season.
"I think what helps me the most is when I step away from hurdles and focus on my running mechanics, especially this year because I think it has really helped my 100-hurdle speed," Peters said. "I have the technique of going over the hurdles down, but it's just getting quicker between hurdles that I need to work on and I think this year I have done a good job with that."
In the 100-meter hurdles, Peters has won four of her five races this spring, including a sixth-place finish against tough competition around the Midwest at the Howard Wood Dakota Relays May 1-2. Even in that race, however, Peters produced one of the biggest moments of her career by breaking a nearly 50-year-old school record.
Peters crossed the finish line in 15.09 seconds at Howard Wood Field, breaking the previous Freeman school record set by Sherri Heckenliable in 1977. The time currently ranks second among all Class B girls hurdlers this season, trailing only Bennett County's Peyson O'Neill, who recently ran a 14.93 at the Wall Invitational on Monday.
Peters also sits ahead of Bennett County's Harley Harris, who ranks third in Class B at 15.25 seconds. Across all South Dakota classes combined, Peters currently stands eighth in the 100 hurdles.
Her shift in focus toward sprint mechanics and explosiveness was a key move by Freeman girls track and field coach Amy Sorensen and the Flyers' staff.
"I just wanted her to get back to sprinting, since she has been a hurdler since the seventh grade," Sorensen said. "When you do something for so long, sometimes the best thing is to kind of take a step back from it, reevaluate, and see what we can fine tune. We really have just told her that we are going to work on sprinting, sprint mechanics, explosiveness, reaction times, and really just focus on that to make her fast again and she has really seen growth in her hurdles this year."
The improvements have not only shown in the 100 hurdles, but also in the physically demanding 300-meter hurdles race.
Rylee Peters has secured podium finishes at the state meet since seventh grade, including third place in both the 100-meter and 300-meter hurdles as a seventh grader and runner-up finishes as an eighth grader.
Peters has focused on her running mechanics and speed between hurdles, which she believes has significantly improved her performance in the 100-meter hurdles this season.
Rylee Peters is currently in her junior year at Freeman High School.
Since joining the varsity team as a seventh grader, Peters has consistently delivered strong performances, including multiple podium finishes at the state meet.
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Peters has also won four of her five races in the 300 hurdles this season. Her top performance came again at the Dakota Relays, where she clocked a personal-best time of 46.33 seconds while finishing 12th in a loaded field, a mark that ranks 10th among all classes. In Class B, that time currently sits third behind only O'Neill at 44.20 and Chester's Jacy Wolf at 45.96.
While Peters has excelled individually, she has also become a critical piece of Freeman's relay success this season.
The Flyers' 4x200-meter relay team consisting of Peters, Cadence Hofer, Landrei Baker and Vaida Ammann delivered an historic performance at the Dakota Relays by breaking yet another long-standing school record. The group ran 1:47.91 to finish fourth while surpassing the previous record set in 1977 by Heckenliable, Janis Wipf, Lisa Mueller and Joan Mueller.
That time of 1:47.91 currently ranks third in Class B this season, and the relay squad has already won three of its six meets this spring.
Freeman has also found success in the 4x100 relay. The same unit of Peters, Hofer, Baker and Ammann owns a best time of 51.43 seconds from the Dakota Relays and has collected two victories this year. Notably, Freeman's top overall 4x100 time came when Peters was replaced by Makenzie Scharberg at the Erv Ptak Relays in Menno on May 7, where the Flyers won in 51.31 seconds — currently the third-fastest Class B mark this season. In the 4x400 relay, the same quartet have won four of their five races, including a season-best 4:16.49 on April 21.
"I think my teammates have really helped me the most when it comes to relays," Peters said. "With them getting excited about hitting a PR, or running the school record is what also helps me get excited for the relays, especially if I feel down about how I performed with hurdles or what not. But their support is mainly what I would say keeps me focused."
Outside of Peters' physical attributes, Sorensen said her ability to mentally prepare for meets has become one of her greatest strengths.
"Rylee may not be quite as vocally competitive, but when it comes time to race in those big meets, such as the Dakota Relays, she really locks in competitively, mentally, and she comes into every race strong," Sorensen said. "We never have to worry about her. It's just there. She knows how to do that as an athlete, and she carries that over to her relays, as well."
With the Class B state track and field championships scheduled for May 28-30 at Howard Wood Field, Peters and the Flyers now enter the final stretch of preparation. Freeman still has three meets remaining before state competition begins, including the Cornbelt Conference meet on Thursday in Hanson.
For Peters, the goal remains simple: continue sharpening the details that can make the difference between standing on the podium and winning a state title.
"I am definitely going to focus on my starts," Peters said. "The start is what honestly defines your race, so if you have a fast start, the rest of the 100 hurdles will come. And then for the 300 hurdles, it's the second half of the race that I really need to focus on. So, working on my ending with that, because it's just how fast you can run. You kind of forget about all the hurdle mechanics at that point, it's just a full on sprint to the finish line."