SF Christian shines in 800-meter events on Dakota Relays Day 1

Yahoo Sports2h ago15 min readOriginal source →

TL;DR

Sioux Falls Christian excelled in the 800-meter events at the Dakota Relays, with both boys and girls 4x800-meter relay teams winning. Ellie Maddox and Sadie Pettengill also performed well in the invite-only 800-meter special event.

Key points

Sioux Falls Christian excelled at the Dakota Relays
Boys and girls 4x800-meter relay teams both won
Ellie Maddox and Sadie Pettengill competed in the 800-meter special event
Maddox placed fifth, Pettengill sixth
Girls relay team won Class A championship for fifth consecutive year

Sioux Falls ChristianDakota Relays

SF Christian shines in 800-meter events on Dakota Relays Day 1

If you were running 800 meters and wearing a Sioux Falls Christian uniform at the first day of the 101st Howard Wood Dakota Relays on Friday, May 1, you likely had a pretty good day.

The 4x800-meter boys and girls relay teams both won, and Ellie Maddox and Sadie Pettengill competed in the invite-only 800-meter special event.

Maddox placed fifth and Pettengill came in sixth in the eight-person field. The 4x800-meter boys team won for the first time in a few years, while the girls relay team won the Class A championship at the Dakota Relays for the fifth consecutive year.

Maddox, a senior committed to run at Duke next year, and Pettengill, a sophomore, finished just under two seconds apart despite being back-to-back. Maddox finished in 2:11.98 and Pettengill crossed the line in 2:13.74.

"It was such a big honor," Maddox said. "We've been here year after year, and we know these special events are a really big deal. The fact we were chosen, I was honored, and that we could do it together was really cool."

For Pettengill, getting the opportunity to compete against some of the best 800-meter runners in the upper Midwest was a chance to grow and learn how the elite compete.

"It was really fun to push myself," Pettengill said. "I definitely thought the first lap was a little too hot for me, but pushing it on the second lap was really fun for me to compete with those girls."

Pettengill is usually on the 4x800-meter relay team, but Maxine Ordway stepped into her third leg seamlessly. The relay team still won with a time of 9:36.44, 4.98 seconds faster than second-place Hillsboro/Central Valley (ND). Bailey VanderGriend ran the first leg, Bryn Baker ran the second leg and Natalie Smith anchored the team.

Sioux Falls Christian head coach Luke Vander Leest attributes a lot of this girls relay streak to the team's depth. Most of the girls running mid-distance events for the Chargers also run cross country, and have been running together for a few years as they work their way up the ladder.

Sioux Falls Christian's Natalie Smith, left, receives the baton from teammate Maxine Ordway, right, in the girls 4x800-meter relay at the 101st Howard Wood Dakota Relays on Friday, May 1, 2026, at Howard Wood Field in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.