May 25—SIOUX FALLS — As she'd done almost all season, Trinity Bietz set the mark to beat in the girls shot put with her first effort of the competition.

And as was the case more often than not throughout the year, the Scotland High School standout thrower watched as her peers took aim at her but continued to come up short.

In the end, Bietz's initial throw of 39 feet, 1.5 inches, stood the test of time — through three rounds in her initial flight and three more in the finals — holding on to edge Lydia Hill, of Sully Buttes, by one-quarter of an inch for the Class B girls shot put title on Thursday.

"All year, normally, my best throw has been my first," Bietz explained. "I wouldn't say I threw the best today, but the throw was good enough to give me a state championship."

Though Bietz came in as the top seed in the field with a season-best mark of 40-7.5, 10 inches ahead of Hill's best mark of 39-9.5 in second, the sophomore came in with a mindset that she had nothing to lose.

She was, however, motivated by her perceived shortcomings at last year's state meet. As a freshman, Bietz entered with a top-10 mark within Class B, but finished in 13th place at 33-7.5, more than 2 feet short of her season-best mark in 2022.

"I felt like I didn't perform my best last year, so I wanted to avenge that performance," Bietz said. "So I came in kind of mad and just went for it."

Rounding out the top finishes in the event were Iroquois/Lake Preston's Hadlee Holt (38-10.5) in third, Wessington Springs' Avery Orth (37-3.25) in fourth, Avon's Lila Vanderlei (36-9.5) in fifth, Oldham-Ramona/Rutland's Alivia Bickett (36-3) for sixth, James Valley Christian's Maggie Decker (36-0) in seventh and Chester Area's Lexis Siemonsma (35-9.5) taking eighth. Howard's Rylee Rudebusch (35-3.25) also made the finals but just missed out on a top-eight finish.

But moments after receiving her medal and stepping off the awards podium, Bietz's mind had already started to wander to May 2024.

"I'm excited now and I'm excited for next year," Bietz said. "Why not go after it again and break another school record like I did this year? It's just so exciting to say I did it as a sophomore and could come back two more times. Maybe I'll be able to say I'm a three-time state champion."