Friday, May 2nd, marked the first day of the 2025 Dakota Relays. Throughout the weekend, students from South Dakota and neighboring states traveled to Howard Wood Field to showcase their skills and compete against the “best of the best” athletes representing the hundreds of competing schools.

Over 3,000 student athletes compete at this annual event, which lasts through the second and third of May. A dozen new South Dakota state records were set Saturday, May 3rd. And on the first day of the meet, five additional records were broken. These are some of the new records set by the competing athletes throughout the meet.

The SFC girls’ 4×4 relay team shattered Howard Wood’s previous record, finishing the race in 3:59.63 seconds. And the Lincoln boys 4×2 relay team sets an all-time state record with 1:27.06. O’Gorman Senior, Libby Castelli, crushed the girls’ 3200-meter run record, crossing the finish line at 10:11.66, beating the previous record set 2023 (10:19.74).

These are just some new records that teams and athletes set at this year’s Dakota Relays.

Coach Howard Wood from Washington High School had the idea to start the first meet on May 4th, 1923, to promote the upper-Midwest schools and the best high school track athletes.  For 99 years, the Howard Wood Dakota Relays have done just that. The meet has produced 17 future Olympians, with more still in the making.

You can find more information about the Howard Wood field and its Dakota Relays at https://www.dakotarelays.com/.