JAMES D. CIMBUREK/P&D Elk Point-Jefferson's Hannah Wilkinson goes over the bar at 5-foot-4 during the girls' high jump at the Dan Lennon Class B Invitational Tuesday at the DakotaDome. Wilkinson defended her title in that event, and helped the Huskies to a victory in the 1600 relay. Click to view the Slideshow

VERMILLION -- Molly Kokesh had a busy day Tuesday.

The Scotland High School junior woke up at 5:30 a.m. to sing with the show choir in Norfolk, Neb., at 10:30 a.m. She then competed in four exhausting events at the Class B portion of the Dan Lennon Invitational in the DakotaDome.

Kokesh won the 800-meter run, was second in the 1600-meter run and anchored the Highlanders second-place sprint medley relay team. When teammates couldn't make the call for the 4x400-meter relay, Kokesh, while she might have been tired, stepped up to the plate.

"Well I don't know, determination I guess," Kokesh said of why she ran the extra event. "It's fun being good at what you do. It's not too tough to get up and do it."

For her efforts, Kokesh was named the Class B girls meet MVP.

Besides the show choir and track, Scotland track coach Gary Pepper said Kokesh also has a major part in school play, is a member of school's band, is a straight 'A' student and is the prom committee co-chairman.

"She's as hard working as I've ever had," Pepper said. "If I asked her to run two more events today, she'd run them. But she's an all-around great person.

"If she misses a practice, and she misses a few because of all these other things, it might be late at night and she'll call and ask me what she needs to do that night to make up for it."

Kokesh, who had a time of 2:35.83 in the 800-meter run and 5:45.32 in the 1600-meter run, said she enjoys her jam-packed schedule.

"You're always busy and you've always got something going on and there's something to do," Kokesh said. "You're never sitting around not doing anything."

Boys' MVP Travis Lauer of Laurens/Marathon (Iowa) jumped closer to his goal at the meet. The senior high jumper tied Darwin VandeHoef's 1989 record of 6-feet-10 inches.

"I came out and jumped very well," Lauer said. "This was the second meet of our season and I'm going pretty good this year. Hopefully I can get over seven foot."

Laurens/Marathon track coach Kerry Feekes said Lauer cleared 6-foot-7 inches earlier this season at Iowa State.

"We're really pleased with his effort and the way he jumped today," he said. "Clearing seven foot, that's a good goal for him. We want to focus now on getting him ready for Drake Relays and then the state meet."

Other top performances of the day saw Columbus-Lakeview senior Kaleb Christensen win his third-straight 60-meter dash title. Christensen, who set the meet record last year with a clocking of 7.23 seconds, edged Scotland senior Mark Sayler with a time of 7.25 to 7.32 seconds to get the win.

"Sayler's a fast kid. I knew if I didn't beat him out of the blocks I wasn't going to win the race," Christensen said. "I just focused on getting out of the blocks fast and letting the rest take over for itself."

Sayler, along with senior teammates Seth Jerke, Trevor Whitt and Dexter Grosz, teamed up to help the Highlanders win the sprint medley relay and the 4x200-meter relay titles.

Three of the four relay team members helped the Highlanders to a fifth-place at the Class B state basketball tournament, which Sayler said hasn't allowed for much practice time since the season concluded just 10 days ago.

"Most of us didn't start until last Tuesday so we've got a week in," Sayler said. "It's definitely nice when we've had so few of practices. I'm excited to see how we do with continuing practicing."

In the 60-meter hurdles, Adam Sexton of Dakota Valley edged out Mitch Schwartz of Colome with a time of 9.154 seconds to 9.16 seconds to earn first-place honors.

"He started pulling ahead of me so I just figured I'd try my best to get ahead of him to get the win," Sexton said. "I've only practice once before this meet. I didn't think I was ready, but I guess I got better over the summer."

On the girls side, Freeman Academy's Ashley Unruh and Newcastle's Taylor Pollard battled in the final lap of the 3200-meter run and the 1600-meter run.

Unruh won the 3200-meter run as she passed Pollard coming out of the corner and pulled away from the backstretch to earn the victory.

"That's usually how I did it when I did cross country for the first time in the fall," Unruh said. "That's kind of been my strategy. It was my first two-mile race ever and my first mile race. Last year I did 200's and 400's. That's the best feeling in the world to pass them right at the end."

The duo squared of again in the 1600-meter run. With Pollard leading again in the final lap, Unruh made the same move. But this time, Pollard was ready for it and picked up the pace to keep the lead and earn the victory. Kokesh got by Unruh in the final set of corners to take the runner-up spot.

"I was really tired, but I knew that I had to keep going," Pollard said. "I knew that if she got ahead of me that she would pull away. I just kept battling back and tried to keep ahead of her."

The Elk Point-Jefferson Huskies won the girls' 4x400-meter relay with a clocking of 4:19.64. Team members included Anna Erickson, Hannah Wilkinson, Jessica Hudelson and Chrissy Strassburg.

Wilkinson won the high jump as she cleared 5-foot-4 inches. Nicole Windish of Freeman Academy won the triple jump.

A total of 1,150 athletes from 43 schools competed in the meet. Team points weren't kept.