BV’s 4x400 relay team shines bright on Nike Nationals stage

Months before Brandon Valley’s 4x400 boys’ relay team ran their first competitive race of the season, the Lynx ‘fivesome’ knew they had something special brewing this year.

Throughout their 2022 season, BV’s fast “fivesome” – senior Jeremiah Donahoe, sophomore Joey DeWitt, seniors Joey Anders and Julian Watson, and alternate, London Watson, also a sophomore – ran ahead of the competition in every race, that was, until the AA state finals when things went awry when Julian Watson had to bow out of the race due to unforeseen leg cramps. BV won the state title, but did so with a different lineup that included Donahoe, Anders, Sabren Bortnem and London Watson.

Earlier this month, the Lynx brought their “something special” to the Nike Nationals in Eugene, Ore., where they captured runner-up honors, and in the process sestablished an all-time South Dakota state record.

“I don’t think it’s set in for me yet, I can’t really grasp it,” says DeWitt.

It was Julian Watson who initially planted the goal of qualifying for nationals. 

“I remember specifically right before the Last Chance Meet when we ran the 3:20, Julian was saying if we go sub 3:24, we’ll qualify for nationals, and that was the first time I had heard about it,” Donahoe said.

Next, they scoured through the times of teams who’d won nationals before them, which gave them all the confidence they needed to compete on the national stage.

“After what happened at the state meet and kind of having unfinished business, and then just getting a chance to get out there, get some closure and do something that we knew we could do all year, and to go out there and kill it was amazing,” Donahoe said.

Although the boys were confident they could compete against the nation’s best, they needed funding to get them there. And that’s where divine intervention stepped in.

Three Degrees franchise owner Penny Paclik had been hearing about the boys from Jay Anders, Joey’s father. Every day she’d stop by his Coffee Cabin, Jay, a man of faith, taught Penny to pray for her employees and her customers.

“And that’s where it started,” she said.

Next, he began sharing stories of his family with her, which eventually led to stories about the boys.

“The more he told me, I saw him light up when he told me about each one of you, and all of a sudden, I knew these boys,” she said.

Soon after the state meet, Jay sent Penny a text telling her that he was going to seek sponsorships to send these boys to the Nike Nationals.

“As he was talking about it, I wondered if they’d ever want a sponsor or something; that’s all I thought,” she said. “And then about three nights later Jay sends me a text and says ‘I’m thinking about putting together some sponsors to give these boys some closure. They’re talented and I know they can do it.’ I told a couple of people that I know and I prayed about it and He (the Good Lord) said ‘sponsor’ and I went, ‘Oh, my gosh, if that isn’t a bolt of lightning from the Holy Spirit …’”

Paclik slept on the idea, but even before her head touched the pillow, she knew she was going to do it. 

“I talked to Tiffany (Hansen, her daughter) that this is something that we need to do. They get their closure and it was a great moment and it taught me to keep listening,” Paclik said.

Once the boys heard they had a sponsor, they kicked their training back into high gear.

“I was so grateful. I knew that we all wanted to go,” Joey Anders said.

“It wasn’t me at all; I had nothing to do with it,” she says. “Jay and I feel that it was just absolutely divine intervention. You were meant to go, it’s completely about you, it’s about faith and it’s about doing the right thing. We can rejoice in it but you guys were destined for this, and to go there and do what you did … it’s going to jumpstart your future. The biggest sacrifice for me is that I had no coffee for three days!”

The BV boys competed against a dozen other teams, which ran in two heats. And for the first time, all four ran some of their best splits.

That may not have happened though.

“About an hour and a half before the race, I got a migraine and I couldn’t see out of the right side of my vision,” said Donahoe, who runs the first leg of the race. “I brought the boys together and said, ‘Boys, I’ve got a migraine, and I’m thinking that I’ll be able to run this, but it’s going to be interesting.’ I called my mom, and she called my brother, who runs at SDSU and he’s run decathlons through migraines and told me, ‘Take 200 mg of caffeine right now,’ so I ended up taking 400 mg of caffeine and got my vision back. I warmed up and I felt fine and I ran the race and felt great. It’s just kind of crazy to me that in the moment that I needed to be my best and be 100 percent, I get hit with a migraine like that but then I was able to persevere and push through.”

DeWitt was elated to run one of his fastest splits.

“I was waiting on the last curve because I was behind two people, so I was waiting to kick it,” he recalls.

Adds, Joey Anders, “We were all just a little bit off of our PRs, but Julian made up for it.”

“I think he (Julian) was in fifth place and in about five strides he was in second,” Donahoe said.

Watson relishes in the challenge and chasing down the lead. Through the spring track season, there were few opportunities for him to do the chasing. 

“I wouldn’t say there’s more pressure but there’s more drive to catch people in front of you,” he says of his role.

Adds Joey Anders, “Julian would never talk about himself, but the kid in front of him runs like a 47.5 and we knew he was crazy-fast. So, Julian goes out there and says, ‘I just want to be chasing someone.’ Julian’s never gotten the baton in anything other than first place, which is sometimes helpful, but Julian was chasing him and I was watching him go down the backstretch and he was physically making up ground on this kid that we know is insanely fast. I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, Julian is going to have an insanely fast split.’ Then I saw we got the state record and I just knew he ran crazy fast.”

The Lynx “fivesome” are now the all-time record holders in South Dakota, snapping the 11-year-old time established by a team from Watertown in 2011. In the local record books, this team broke the school record twice, and until last year, that record had stood since 1985.

Julian Watson also owns the fastest time in the 400 open in South Dakota as well, which qualified him for the Nike Nationals. To benefit the team, Watson pulled himself out of that race, which he said, was scheduled for approximately an hour ealier.

“I think if Julian would have ran the 400, I think he could have easily won it individually, but at the same time if he ran that I don’t know if was going to run his 46 that he ran for our split,” DeWitt said.

The Lynx came in just three seconds (3:18) after the race winners, a team from California.