HILLSBORO, N.D.-Benjamin Dryburgh is hoping for more memories in track than he has of the state basketball championship game.
Dryburgh will be running the 110 and 300 hurdles races at the North Dakota Class B state high school boys track meet, to be held Friday and Saturday in Bismarck. In March, he was a starter on the Hillsboro-Central Valley team that beat Four Winds-Minnewaukan 63-60 in the championship game of the Class B boys state basketball tournament.
Other than the game-winning 3-point basket at the buzzer by Kyle Henningsgard, Dryburgh has no memories of that title game. He was hit in the temple in a collision in the second quarter and managed to play only a few minutes the rest of the game. He was later diagnosed as having suffered a concussion.
"There's not much I remember,'' Dryburgh said. "I remember the last-second shot, the most important shot of the game. I have no idea why I remember that one. I couldn't process that we won state. I missed out on storming the court, the celebration, things like that.
"It would be nice to remember everything that happened and to have played more. But I didn't miss out; I was a part of the team.''
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Dryburgh bounced back to win the 110 hurdles and finished third in the 300 hurdles in Friday's Northeast Region meet.
But the impact of the collision didn't end on the basketball court. The concussion also hindered the senior's track season.
Dryburgh was unable to either practice or compete for the first half of the track season. He'd go to practices, watch and wait to be cleared to participate. "We still had to get him back in shape when he did come back,'' H-CV coach Tony Guttormson. "He wasn't able to do any running until doctors cleared him.
"He's getting close to last season's times, probably within a second of them in the hurdles. And he ran his best times at state last year. I expect that to happen again. You go against the best competition and that elevates kids. And he's a competitive kid.''
Dryburgh finished eighth in the 300 hurdles at state last season. Had the senior not been hurt, Guttormson said he would have been up with the best in the state. The Burros coach still sees the senior placing this weekend.
Dryburgh is competitive enough that he wants to make good at a second opportunity for a big state tournament.
"The state basketball tournament is the biggest thing in the state,'' Dryburgh said. "But state track is big, too. It would be nice to have a better memory of this one.''
