Update:"Lightning kills BHSU student, injures friend; lightning also injures workers at Gillette race track
Courtesy photos
Gage McSpadden, left, and Evan Strand
July 16, 2015 5:00 am • Tom Griffith Journal staff
SPEARFISH | Wild weather and lightning strikes were being blamed this week for the death of a respected Black Hills State University student, the hospitalization of his friend, and a near-tragedy Tuesday night that sent two workers at Gillette (Wyo.) Thunder Speedway to the hospital with burns to their bodies.
BHSU student Gage McSpadden and 2014 graduate Evan Strand were playing disc golf at a course near the mouth of Spearfish Canyon shortly after 6 p.m. Sunday when a lightning bolt reportedly first struck the metal disc cage they were approaching, then expanded out and hit the two and knocked them to the ground, according to Seth Mischke, a university staff member familiar with the incident.
After Strand regained consciousness and found emergency medical technicians tending to his friend, he reportedly tried to help revive McSpadden, Mischke, BHSU head track coach and assistant cross-country coach, said Wednesday.
Both men were transported by ambulance to Spearfish Regional Hospital, Spearfish Police Lt. Boyd Dean said Wednesday. The pair were subsequently transferred to Rapid City Regional Hospital and then airlifted to a Denver burn center, authorities reported.
McSpadden, a 21-year-old senior from Rawlins, Wyo., majoring in psychology, active in cross-country and track and field, and excelling in academics, died Tuesday of his injuries, leaving his friends, his family and an entire university campus to grieve.
"It is with deep sadness that I share with you news of the passing of Gage after sustaining serious injuries this past weekend,” BHSU President Tom Jackson Jr. said Wednesday in a prepared release. “Our thoughts, prayers and deepest sympathies are extended to the McSpadden family, friends and colleagues of Gage."
'Toughest calls'
Over the last four years, Black Hills State Cross-Country Coach Scott Walkinshaw said Wednesday, he had grown quite fond of McSpadden, who had helped him with special projects and joined his family for Easter dinners.
But over the past 24 hours, the veteran coach said he had made some of the “toughest calls” of his life, informing his track team members, former Black Hills State athletes and friends of McSpadden’s of his death, and fielding calls of condolence from fellow coaches across the country.
“I’ve been coaching 37 years, and my biggest fear has always been taking that call that one of my athletes has been hit by a car, not hit by lightning,” Walkinshaw said from his Spearfish home, his voice breaking. “I think every team in the country would like to have a Gage McSpadden on it.
“Right now it’s pretty difficult to get excited about the season,” Walkinshaw said. “I think the team will have to lean on each other for awhile. Gage will be missed every single day of the year.”
Walkinshaw said he was most proud of the young man McSpadden had become since being recruited out of Wyoming. In four years, his “tender heart” had led him to volunteer with Special Olympics, his leadership skills had made him a mentor for his teammates, and his deep desire to succeed had helped him earn a 3.46 GPA.
“Gage would help anyone, as evidenced by the fact he donated his organs,” Walkinshaw said. “He was our mascot at the college. He didn’t want to be the mascot, but he was willing to help out in any way he could."
He added: “I truly believe he will be missed more as a teammate and a person than he will be as an athlete. He was just that kind of leader.”
That leadership earned McSpadden recognition from the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference as a member of the honor roll, and he was selected to present his research, "Improvements to Quality of Life for People with an Intellectual Disability," at the 2015 National Conference on Undergraduate Research, according to Corinne Hansen, BHSU’s director of university and community relations.
McSpadden sat out this past season in cross-country and outdoor track and field in preparation for his senior season, Hansen said. During the 2015 indoor track and field season, he set a personal best in the mile with a time of 4:30.63 and in the 5,000-meter run in 15:26.83, she added.
On the mend
Walkinshaw and fellow coach Mischke said their sense of loss was somewhat mitigated by the knowledge that Strand survived. The former middle-distance running standout, who completed his student teaching requirements at Spearfish elementary schools this year and will start a new special education job in Wyoming in the fall, was reportedly up and walking at a Denver hospital today, Mischke said.
“Evan is fantastic in every respect,” Mischke said. “Even though he had graduated, he would still come around and watch the meets. He’s the kind of guy who will always be a Yellow Jacket.”
Close call
Meanwhile, race organizers and track officials at Gillette Thunder Speedway were breathing a sigh of relief Wednesday after a Tuesday night superstorm slammed the race track east of town, zapped a light pole and sent two workers to the hospital with burns to their arms and backs.
“We had the World of Outlaws Late Model Series at the track last night and had just finished some heat races,” promoter Ed Kirchoff said late Wednesday. “Then Mother Nature threw us a curveball.”
As the skies grew black, Kirchoff said a barrage of lightning surrounded the track and the heavens opened with a deluge unlike any he had ever witnessed. The storm caused officials to cancel the races and send spectators scurrying to their cars.
“It came out of nowhere,” he said. “You couldn’t see 3 inches in front of your face because the rain was coming down so hard. Then the lightning bolt hit about 20 feet from where I was standing, smacked a light pole right above our pit shack, blew the speakers out, traveled down the light pole into the building, and sent two of my workers to the hospital.”
Kirchoff said the two unidentified women, assigned to check in cars and drivers, had just taken shelter in the pit shack when the lightning struck. One suffered minor burns to her back, while the other had burns on her arms, he said.
“They moved to the wrong building,” Kirchoff said. “Then the ambulance had an accident trying to get to them, the pit area was so muddy. It was a very bad 15 minutes, I’ll tell you that.”
By Wednesday morning, both women had been treated and released from a Gillette (Wyo.) hospital, he said."
