BHS track teams making strides

Bigfork High School's boys and girls track teams continued to improve this week as many of the athletes had personal bests at the Stone Invitational Track Meet in Frenchtown on Saturday.

"We keep improving every week in times and distances," said BHS Head Track Coach Sue Loeffler. "We had quite a few kids with personal bests. Even though it was cold to start out with at the meet they all performed really well."

The girls team took third among the 11 teams that participated in the meet. Polson was first with 97 points, Darby was second with 67 and Bigfork was just two points behind with 65. Bigfork's 400 relay team took first for the second week in a row. With a time of 53:26, they were more than 30 seconds faster than the second place team from Polson. But it wasn't as smooth of a situation as it sounds. Originally, Bigfork's team was to be made up of senior Jill Hamilton, sophomore Mallery Knoll, senior first-year track member Roxy Thurman and sophomore Jenna Egdorf. However, Egdorf injured herself earlier in the day and the Vals had to put in a substitution; sophomore Caitlin Charlebois, who is new to track this year.

"We worked her in an hour before the race and they won it," Loeffler said. "It was amazing."

Other impressive feats came from Knoll in the form of two additional first place finishes and a second place. Her times of 13.07 in the 100 meter and 47.80 in the 300 hurdles earned her the top spot in both of the events, which she placed second in at the Bigfork meet.

"Her time in the 300 hurdles was almost a full second faster than the previous week," Loeffler said. "That is a great achievement in itself."

Knoll's time in the 100 hurdles was nearly the same as in her last meet, and it allowed her to repeat in a second place finish.

Junior Kayla Carlson was unable to repeat as the 3,200 meter winner, but her time of 11:57.84 was just two-and-a-half seconds slower than the top finisher, Heather Demorest of Darby.

"They battled it out as leaders the whole race," Loeffler said. "Heather got a slight lead in the last lap and won it, though. Kayla ran a really good race and took about 10 seconds off of her time from last Saturday, which is a huge improvement."

Carlson didn't compete in the 800 meter last meet, but she did in Frenchtown in a winning time of 2:28.13

Both Carlson and Knoll qualified in three events for Tuesday's Missoula Top 10 meet. Carlson was invited to compete in the 3,200 meter, 1,600 meter and the 800 meter, but chose to just run the 3,200 meter in order to focus her energy. Knoll qualified for the 100 meter, 300 meter hurdles and the 100 meter hurdles, and elected to run in all but the later.

Also showing improvement this week was the Vals' 1,600 meter relay team of Thurman, Carlson, Christina Thompson and Knoll, who improved their time by four seconds from the last meet and earned second place with their time of 4:24.09.

Also placing this week for the Bigfork girls was Hamilton, who took sixth in the pole vault after clearing seven feet.

The Bigfork boys, who finished in ninth place out of 12 teams, showed improvement as well.

Junior Keenan Evans ran the 100 meter in 11.60 and came in fourth, which is the first time he has placed this season.

"Two of the gentlemen that I have seen doing a good job of improving are Keenan Evans and Travis Knoll," Loeffler said. "They are starting to come along real well and improve in their running."

Both Travis Knoll and Evens, as well as seniors Garrett Pewe and Kyle Hall, competed in the boys 400 meter relay and placed fourth with a time of 45.62, which is the best finish any of the Bigfork boys relay teams have had this year.

Pewe, who missed the Bigfork Invitational, placed in the 400 meter for the first time this year, coming in fourth with a time of 53.82. Pewe also tied for third in the high jump for the second time this year. He cleared the bar at 4-10, as did Corvallis' Marshall Johnson. His performance in the high jump qualified him for the Missoula Top 10 event as well.

Also placing for the boys was senior Donny Tudahl, who took second in the discus with a distance of 141-5. Bigfork's boys 400 meter relay team had a fourth place finish in a time of 45.62.

"I'm real pleased with where we are for this time of year," Loeffler said of both the boys and girls teams.

Results were unavailable for the JV athletes, but Loeffler said that she was particularly impressed by how well the jumpers from Bigfork did in their events.

Last week Bigfork was to host its annual relay meet, but it was canceled due to a lack of schools able to participate.

On Tuesday, Loeffler took the three Bigfork athletes who qualified to the Missoula Top 10, the results of which will be in next week's Bigfork Eagle. The whole team will travel to Whitefish on Saturday, May 2, and on Tuesday, May 5.