Carlson wins 3,200 meter title in Butte

Last weekend's state track meet was Bigfork High School's final event as a Class A school, and many of those athletes representing Bigfork made sure to leave their mark, especially junior Kayla Carlson, who placed in the top three in all three of the distance races.

"I thought everyone competed really well," said Bigfork High School Head Track Coach Sue Loeffler. "They just dug down real deep. It was really hot both days and we're not used to that. But they did everything I told them to do and performed real well."

Carlson won the state championship in the 3,200-meter in a time of 12:04.08.

"It is really exciting," Carlson said. "I'm really happy that I won. I'm glad with how the weekend went and how I ran considering the conditions. It was really warm."

Her coach is pleased that her hard work has paid off as well.

"She worked hard for that," Loeffler said. "It's something she's been striving for for a long time, so it's pretty awesome."

This is the second state championship this year for Carlson. She also took first at the speech and debate state meet in Memorized Public Address. She and six other BHS students will be added to the school's Wall of Fame for their accomplishments.

"I'm really happy with that," Carlson said. "I was really worried that I wouldn't get on the wall. It's what I was really pushing for this year."

In Butte, Carlson also took second in the 800-meter. Her time of 2:18.89 was less than a half of a second behind the winner junior Misha Trotter from Hamilton.

"I'm still mad about that," Carlson said of the 800-meter race. "I lost by .49 of a second. We only had a little bit left and I thought I was going to win, but she edged me out at the last second. She's a sprinter so she has a pretty good kick."

Rounding out her top three finishes, Carlson placed third in the 1,600-meter in 5:22.18.

Going into the final meet of the season, Carlson had the fastest time among Class A girls in the 800-meter and 1,600-meter, and the second fastest in the 3,200 meter, behind Lewistown's Brook Rodgers, a sophomore.

"It's the first time I've had any competition all year," Carlson said of running against Rodgers and Trotter. "But it was good competition so I was happy with it. They are both really great runners so it was fun."

The three girls each earned a state championship in one of the three distance races. Rodgers took the top honors in the 1,600-meter, and placed right behind Carlson in the 800-meter and 1,600-meter.

"That's what she needed all year," Loeffler said of Carlson's competition at state. "She needs to run against people that will make her better."

Also bringing in a hefty amount of points for the Bigfork girls, who finished fourth as a team, was sophomore Mallery Knoll. She placed third in the 100-meter dash and the 300-hurdles with her times of 13.01 and 47.12, respectively. Knoll placed third in her heat of preliminaries for the 200-meter, and was fourth overall, with a time of 27.12, but did not place in the finals. She also competed in the 100-meter hurdles, but fell during the qualifying race and was unable to advance to the finals.

"The hurdles were really tough there," Loeffler said. "The track is really, really fast. They were getting to the hurdles really quickly. There were a lot of girls that fell."

The Bigfork girls 400-meter relay team of Jenna Egdorf, Caitlin Charlebois, Roxy Thurman and Knoll had the third best time during trials, 51.61, but slowed down a bit during finals and took sixth with their time of 51.79. The Vals 1,600-meter relay team went into the meet as one of the slowest of the 20 teams, but ended up placing sixth with a time of 4:10.05. Knoll, Quinci Paine, Thurman and Carlson, who made up the Bigfork long-relay team came just two seconds from tying the school record.

For the boys, senior Garrett Pewe repeated his 6-04 school-record-tying high jump height from divisionals and earned third place at state.

Senior Donny Tudahl took fourth place in the discus and sixth place in the shot put with distances of 152-6 and 48-06, respectively.

In the 400-meter relay trials the Bigfork team, which was made up of Pewe, Keenan Evans, Kyle Hall and Travis Knoll, placed third in their heat, but did not place in the finals.

This weekend Pewe and Carlson will return to Butte to participate in the Meet of Champions, which is a track event that used to take place annually, but hasn't been held for many years, that brings together the top three athletes from each class' state meet. Carlson will be running in the 800-meter. She qualified for all three long-distance races, but since the meet is very short she has chosen to just run in one event. Pewe will compete in the high jump at the meet. Mallery Knoll qualified for the meet as well in the 100-meter dash and the 300-meter hurdles, but has chosen not to attend after running nine races, including the trials, at state.