Bulldogs make noise at track divisional, girls win title

Saturday the inclement weather from day one of the Western A Divisional track and field meet in Columbia Falls cleared and opened up opportunities for the Bulldogs to showcase skills they’ve been fine-tuning all season.

The girls put in a performance that separated them from the field as they ran away with the divisional team title. Whitefish scored 128, then Corvallis in second with 91 points and Columbia Falls third with 72 points.

“Overall I’m super proud of the girls,” Whitefish girls head track coach Kelliann Blackburn said. “We’re right where we need to be, with all of our PRs and kids running as fast as they can and posting their best times — I know they’re ready.”

“It was exciting, anytime you come away with a divisional championship you feel like all your hard work has paid off,” she added.

Whitefish senior Mikenna Ells, who is the defending State A champion in the 400 meters, was in top form for the meet — she took first place in the 100, 200, and 400 meters. She recorded a personal best in the 200 clocking the sprint in 25.76 seconds. She edged her teammate Brooke Zetooney, a freshman sprinter who has finished on top of several races this season, in the 100 and 200 as Zetooney came in second by just fractions of a second.

“It’s nice that two top quality sprinters can be on the same team with Mikenna being such a leader, Brooke has somebody to look up to,” Blackburn said. “Brooke’s getting stronger every meet, she’s starting to finish races. Her 400 and her mile relay were amazing; I just love to finish with that girl.”

“Mikenna is a leader and she also can teach people how to fight, how to race,” she added. “Anytime she runs with Brooke there’s a race and so that’s good experience for Brooke.”

Bulldog Erin Wilde had an outstanding performance in the jumping events. She cleared 5 feet in the high jump and won on criteria over Camas Crattey of Hamilton, she also took second in the long jump and third in the triple.

“We held Erin off a little bit throughout the season, jumping is hard on your legs, but now it’s time to go and she’s ready,” Blackburn expressed. “She did make the podium in all of her jumps and she did what she needed to for us… Erin’s a competitor, she’ll show up.”

Whitefish freshman Hailey Ells recorded a PR in the 100 meter hurdles running it in 16.34 for second place. Ells was also on track for first in the 300 hurdles, but fell on the last hurdle taking seventh place.

“We had a lot of firsts, we had a lot of seconds; we had a lot of kids on the podium earning points, but my greatest moment at the meet was Hailey Ells,” Blackburn said, explaining that Hailey Ells crashed in the 300 meter hurdles when she was poised to win the event. “To watch her fall, then finish the race… but what she did next is the epitome of this entire team — she cried, she was upset, she got hugs and then 10 minutes later she was over at the triple jump cheering on a teammate. And that’s this team, they know that going forward we have to be a team.”

The girls’ short relay team (Mikenna Ells, Hailey Ells, Zetooney and Wilde) nabbed first place over Columbia Falls with a time of 50.39, almost two seconds ahead of the Wildkats. Another freshman, Isabelle Cooke, recorded a personal best time of 2:23:59 in the 800 meter run to take second behind Wildkat senior Lara Erickson.

The Whitefish boys finished fourth with 52 points to first-place Hamilton’s 120; Frenchtown and Dillon were second and third respectively.

Whitefish junior Gabe Menicke shined on Saturday as he grabbed the title in the triple jump going 44 feet and ¼ inches which was a personal record and helped him beat Ronan’s Girma Detwiler by over a foot. Menicke also took sixth in the 400 and anchored Whitefish’s short relay which finished second behind Frenchtown.

“Triple jump champion Gabe Menicke, that kind of came out of nowhere,” Whitefish boys head coach Willie Roche said. “Just his competitive spirit during it, he really wanted it. We were going to pull him from the last attempt to save his legs for other events and he said, you know coach I’d really like to try to get 44 feet… and he did so that was fun to watch.”

Bulldog thrower Talon Holmquist finally reached a goal he set earlier this season of hitting the 50 foot mark in shot put; he threw 50 feet and 1 ½ inches at divisionals which gave him second place behind Frenchtown senior Jake Houlihan. He also came in fourth in discus.

Whitefish senior Marvin Kimera was fifth in the 100 and 200; junior Bodie Smith grabbed second in the 110 meter hurdles with a PR of 16.14 and third in the 300 meter hurdles with another personal best.

“We’ve kind of been waiting all year for Bodie to pop a big one and to compete at the highest level he possibly can in the hurdles,” Roche said. “It was fun to finally see him have that success and run to the No. 2 time in the state.”

Roche added through the distance and mid distance athletes, he saw a lot of passion and looks forward to seeing what they can do at the state tournament.

“When you have kids diving for the finish line and falling and basically sacrificing their bodies, it's fun to watch,” he said. “You know they’re passionate, you know they’re competitive. Those are the kids you want on your team going to state.”

The Bulldogs will finish out the season this week at the State A-B track meet in Laurel on May 28-29.

Western A Divisional

At Dr. Nicosia Track Complex, Columbia Falls

Saturday

BOYS

Team scores — Hamilton 120, Frenchtown 83, Dillon 68, Whitefish 52, Ronan 50, Corvallis 48, Libby 33, Columbia Falls 27, Polson 17, Stevensville 17, Browning 6, Butte Central 6.

100 — 1, Jay Beagle, Libby, 11.18; 2, Treyton Anderson, Dillon, 11.34; 3, Jeffrey Jacobs, Frenchtown, 11.44; 4, Tyson Bauder, Hamilton, 11.48; 5, Marvin Kimera, Whitefish, 11.49; 6, Dawson Dumont, Polson, 11.50.

800 — 1, Colter Kirkland, Hamilton, 1:57.77; 2, Lane Cole, Hamilton, 1:58.27; 3. Richard Role, C-Falls, 2:02.39; 4, Michael Irvine, Ronan, 2:03.25; 5, Jeremy Bockus, Browning, 2:03.33; 6, Jakob Hansen , Frenchtown, 2:04.08.

300 hurdles — 1, Treyton Anderson, Dillon, 39.45; 2, Daxon Graham, Dillon, 41.03; 3, Bodie Smith, Whitefish, 42.19; 4, Aiden Read, Corvallis, 43.06; 5, Colter Cornwell, Ronan, 43.10; 6, Treyton Graham, Dillon, 43.40.

200 — 1, Treyton Anderson, Dillon, Polson, 23.39; 5, Marvin Kimera, Whitefish, 23.40; 6. Carter White, Frenchtown, 23.47.

3200 — 1, Brinson Wyche, Corvallis, 9:48.57; 2, Colter Purcell, Hamilton, 10:00.41; 3, Brant Heiner, Ronan, 10:03.84; 4, Michael Irvine, Ronan, 10:11.19; 5, Harrison Silverio, Hamilton, 10:12.00; 6, Deneb Linton, Whitefish, 10:12.53.

400 relay — 1., Hamilton, 3:30.03; 2, Frenchtown, 3:31.65; 3, Columbia Falls 3:34.48; 4, Corvallis, 3:35.39; 5, Polson, 3:39.42; 6, Whitefish, 3:39.8.

Javelin — 1, Kellan Beller, Stevi, 178-4; 2, Jason Jessop, Corvallis, 162-10; 3, Landen Conner, Corvallis, 158-3; 4, Jonathan Perez, Polson, 152-10; 5, Daniel Kelsch, Ronan, 151-1; 6, Cole Truman, Dillon, 150-3 .

Discus — 1, Tyler Burrows, Hamilton, 158-4; 2, Callahan Hoffman, Dillon, 151-6; 3, Orion Kutuey, Hamilton, 147-2.5; 4, Talon Holmquist, Whitefish, 137-2.5; 5, Clay Barcus, Corvallis, 135-7; 6, Allec Knapton, C-Falls, 134-0.5.

High jump — 1, Payton Cates, 6-2, Ronan, 2, Brandon Finley, Frenchtown, 6-2; 3, Kyle Holter, Butte Central, 5-10; 4, Trey Andersen, Libby, 5-10; 4, Devin Shelton. Frenchtown, 5-10; 6, Cale White, Frenchtown, 5-8.

Triple jump — 1, Gabe Menicke, Whitefish, 44-0.25; 2, Girma Detwiler, Ronan, 42-11; 3, Carter White, Frenchtown, 41-6; 4, Zarec Couture, Ronan, 41-0; 5, Cale White, Frenchtown, 40-11.5; 6, Jeffrey Jacobs, Frenchtown, 40-10.5.

GIRLS

Team scores — Whitefish 128, Corvallis 91, Columbia Falls 72, Dillon 58, Frenchtown 42, Hamilton 42, Butte Central 33, Stevensville 29, Ronan 15, Libby 14, Polson 3.

100 — 1, Mikenna Ells, Whitefish, 12.72; 2, Brooke Zetooney, Whitefish, 12.75; 3, Claire Hutchison, Stevi, 12.95; 4, Ally Sempf, C-Falls, 13.23; 5, Ella Moodry, Butte Central, 13.25; 6, Ashton Lewis, Stevi, 13.30.

800 — 1, Lara Erickson, C-Falls, 2:20.49; 2, Isabelle Cooke, Whitefish, 2:23.59; 3, Abigail Sherwood, Frenchtown, 2:25.38; 4, Siri Erickson, C-Falls, 2:27.17; 5, Ashtyn Wagner, Polson, 2:30.76; 6, Olivia Genovese, Whitefish, 2:31.08.

300 hurdles — 1, Olivia Lewis, Corvallis, 46.34; 2, Rileigh McGree, Butte Central, 46.75; 3, Ainsley Shipman, Dillon, 46.78; 4, Lauryn Petersen, Dillon, 48.17; 5, Sydney Petersen, Dillon, 48.42; 6, Maeve Ingelfinger, Whitefish, 48.46.

200 — 1, Mikenna Ells, Whitefish, 25.76; 2, Brooke Zetooney, 25.89; 3, Ally Sempf, C-Falls, 26.47; 4, Claire Hutchison, Stevi, 26.79; 5, Rylee Boltz, Libby, 27.19; 6, Ashton Lewis, Stevi, 27.28.

3200 — 1, Olivia Buoy, Corvallis, 12:10.89; 2, Katie Gleason, Corvallis, 12:16.91; 3, Morgan Grube, Whitefish, 12:23.49; 4, Abigail Sherwood, Frenchtown, 12:24.07; 5, Paetra Cooke, Whitefish, 12:37.75; 6, Adison Carlson, Polson, 12:37.78.

400 relay — 1, Corvallis, 4:09.66; 2, Columbia Falls, 4:12.16; 3, Whitefish, 4:13.20; 4, Dillon, 4:20.42; 5, Hamilton, 4:21.14; 6, Ronan,4:28.18.

Javelin — 1, Jenna Jordan, Corvallis, 129-4; 2, Rylie Lindquist, Ronan, 117-8; 3., Ella Moodry, Butte Central, 116-9; 4, Brooke Powell, Corvallis, 114-9; 5, Mya Winkler, Hamilton, 110-7; 6, Kathryn Rondeau, Dillon, 104-9.

Discus — 1, Katelyn Dickemore, Hamilton, 133-0.5 ; 2, Kayla Botkin, Frenchtown, 128-6.5; 3, Kaitlyn Weidow, Corvallis, 118-5; 4, Madison Lewis, Corvallis, 118-5; 5, Molly Craig, Hamilton, 111-9.5; 6, Madeline Stutsman, C-Falls, 110-10.75.

High jump — 1, Erin Wilde, Whitefish, 5-0; 2, Camas Crattey, Hamilton, 5-0; 3, Rylee Boltz, Libby, 4-10; 3, Claire Hutchison, Stevi, 4-10, 5, Hailey Ells, Whitefish, 4-10; 5, Mikenna Ells, Whitefish, 4-10.

Triple jump — 1, Ainsley Shipman, Dillon, 35-6; 2, Sydney Petersen, Dillon, 35-5; 3, Erin Wilde, Whitefish, 34-7; 4, Leina Ulutoa, Ronan, 33-10.5; 5, Bailey Smith, Whitefish, 33-2; 6, Quincee Anderson, Dillon, 33-1.5.