Local track athletes qualify relay team for Junior Olympic championships

A relay team of some of the fastest female athletes from the Flathead Valley has qualified for the USATF Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon.

The team of Ally Sempf of Columbia Falls, Brooke Zetooney and Hailey Ells of Whitefish and Alivia Reinhart of Kalispell Flathead won the Junior Olympic Regional competition in Pocatello, Idaho.

Not only did the girls win the race, they set a new regional record for the event, said coach Willie Roche. Roche coaches track and teaches at Whitefish High School.

All of the girls competed against each other during the high school track season, Roche noted. He said he was talking to fellow coach Josiah Osborne, who teaches and coaches sprinters at Columbia Falls.

They both wondered aloud what it would be like to have them all on one relay team, as the girls often finished just a fraction of a second from one another in races this last spring.

So Osborne and Roche approached the girls and they all thought it was a good idea.

They practice either at Whitefish or Columbia Falls, Roche said.

“It’s very unique to have this many fast girls in one area,” Roche said.

The win at regionals likely places the team in the top 15 in the country.

In addition to the relay squad, Ells qualified for the nationals in the 400-meter hurdles and Aiden Krause of Whitefish won the shot put.

The national championships are July 26-30.