Bravettes rolling to a rout
The Daily Inter Lake
BOZEMAN - The Flathead Bravettes received several exceptional performances on the first day of Class AA track meet to turn the girls competition into a rout. The Flathead Braves, not so much.
Zoe Nelson won the 800 and 3,200 and Amanda Bly bettered her personal best in the javelin by 13 feet to finish fourth as the Bravettes piled up 72 points, ahead of Bozeman's 38.
"We scored lots of points, a lot more than anybody anticipated, including us," FHS coach Jerry Boschee said. "We just scored gobs of points in a ton of events. It wasn't just one kid stepping up and doing well. It was a variety of kids.
"The plus for us is the rest of the field is well-balanced, spread real evenly amongst the other teams. Tomorrow, we're going to come back a little bit, it's just a matter of do we have a big enough lead to finish this."
After Bozeman is Billings Senior with 37 points, Helena with 35 and Billings West with 31.
"The 100, the 400 and the triple jump are going to be huge events for us," Boschee said. "Those are the three key events for us."
On the boys side of things, Flathead didn't exactly struggle, but it didn't excel, either.
"We're not doing very good," Braves coach Dan Hodge said. "My kids had a mediocre day today.
"I was hoping we'd be up between 20 and 30 points. I had some athletes that had an average day. You hope at state they'll rise above, and they had an average day."
Flathead sits in 10th place with 12 points.
"I just hope that we can perform a little bit better and score some points," Hodge said.
Class A
GREAT FALLS - The Bigfork girls track team holds a slim two-point lead after the first day of the Class A meet, collecting 29 points through six events. Columbia Falls is second and Polson is fourth.
The Vals' Brooke Andrus won the 800 by three seconds and the 3,200 by 25.
Bekah Stoltz led the way for Columbia Falls, winning the javelin with a throw of 133-8, more than five feet beyond the second place mark. She followed that up with a third place showing in the shot, which was won by Polson's Kara Walker.
Whitefish is in a three-way battle with Libby and Stevensville for the boys title. The Bulldogs have 21 points after four events. The Loggers and Yellowjackets have 20 each.
Chris Hicks won the long jump and high jump for Whitefish. Libby's Kyle Baker captured second in the high jump and his brother Blaine was third in the shot.
Class B
BOZEMAN - Eureka picked up points in two events Friday, one each for the boys and girls.
Graham Cook took fourth in the discus and Emmylyn Bentley was third in the 800.
The Lions are tied for 12th in the boys competition with four points. The girls are in a tie for 10th with six points.
AHinkelman 5/27/05 Dan Hodge
It was proabbly going to be a track meeet between three other teaams.
We went fifth and sixth in shot, 4x100 relay went fifth. Ryan Ros 300 hurdles was 4th.
John Fairweather in 1600 was fifth
John Farrier did not place
Reed Watkins, soph, came in 10th took 6th in 400 meter run
We scored a grand total of 12 points.
We don't have any strengths,
Jerry Boschee
We got 72 points, Bozeman 38, Senior 37, Helena 35, West 31
I guess the biggest surprises were in the javelin where we expected Tabitha Spencer to place, but we had Amanda Bly throw an 13-foot personal best.
In the long jump we got second with Samantha Gunlickson and she wasn't supposed to be anywhere in the competiion.
In 300 hurdles we had third and fifth. Chelsea Hart ended fifth, she's been hurt a majority of the season. Hamstring pull.