Hicks, 'Dogs holding down first

Whitefish girls back in the pack

BUTTE - Fittingly, the Whitefish High School boys track and field team is looking to make quite the memories at Bulldog Memorial Stadium.

The Bulldogs are sitting in first place after Friday's first seven events of the cold and wet State A track meet.

The meet's final 10 events take place today, after snow is predicted to fall in the Mining City, within the football stadium of the Butte High School Bulldogs.

Led by senior Chris Hicks' 22 individual points, Whitefish has 36 points, 11 1/2 points ahead of second-place Laurel. Belgrade is in third place, just 11/2 points behind Laurel with 23 points and Libby is in fourth place with 20 points.

"I got some points for the team and that's all I worry about," said Hicks, a future University of Montana decathlete. "We are doing OK. Some guys aren't doing as well as I wish they could do. But we are doing OK."

On the girls side of competition, Whitefish is sitting way back in the pack with just three points. But there are still 341 points to be earned in girls action with nearly all of the team's strength events still to come. Frenchtown is in first place with 26 1/2 points with Belgrade (23) and Glendive (14) in second and third place, respectively.

Hicks won the high jump with a mark of 6-foot-4, took second in the long jump with a mark of 21-5 1/2 and placed fourth in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 40.27 seconds. He's still got the triple jump, which will begin around 10:30 a.m. today, and both relay races.

Although Hicks was looking for a repeat in sweeping the state jumping events, he was still happy with his performances and placings.

In the high jump, he went 6-2 on his first jump and hit 6-4 on his third, and final, attempt. No other competitors went above 6-2.

"I was kind of tired because I had just got done running the 300 hurdles, but it went well," Hicks said. "I took first at 6-4. I didn't need to go higher. I'd like to have gone higher but I didn't need to. It worked. It was on my third jump - the final one - that I got 6-4. If I wouldn't have made that one it would have come down to the wire. I might have taken second based on my misses. I just had to regather myself, especially after just coming off the hurdles. It was a little difficult in this weather."

Hicks' 300 hurdles placing was unexpected after he placed third in the event at divisionals last weekend. But he came through and bettered his personal best by 15-100ths of a second.

"I didn't place very high at divisionals so it put me in the slower heat and that kind of hurt me a little bit," Hicks said. "I would have liked to run in the faster heat but I took first in my heat and I ran my fastest time of the year so I can't be mad at that."

In the long jump, Hicks was behind Glendive senior Jess Johnson from the get go. Johnson, who held Class A's best long jump mark by a half inch over Hicks during the regular season, exploded for 21-11 1/2 on his first jump - more than six inches better than his personal best.

Although Hicks posted his personal best, he was not able to complete the jumping events sweep.

"I'm not disappointed with it," Hicks said. "That's my personal best for the year so I couldn't ask for more than that - 21-5 is decent for me, especially coming off a 19-10 from last week. I'm not bummed out at all."

The Bulldogs got the rest of their first day points, 14, points from their shot putters. Senior Todd Harthan hit 50-3 on his first shot and it stood up for second place while senior Mike McCracken shot the put 49-6 for third place.

"I got really excited right away and launched a 50 footer," Harthan said. "It took a lot of pressure off me for the rest of the day and I had a good day."

The rest of Harthan's throws were in the 49s and 48s.

"Nothing under 48, which is really good for me," Harthan said. "I had been in a slump for about the last four weeks, throwing 47s and 48s. The level of my glides weren't high enough. The put was going too level without enough height under it. So I just needed to tweak a couple of things and pick it up a notch and it was perfect."

It wasn't Harthan's personal best. He marked 51-10 at the Top 10 Meet last month.

"But it was my best throw in, like, four weeks. It's been a long time. It was something I needed to go out on for my senior year.

"I was sitting in first place only until the following flight. Then Kyle Baker from Libby threw the best he's ever thrown (52-3). He's a really good athlete. I really have no problems taking second to him."

McCracken hit 49-0 on his first throw and improved it to 49-6 on his final throw.

"It was very important for those guys to do well for us and get us off to a good start in the meet and they did just that," Schulz said.

As for the Ferdas, they all did well in their heats and are in line to compete in today's finals.

Senior Taylor Ferda didn't have an especially good day.

He ran an 11.47-second 100 and placed fifth in the second heat. He will run in lane 10 today at 1:05 p.m.

He ran the 200 in 23.33 seconds and placed fifth in the second heat, again. He will run the 200 in lane 10 also, this time at 2 p.m.

In the 400, he was in third and fourth place for most of the way until the final 100 meters. He slipped all the way back to sixth and was beaten out by Browning's Brad Peterson for sixth place.

"It wasn't so great," Ferda said. "I got caught in the end because I didn't have anything left in my legs. It just wasn't my day. I'm tired, my legs are pretty tired."

Earlier in the day, though, Ferda won the second heat of the 110 hurdles in 15.07 seconds. It was the fastest time of the day - and he nearly fell over the final hurdle.

"The first nine hurdles went really good and then I drilled the last one and almost fell down," he said. "But I stayed on my feet and won. My leg is pretty scraped up, though."

He will run today's final at 12:30 p.m. in lane 6 with teammate Cort Rogers, a junior who placed third behind Ferda in the second heat, running in lane 8.

Ferda will also be running in both relays today.

Speaking of relays, the girls 400 of Ashley Ferda, Marni Hale, Lauren Kuennen and Courtney Ferda won their second heat in 50.05 seconds. It was the fastest time of the day. Their 400 final is set to begin at 10:45 a.m. The long relay races close out the meet.

"It was fast," Courtney Ferda said.

The boys 400 relay team of Bjorn Peterson, Henry King, Hicks and Taylor Ferda took third in their heat in 44.07 seconds. It was the fourth-best time of the day. Their 400 final is set to begin at 10:35 a.m.

The Whitefish girls got two points out of junior Courtney Ferda's fifth-place 400 finish and freshman Beth Donovan's 1,600 sixth-place finish.

Ferda ran a 59.60 second 400 to stave off Billings Central sophomore Mariah Litton by nine-100ths of a second.

"There are some pretty fast girls in the 400," Courtney said. "I ended up getting fifth but I'm really happy with that. I can't ask for more than that."

Ferda also took second in the second heat of the 100 in 12.73 seconds. It was the fourth fastest time of the day. She will run the final at 1:15 p.m. in lane 4.

She placed third in the second heat of the 200 in 26.62 seconds. She will race in the final at 2:10 p.m. in lane 8.

"It's been really nice because we didn't have to do all of our events today," Courtney said. "We didn't have to do one relay and the 400 final is Saturday, so that kind of split it up a little bit. The weather kind of sucked for a little bit. It was cold and wet. But everything went well. I qualified in what I was trying to qualify for."

Ashley Ferda, a sophomore, won the second heat of the 100 hurdles in a personal best 15.30 seconds. She will compete in the final at 12:45 p.m. She also made the finals in the javelin but missed placing by just a little bit.

Senior Erin Greiner triple jumps today at 1:30 p.m. She missed the finals in the long jump by a quarter of an inch.

The boys also barely missed out on a point when freshman high jumper Colt Idol placed seventh at 6-0 based on misses.