Flathead athletes weather the storm
The Daily Inter Lake
HELENA - Flathead High School track coaches Jerry Boschee, girls, and Dan Hodge, boys, had high praise for their athletes on Saturday.
Although there were no individual `firsts to be had by either the Bravettes or Braves, the vast majority of athletes competing on the final day of the Class AA state track meet still posted personal bests in less than ideal conditions.
"Just miserable," said Boschee of the weather.
"Forty-five degrees; rained steady all day.
"I'm happy with the way the girls performed," Boschee continued.
"Given the conditions, they performed as well as they could have."
The Bravettes, defending meet champions, settled for third best this time around. The Flathead boys fell a half-point short of finishing third.
"In my 34 years in Kalispell of going to track meets, this is the second worst state meet meet (weather-wise)," said Hodge.
"It was worse in '96 (in Bozeman). It snowed and the wind blew hard.
"The kids really stood up against the weather pretty well," Hodge added.
"When I look at the kids who competed today, everybody scored starting with Clint Manning."
Billings West snapped up both team titles. The Golden Bears tallied 98 1/2 points on the boys side with Helena Capital second, 74, Missoula Big Sky third, 65 1/2, and Flathead fourth.
"We were 2 1/2 points out of winning a divisional (title) and half-a-point away from getting a trophy at state," said Hodge.
West scored 95 points in the girls competition to finish ahead of Bozeman, 88, Flathead, 73, and Billings Senior.
Flathead had two individuals claim seconds on the final day. John Fairweather was the runner-up in the 1,600 (4:26.86) and Jenae Lister had the second best 800 time (2:18.86). Both times were personal bests with Lister's a five-second improvement.
Lister also ran on the 1,600 relay team, which finished third with a season best time of 4:03.56. That was also a PB by five seconds.
On the relay with Lister were Chelsea Hart, Kendalyn Habel and Elizabeth Myers.
"The expectations going into the year after losing Zoe (Nelson) and Cricket (Johnston), we were suppose to be kinda down this year," said Boschee.
"So for us to come from that to where we are now, I'm very satisifed with a third place finish."
Hart also finished third in the 100 hurdles with a PB of 15.97.
Flathead's final third-place effort on the day was turned in by Reed Watkins in the triple jump (42-9).
"We were steady all day," said Hodge.
"I thought we did pretty well."