Flathead boys win Class AA state track championship

The Flathead boys needed a strong push in the final events and got it, claiming its first Class AA state championship in 12 years on Saturday at Legends Stadium.

The Braves split the title with Helena High, tying for first place with 83 points.

With four events to go, Braves junior Jake Perrin won the 1,600-meter run in a time of 4 minutes, 21.17 seconds. Perrin took the lead after the second turn in the final lap and huffed to the finish, keeping Billings West’s Isaac Petsch on his shoulder. He won the race by .75 seconds.

“That was probably all I could give,” Perrin said.

“It was really tiring. That was probably the perfect race for me today, for this level of competition.”

Braves senior Sylas Schutt finished third in the 1,600 to give Flathead 14 points in the event, but after Helena’s Nick VanHorssen finished fifth in the 200, the teams were tied.

Braves senior Jess Beaman picked up the slack, finishing third in the discus, with junior Josh McCracken finishing fourth. Because of the discus, the Braves led by 10 points entering the final race, the 1,600-meter relay, and secured at least a share of the title.

If Helena finished second or the Braves finished sixth, Flathead would be win the title outright. As it turned out, the Bengals are fast too, and won the long relay by more than two seconds.

“I was really hoping that someone else would bypass Helena in that race, but it never happened,” Braves coach Dan Hodge said.

“A tie is a tie. It’s still first place. Especially when you’re hoping you’ll be in the top four or five. First is a surprise, absolute surprise. It’s a shock.”

It is the eighth boys track championship in school history and the first since 2003. Incidentally, that was the last title to surprise Hodge.

“This was an even bigger surprise, though,” Hodge said.

“We have been first, second or third at every meet this year, but I haven’t had every single kid perform at the same time. We had a lot of the kids performing this time.”

Beaman defended his state triple jump title earlier on Saturday, clearing 43 feet 10 ½ inches to win the event by nearly five inches.

“I was still pretty upset about yesterday’s performance,” Beaman said of finishing fifth in the long jump on Friday. “I tried to come in here with a positive attitude and get my best mark. I didn’t jump as far as I wanted to, but it’s good to get the win.”

Bram Booth finished second in the javelin and Chade Gonter was fifth in the 110 hurdles to round out the scoring for the Braves.

Glacier finished third at the meet, aided by a win in the 400 relay. Scout Willcut, Cain Boschee, Riley Connell and Aaron Robinson teamed up to finish in 42.57 seconds.

Individually, Boschee finished fourth in the 200 and sixth in the 100. Robinson was third in the 110 hurdles. Devin Cochran was fourth in the triple jump and Hunter Nicholson was fifth. The Wolfpack long relay finished fourth.

The Glacier girls took five-time defending state champions Billings Senior down to the final event as well, and nearly won.

The Wolfpack trailed Senior by half a point entering the long relay and just needed to finish in front of the Broncs to win their first state team title.

Sophomore Bailey Smith took the lead in the anchor leg of the 1,600 relay but Senior star Christina Aragon stayed on her hip, and as she had all week sprinted to the win after the final turn. The Wolfpack finished third in the race and second as a team. Senior scored 78.5 points to Glacier’s 74 to win its sixth-straight team title, a Class AA record.

Wolfpack freshman Annie Hill won her first state individual state title, finally breaking loose from Aragon to win the 3,200 in 10:31.54. Aragon had reeled in Hill on the final lap of the 800 and 1,600 earlier in the meet.

“She was making me really nervous,” Hill said. “I was like, ‘I can’t let her beat me in three events, I’ve gotta do something.’

“It was fun.”

Brielle Bumgarner finished second in the triple jump, Ahna Kreitinger finished fourth in the 300 hurdles and Nikki Krueger and Courtney Mitchell took fourth and sixth, respectively, in the discus to collect Glacier’s other points on Saturday.

“We put two good days together,” Wolfpack girls coach Jerry Boschee said.

“We had aspirations, but we needed to have a near perfect day to do so. We came close to having a perfect day, and there’s all the would’ve, should’ves, but I’m happy to be here. To be half a point away from having a tie or a win, wow.”

Monica White finished fifth in the 200 and sixth in the 100 for Flathead. Elizabeth Thompson was sixth in the 800, Kaitlin Wride was fourth in the 3,200 and Janae Moon was fifth in the triple jump.

The Bravettes finished 10th as a team.

Class AA State Track

Legends Stadium, Kalispell

Saturday

BOYS

Team Scores — Flathead 83, Helena 83, Glacier 49, Helena Capital 47, Billings Skyview 42, Billings Senior 41, Billings West 40, Bozeman 38, Butte 32, Missoula Hellgate 31, Great Falls CMR 15, Missoula Sentinel 14, Missoula Big Sky 10, Great Falls 2.

100 — 1, Dalton Daum, Butte, 10.81. 2, Anthony Taylor, Capital, 11.06. 3, Jacob Kleinhans, Bozeman, 11.13. 4, Nick VanHorssen, Helena, 11.17. 5, Sam Kirkedie, Big Sky, 11.24. 6, Cain Boschee, Glacier, 11.27.

200 — 1, Dalton Daum, Butte, 21.67. 2, Jacob Kleinhans, Bozeman, 22.49. 3, Anthony Taylor, Capital, 22.49. 4, Cain Boschee, Glacier, 22.57. 5, Nick VanHorssen, Helena, 22.75. 6, Sam Kirkedie, Big Sky, 22.94.

1,600 — 1, Jake Perrin, Flathead, 4:21.17. 2, Isaac Petsch, B. West, 4:21.92. 3, Sylas Schutt, Flathead, 4:24.62. 4, Iain Anderson, Helena, 4:27.00. 5, Riley Collins, Bozeman, 4:27.37. 6, Dawson Larance, B. Senior, 4:27.39.

110 hurdles — 1, Taylor Trollope, B. Skyview, 14.45. 2, Josh Barrows, Helena, 14.81. 3, Aaron Robinson, Glacier, 14.84. 4, Gabe Sulser, B. Senior, 15.03. 5, Chade Gonter, Flathead, 15.10. 6, Riley Barta, Billings Sky, 15.16

300 hurdles — 1, Taylor Trollope, B. Skyview, 38.72. 2, Nolan Davis, Helena, 39.28. 3, Riley Barta, B, Skyview, 40.34. 4, Clay Dean, Butte, 40.50. 5, Jamison Hermanson,

Great Falls, 40.79. 6, Will Hunthausen, Capital, 40.87.

400 relay — 1, Glacier (Scout Willcut, Riley Connell, Cain Boschee, Aaron Robinson), 42.57. 2, Capital, 42.80. 3, Helena, 42.87. 4, Billings Senior, 43.25. 5, Billings West, 43.66. 6, Billings Skyview, 43.67.

1,600 relay — 1, Helena, (Jeremiah Coon, Ryan McNamara, Connor Matthews, Josh Barrows), 3:21.11. 2, Billings West, 3:23.94. 3, Helena Capital, 3:24.38. 4, Glacier, 3:24.61. 5, Billings Senior, 3:26.61. 6, Bozeman, 3:28.29.

Triple Jump — 1, Jess Beaman, Flathead, 43-10.5. 2, Trevon Strong, B.Skyview, 43-5.75. 3, Marcus Lindquist, Big Sky, 42-9. 4, Devin Cochran, Glacier, 42-5.25. 5, Hunter Nicholson, Glacier, 42-4.25. 6, Kendall Johnson, Helena, 42-1.

Discus — 1, Zayne Babbitt, Hellgate, 173-7. 2, Cade Wessel, Bozeman, 164-11. 3, Jess Beaman, Flathead, 155-10. 4, Josh McCracken, Flathead, 147-11. 5, Chance Wessel, Bozeman, 147-1. 6, Tanner Liddell, B. Skyview, 145-10.

Javelin — 1, Trevor Pepin, CMR, 196-2. 2, Bram Booth, Flathead, 181-3. 3, Brady Coffman, Bozeman, 177-3. 4, Lane Jensen, CMR, 168-4. 5, Josh Deshner, Sentinel, 167-0. 6, Noah Danielson, CMR, 163-7.

GIRLS

Team scores — Billings Senior 78.5, Glacier 74, Billings Skyview 59, Bozeman 55, Missoula Sentinel 47, Missoula Big Sky 46, Billings West 42, Helena 31.5, Great Falls 26, Flathead 22, Great Falls CMR 20, Missoula Hellgate 10.5, Helena Capital 10, Butte 5.5

100 — 1, Maddie Brockel, B. West, 12.35. 2, Morgan Evans, Great Falls, 12.41. 3, Hannah Porch, Big Sky, 12.44. 4, Cali Modglin, CMR, 12.48. 5, Caylin Cathey, B. Skyview, 12.61. 6, Monica White, Flathead, 12.62.

200 — 1, Maddie Brockel, B. West, 25.23. 2, Hannah Porch, Big Sky, 25.40. 3, Cali Modglin, CMR, 25.60. 4, Anna Beck, B. Skyview, 25.64. 5, Monica White, Flathead, 25.74. 6, Carly Smiedala, Helena, 26.08.

800 — 1, Christina Aragon, B. Senior, 2:11.01. 2, Annie Hill, Glacier, 2:12.54. 3, Carly Smiedala, Helena, 2:13.21. 4, Keegan Day, B.Skyview, 2:15.43. 5, Ellen Brooks, Sentinel, 2:16.73. 6, Elizabeth Thompson, Flathead, 2:20.43.

3,200 — 1, Annie Hill, Glacier, 10:31.54. 2, Christina Aragon, B. Senior, 10:53.17. 3, Piper Meuwissen, Bozeman, 11:04.07. 4, Kaitlin Wride, Flathead, 11:24.98. 5, Bridget Creel, Bozeman, 11:26.19. 6, Ellee Becker, Hellgate, 11:39.76.

100 hurdles — 1, Hailey Copinga, B. Skyview, 15.07. 2, Morgan Evans, Great Falls, 15.24. 3, Josie D’Agostino, Bozeman, 15.35. 4, Maysee Whitney, B. Senior, 15.50. 5, Ashling Slevin, Bozeman, 15.78. 6, Lauren Bingham, Sentinel, 15.90.

300 hurdles — 1, Hailey Copinga, B. Skyview, 44.39. 2, Morgan Evans, Great Falls, 44.87. 3, Hannah Coburn, Big Sky, 45.26. 4, Ahna Kreitinger, Glacier, 45.71. 5, Alyssa Jonasen, Great Falls, 45.91. 6, Maysee Whitney, B. Senior, 46.63.

400 relay — 1, Billings West (Brooke Endy, Janae Bjorgum, Shae Helterbran, Maddie Brockel), 48.43. 2, Billings Skyview, 48.95. 3, Bozeman, 49.33. 4, Big Sky, 49.57. 5, Billings Senior, 49.78. 6, Sentinel, 50.39.

1,600 relay — 1, Billings Senior (Jordan Gilcrist, Sydney Blain, Maysee Whitney, Christina Aragon), 3:58.20. 2, Helena, 4:00.58. 3, Glacier, 4:00.62. 4, Bozeman, 4:05.76. 5, Billings West, 4:06.03. 6, Sentinel, 4:06.40.

Triple Jump — 1, Hannah Porch, Big Sky, 36-4.75. 2, Brielle Bumgarner, Glacier, 35-7.25. 3, Alexa Linebarger, Bozeman, 35-4.75. 4, Abby Dodge, Butte, 34-11. 5, Janae Moon, Flathead, 34-8. 6, Tyler Olson, Bozeman, 34-5.50.

Discus — 1, Tana Garden, Sentinel, 133-5. 2, Hannah Nessan, B. Senior, 133-3. 3, Madison Cicierski, B. Senior, 128-4. 4, Nikki Krueger, Glacier, 121-3. 5, Savanna Walker, B. West, 120-9. 6, Courtney Mitchell, Glacier, 119-0.