Flathead thinclads shine at Tuesday’s Top 10 meet
The 22nd Russ Pilcher Western Montana Top 10 Meet, held Tuesday night in Missoula, became more of a Western AA preview meet, which was enough competition to push some very good times.
Among them: Missoula Sentinel’s Jace Klucewich won the boys’ 100 meters in 11.01 seconds, the fourth-best time run this season in Montana; Helena Capital’s Alex Brisko matched the state’s best when he cleared 14 feet, 3 inches in the pole vault.
Sentinel’s Brooke Stayner ran the best 100-meter hurdles time, of 14.58 seconds. She’s the first girl to break 15.00 this season.
Kensey May of Missoula Hellgate won a very fast 3,200 in a state-best time of 11:08.83.
Flathead shines
Generally the meet draws/invites the top 10 marks from roughly 150-mile radius around Missoula. The pandemic made this meet all-Class AA, and Flathead attended the unscored meet along with every other Western AA school save Glacier.
Rebecca Eacker’s personal-record throw of 36 feet, 8 inches to win the shot put was one highlight. The Bravette senior continues to lead AA in that event.
Other highlights for Flathead were freshman Mia Stephen going 34-11.5 to place second in the triple jump, Hannah Perrin and Tori Noland-Gillespie running PRs of 2:20.26 and 2:25.18 to finish 3-4 in the 800 and Lilli Rumsey Eash finishing the 3,200 in fourth at 11:31.62.
Perrin’s 800 time sits third in the state; Helena’s Carly Ryan, who won Tuesday, is at 2:18.56 and the Bengals’ Odessa Zentz ran 2:15.22 on April 16.
Skye Thompson finished fifth in the 100 hurdles in 16.36, a personal best; she was third in the 300 hurdles at 48.10.
The Bravettes’ short relay team sits fourth in AA after clocking 50.75 Tuesday., and their long relay broke the tape in 4:05.85 while finishing second. Helena (4:03.79 Tuesday) and Flathead are currently 1-2 in that event.
More guys’ highlights
On the boys’ side Flathlead’s Dylan Zink won the triple jump in 41-9.5, while Nate Prieto ran his best times in the 100 (11.49, fifth) and 200 (23.11, third).
Carter Bullins was fourth in the triple with a PR of 40-3.5; Gabe Felton was fourth in the 1,600 in a PR of 4:46.80; and Grant Gauthier (53.15) and Jackson Walker (53.67) finished 3-4 in the 400.
Walker’s time was his personal best. That 1,600 race was won in 4:26.48 by Tanner Klumph of Sentinel. Only teammate William Mortenson has run a faster time this spring.
Butte’s short relay ran the fastest time in the state Tuesday, 43.24. Sentinel was right behind at 43.44, and the Spartans ran the fastest long relay in the state Tuesday, at 3:31.31.
Eureka Top 8
The Eureka ABC Top 8 doesn’t have the history of the Pilcher Top 10, since Tuesday was its fourth running. Good times were set, though, including seven meet records.
Six of them were boys’ marks. Layne Spidel of Mission set two, running 23.25 in the 200 and 52.59 in the 400. Spidel and Eureka’s own Joshua Butts needed to a photo look at their 200 finish to decide who won; Butts was given 23.26, a personal best.
Noxon’s Cade VanVleet set the meet records for the discus (143-7) and shot put (47-3); Browning’s Jeremy Bockus did the same in the 1,600 (4:38.4) and Justin Morgan of Thompson Falls now owns the meet record in the 3,200 (10:05.5).
The lone girls’ record went to Noxon’s MacKenzie Morgan, who ran 62.67 in the 400.
Across the state
Huntley Project’s Noah Bouchard is getting looks from Montana and a pair of Pac-12 schools, and he has the marks to back it up. On Tuesday at a dual meet in Billings he ran the 110-meters in 14.80 seconds - not far off his personal- and state-best 14.71 run Saturday in Laurel. Bouchard also cleared 6-10 at the Laurel/Park City Invitational, which moves him to the top of the line for the state and bumps Bigfork’s Wyatt Duke (6-9) down to No. 2.