Flathead girls fourth in Optimist's meet, Glacier fifth

GREAT FALLS — Helena High looks ready for a three-peat, and Flathead’s Alivia Rinehart can really fly.

Those are two of the takeaways from the Great Falls Optimist Club track and field meet, held at Memorial Stadium on Saturday.

Behind Logan Todorovich’s wins in the high jump and long jump, Helena — the two-time defending State AA champion — scored 113 points to easily win a meet that brought 14 of the 16 Class AA girls teams to the Electric City. 

Missoula Hellgate was a distant second at 73.2 points, followed by Gallatin (67), Flathead (56) and Glacier (47.2).

Flathead got more than half its points from Rinehart, who followed up wins in the 100 hurdles (15.03 seconds) and 300 hurdles (45.97) with a victory in the 200 (25.47).

All three times are personal records; the junior now leads Class AA in the 100 hurdles and 200, while Todorovich maintains a slight lead in the 300s — she ran 45.62 at last week’s MCPS Invitational.

Todorovich didn’t run the hurdles but it was still a fast meet: Five AA-best times were set Saturday. Five marks were set or tied in the field events as well, including a 19-foot long jump by Todorovich.

Zoey Bortz edged Billings Skyview’s Cienne Soens by .02 to give the Bravettes a 1-2 finish in the 300 hurdles. Also scoring for Flathead were Mikenna Conan, third in the 800; Josie Wilson, fifth in the 3,200; Bristol Lenz, fifth in the 100 hurdles; and Afton Wride and Mia Stephan, who finished third and sixth in the triple jump.

Glacier was led by a couple second-place finishes from Laura Bissen (3,200) and Kai Johnson (shot put).

Tessa Kamps of Gallatin PR’d by over two feet — throwing 42-7 — to spring an upset in the shot. The Wolfpack’s Johnson, the defending champion in the event, threw a season-best 41-3.5 and was second. She also finished fourth in the discus.

Carmen Eddy and Dacia Benkelman went 4-5 in the 400; Allysa Vollertson was fourth in the 800. Madison Terry placed fifth in the javelin and Breanna Barnes was fifth in the pole vault.

The Wolfpack were also fifth in the long relay.

Full results can be found at athletic.net.