Bigfork hosts record-breaking meet

It was a fast day at track Saturday when Bigfork High School hosted its sixth-annual invitational meet, as nine meet records were broken among the boys and eight among the girls. This included three by Bigfork athletes and a Valkyrie tied a record.

"I just thought we had some pretty good athletes there," said Sue Loeffler, BHS head track and field coach. "Our meet hasn't been going on for very long so that's part of it and we'll probably keep having records broken at it for awhile because of that."

Among the 18 teams that competed in the meet, the Bigfork girls took first place with 131 points. Cut Bank was second with 124 and Frenchtown finished in third place with 99.5 points. The Bigfork boys finished fourth among the 18 boys teams present at the meet. The Vikings earned a total of 104 points. Cut Bank took the top spot with 200 points, Libby had 123 and Loyola Sacred Heart finished with 117.

"The kids just keep getting better and better and that's fun to watch," Loeffler said. "They are all working really hard and they are seeing it pay off and I think that is really helping them stay focused. I'm really happy with where we're at right now."

Senior Kayla Carlson collected first-place finishes in the 800-meter and the 1600-meter. Her 800 time of 2:22.06 and her 1600 time of 5:22.09 broke Bigfork alumna Brooke Andrus' 2006 meet records of 2:22.10 and 5:22.10, respectively.

"She's happy with that," Loeffler said. "She still really wants her 1600 time to be faster, but I told her not to worry about it too much. She'll get there."

Junior Bigfork sprinter Mallery Knoll earned first place in the 300-meter hurdles with her time of 48.10. Knoll's victory provided redemption for her earlier events, as she was able to beat Cut Bank's Deni Fitzpatrick, who edged out Knoll in the 100-meter dash and 100-meter hurdles.

"This is the first year that Fitzpatrick has ran the hurdles," Loeffler said. "Mallery is fast enough, but it's her technique that really makes her better. Fitzpatrick is fast, but she doesn't have the technique yet. She doesn't get after the hurdles like she needs to. Mallery has very good technique and she really attacks the hurdles. She goes right after them and that's hard to do. It can be intimidating, but Mallery doesn't back down."

Fitzpatrick, a sophomore, won the 100 in 12.55 and broke Knoll's 2008 meet record of 12.68. Knoll finished the race Saturday in second place with a time of 12.85. Fitzpatrick also broke the meet record in the 100-meter hurdles with her winning time of 16.10. The previous record was set at 16.20 by a Florence runner in 2008. Knoll finished right behind Fitzpatrick in 16.43.

The girls' relay teams both had first-place finishes. The 400-meter relay was ran by Jen Egdorf, Caitlin Charlebois, Quinci Paine and Knoll. Their time of 52.80 didn't break any records, but it was a full two seconds faster than the second-place team from Superior.

With a time of 4:26, Bigfork's 1600-meter relay team of Knoll, Charlebois, Egdorf and Carlson was nearly six seconds faster than the second-place team from Frenchtown.

A last-minute switch in the long-relay left things questionable for the Valkyries, but, thanks to Charlebois, they made it out on top.

"I was really impressed with Caitlin Charlebois in this meet," Loeffler said. "I needed someone to run in the 4x4 because Quinci's leg was bothering her and Caitlin said she'd do it and she did a great job for us. She doesn't even train in that event. She does the short relay, but not the 1600. She ran one gutsy race though. She really gave it her all and stayed with it and got the baton to Kayla in a good time so she could run it in and they ended up winning the race."

Charlebois also had a stellar performance in the pole vault as she tied Frenchtown's Tasha Huset for first place at 9-0. The distance also ties the meet record set in 2009 by a Thompson Falls athlete.

Charlebois placed fourth in the javelin with 94-05 and teammate Paine was sixth with 90-04. Paine also captured a third-place finish in the 400-meter with her time of 1:04.28 and placed fourth in the pole vault with 7-06.

Newcomer Kenna Hauns, a freshman at Bigfork, placed sixth in the 100 and 200 with times of 13.80 and 29.05, respectively. Fellow freshman Chelsea Olson earned fourth place in the 3200-meter in 13:55.

It was a big day for Bigfork's boy sprinters. Senior Keenan Evans shattered the meet record in the 200-meter. His time of 23.05 not only kept him out in front of Frenchtown's Nathan Francis, who was second with 23.40, but it was also 0.24 seconds faster than the 4-year-old record held by a Thompson Falls sprinter. Bigfork's Travis Knoll took fourth in the race with 23.64 and teammate Derek Minemyer was sixth with 24.40.

Evans also earned second place in the 100-meter with 11.28 and Knoll was third in 11.38. First place in the race went to Frenchtown's Jonny Dilworth, who had a time of 11.20. Both he and Evans broke the meet record of 11.34 set by a Shelby runner last year.

"Keenan and Travis both had a really great meet," Loeffler said. "They are really improving. They are working really hard and it's paying off. It's their focus too. It's a little bit of everything."

Saturday Knoll also earned fifth place in the pole vault with a height of 9-06. Newcomer Ben Sandry, a junior at Bigfork, was the only Viking to place in the jumping events. He tied for fourth in the high jump with 5-08. Jordan Franklin from the Ronan-St. Ignatius team and Reese Jensen from Libby shared the placing with him. Plain's Dillon Fryxell won the event and broke the meet record, held by a Ronan athlete in 2007, by two inches with his leap of 6-06.

The Bigfork boys 400-meter relay team of Minemyer, Evans, Ian Lorang and Knoll earned second place with a time of 44.92. First place went to the Frenchtown team, which beat the 2006 record held by Whitefish of 45.49 with their time of 44.86.

"Both the boys and girls short relays took their times down quite a bit to be competitive this week," Loeffler said. "The girls ran it in 53.9 in Columbia Falls and got their time down to 52.80 on Saturday. The boys had a time of 45.6 in Columbia Falls and were down to 44.92 here."

Bigfork's Garrett Hibbs earned second place in the discus with his throw of 128-11. Trent Thompson of Plains blew the rest of the competition out with 153-00.

"He's working hard and that's paying off," Loeffler said. "The other thing I'm seeing with Garrett is that he is showing some good leadership among all the other throwers and I think that's kind of cool for him to do."

The Bigfork track and field team will compete in the Thompson Falls Invitational on Saturday.