Kats sixth at state track meet, boys take eighth

The Columbia Falls High School track teams both finished in the top 10 at the state track meet in Laurel over the weekend, the boys relying on senior experience to earn an eighth-place finish while the youthful girls team came in sixth.

“It was a typical state track meet. We had some good things that happened and some bad things. We took some hits, but it was a fun weekend,” head coach Jamie Heinz said. “I am not disappointed at all with how we did.”

The highlight for the Wildkat squad came from junior Angellica Street, who broke the all-class state record in javelin not once, but twice at the meet. A year after setting the Class A record in the event, Street put on a show, breaking the overall record with her fifth throw before making and even further toss with her sixth, and final, throw. Street’s mark of 156 feet, 11 inches broke the record set by Huntley Project’s Hailey Poole in 2016 and won this year’s competition by more than 37 feet.

Street also had a strong showing in the shot put, finishing third with a toss of 37 feet, 7 inches and was 13th in the discus with a throw of 102 feet.

The 1,600-meter relay team of Alexis Green, Genevieve Delorme, Maddie Robison and Josie Windauer finished third with a time of 4:07.71. Robison also finished fifth in the long jump with a leap of 16 feet, 9 inches.

Delorme, the lone Kat senior at the state meet, set personal bests in the 800 and 400, where she finished seventh and 10th.

Also for the Kats, Windauer was seventh in the 400, Lara Erickson was fifth in the 3,200 and sixth in the 1,600. Flora Jarvis was seventh in the 300 hurdles, Kiera Brown was seventh in the shot put, Madysen Hoerner was ninth in the javelin and 20th in the triple jump and Paige Burger was 19th and Stella Bisodeau was 15th in the long jump. Alexis Purcell was seventh in the pole vault, Hannah Sempf was 12th and Rebekah Walker was 19th.

Heinz said he was happy with the Wildkat performance and it could lead to even better things next year.

“This meet was a good way to springboard us into next year with the girls team,” he said. “We pretty much have everyone coming back and I think we can get stronger and maybe make a push for a state title.”

The Wildcats had seven seniors on their squad at the meet, led by Drew Morgan, who set a new school record to finish second in the 100 with a time of 11.06 seconds. Morgan was also third in the javelin with a toss of 166 feet, 9 inches, fourth in the 200 with a time of 22.67 seconds, set a new personal record in the 400 to finish sixth with a time of 50.71 seconds and teamed up with Danny Henjum, Zack Pletcher and Kaedan Clewien on the 400-meter relay team set a new school record to finish first with a time of 43.22 seconds.

“Drew Morgan was absolutely awesome for us this weekend,” Heinz said. “I’m proud of what he was able to accomplish and he did an outstanding job.”

Also for the Cats at the meet, Henjum was sixth in the 100 while Clewien was eighth. Aidan Jarvis was ninth in the 1,600 and Joe Lamb was 11th. Jarvis set a new personal best of 10:14.80 to finish sixth in the 3,200 while Seth Umbriaco was ninth, Lamb was 15th and Richard Role was 20th. Pletcher set a personal best of 41.56 seconds to finish seventh in the 300 hurdles, Parker Greene was ninth in the discus, Brad Nieves set a personal best of 145 feet, 1 inch to finish 12th in the javelin, Chance Adams was ninth in the long jump and Isaac Balla was 18th in the triple jump. The 1,600-meter relay team of Henjum, Pletcher, Morgan and Bailey Sjostrom was ninth.

“We are always looking for more, but when you step back and look at how we did, I am very proud of all of our kids,” Heinz said. “It was fun year with about the most challenging weather I have ever had to deal with, but the resilience and grit of the kids on this team was amazing.”