AA Track: Helena boys tie Flathead; Senior girls win
KALISPELL – The Helena High boys' track and field team likes to keep things interesting.
The Bengals finished in second place at the 2014 state meet to Missoula Big Sky, with just one point separating the two.
On Saturday, the Bengals triumphed in the 1600 relay, the final event of the Class AA/B track meet on another picture-perfect day, to tie the hometown Kalispell Flathead Braves and earn a co-championship.
"Last year we lost by one point and that's kind of been the driving force afterwards," said senior Josh Barrows, who ran the anchor leg on a mile relay that clocked in at 3:21.11, a school record. Zander Mozer, Ryan McNamara and Connor Matthews ran the first three legs.
A team that last won a boys' state title in 2005, the Bengals entered the mile relay trailing the Braves by 10 points.
They needed to win the race and have Flathead finish outside of the top six to match the Braves' 83 points. And that's exactly what they did.
Barrows would describe his senior season in one word: fun.
"That is kind of cool because, you know, obviously the 10-year anniversary coming back," he said. "I think we have a great future team. We lose some competitors but there are people right there to take their place. That's pretty cool."
Glacier took third with 49 points. C.M. Russell High came in 11th with 15 points, and Great Falls High came in last with two.
THE BILLINGS SENIOR BRONC girls won their sixth straight state title Saturday as several thousand spectators packed the bleachers and Legend's Stadium surrounding fence.
Bronc junior Christina Aragon blew away her competition in the final leg of the 1600 relay to secure the title with 78.5 points, 4.5 clear of second-place Glacier and 19.5 ahead of Billings Skyview, which took third.
The Senior girls' time of 3:58.20 is the state's best time this season.
A VETERAN COACH of 26 years, C.M. Russell High javelin coach Mitch Maki embraced Trevor Pepin with the biggest of bear hugs and started choking up.
"We talked about stepping up the past three weeks," an emotional Maki told Pepin. "I'm proud of you, man."
The junior Pepin had just won the state title in the javelin. His best throw – a hurl of 196 feet, 2 inches – ranks as the best in school history, at least with the new javelin, which was instituted back the early 2000s.
"It's awesome," Pepin said. "It's been a goal all year long. I've just been trying to focus on all the little things and it finally paid off, all that hard work."
For much of the season, Pepin's personal record in the javelin was 169-3. He broke that with a mark of 177 feet in a dual with Helena High in early May – and Pepin made monumental strides from there, reaching 187-6 at the Eastern Divisional and eclipsing the 190-foot mark twice Saturday.
Maki called it one the happiest days of his life.
"Trevor improved so much," he said.
Another gift will be awaiting Pepin when he gets back to the Electric City.
"Yeah, I made a deal with my mom that if I won state she had to buy me a wakeboard," Pepin smiled. "And my coaches don't like that because wakeboarding season is during the beginning of the football season."
The Rustler green and gold dominated the javelin podium as fellow teammates Lane Jensen (168-4) and Noah Danielson (163-7) placed fourth and sixth, respectively.
"It's special," Maki said, struggling to find words. "Hard work pays off. What's nice too is, they are all coming back."
GREAT FALLS HIGH'S Morgan Evans had the state's best time – tied with Holly Andersen of Dillon – in the 100 hurdles (15.10) heading into Kalispell this week.
The sophomore finished second to Billings Skyview's Hailey Copinga, who eclipsed Evans' previous time by .03 seconds, in the final, crossing the finish line in 15.24 seconds.
Evans finished second in the 100-meter dash with a personal record of 12.41 seconds later on and also managed a runner-up in the 300 hurdles (44.87). Fellow teammate Alyssa Jonasen finished fifth in the same event.
Evans was satisfied with her performance.
"Personally, I think I did pretty well. I got kind of tired at the end," Evans said after she ran the 200.
The Great Falls High girls finished in ninth with 26 points.
Jamison Hermanson, a Bison junior, scored his team's only points of the week and took fifth in the 300 hurdles with a time of 40.79 seconds, a personal record. He hadn't qualified for state the past two years.
"I just told myself I wanted to place this year (at state) at the beginning of the year," Hermanson said, "and I just worked as hard as I could with coach (Troy) Thornton. He's definitely, I believe, the best coach in the state. He sure as heck knows what he's doing."
CMR's CALI MODGLIN came in with the state's best time in the 100-meter dash (12.52). She eclipsed that by .04 seconds, but it wasn't enough to beat Maddie Brockel of Billings West, who came in at a scorching 12.35 seconds, the best time of the season of any class. Modglin came in fourth.
The super sophomore came back to have an all-time best in the 200 with a time of 25.60 seconds.
Still, Modglin, whose team came in 11th, hoped for more.
"I should have done a lot better in the 100, but the 200 went well, and I'm happy with how I ended my season," she said.
SPEEDSTER DAULTON DAUM of Butte won both the 100- and 200-meter dashes in a blur Saturday, which should make Montana head football coach Bob Stitt happy as Daum arrives in Missoula in the fall. He ran the 100 in 10.81 seconds and the 200 in 21.67.