Knights claim 9C boys track crown, again

On another windy day at the Havre Middle School Track, the boys track and field teams of the District 9C competed for the district championship. And when it was all said and done, it was the North Star boys who came away victorious.

The Knights scored 109 points Wednesday to beat out a competitive field that saw Chester/J-I finish second in its first 9C meet with 97 points. Chinook finished third with 89 points and the Box Elder Bears came in a close fourth with 86 points.

While the Knights won just four of the 17 events held at the district meet, they won because of their depth as much as their top-end talent on their way to a second straight district title. Yet that does nothing to take away from the day had by Payton Peterson, who took home first place in both the high jump with a jump of 8-0 and the pole vault with a vault of 10-06. Peterson also finished second in the triple jump, third in the long jump and fifth in the 100-meter dash.

Jaxon Simonson also did his part for the Knights as he won the shot put with throw of 43-10.75 and was second in the discus. Matthew Helmbrecht pitched in by winning the javelin with a throw of 142-01 and third in the discus.

“We got a lot of points in the field today,” North Star head coach Brian Campbell said. “But it really was a group effort. I had kids in different events today. I threw some kids in the 3,200 and some of my throwers in the 4x100 relay. But today was really a testament of what our team is all about.

“Our goal every single year when we start out is to win the district meet,” He added. “And that was something that we talked about this week. We focused on the team success because we knew if we had success as a team that would mean that we had success as individuals.”

While the day overall belonged to North Star, one of the most impressive individual performances of the day came from Box Elder’s Shane Ketchum, who won a total of three events—the 3,200, the 1,600 and the 800. He also finished fourth in the discus and was part of a 4x400 relay team that finished second.

Incredibly, Ketchum finished the 3,200 with a time of 10:24.8, which beat his previous personal best of 10:50.14 by 26 seconds. He also ran the 1,600 in 4:51.2 and the 800 in 2:14.37.

“I just woke up and felt really good, I had a lot of energy,” Ketchum said. “I had a great kick on the 3,200, when I looked up at the turn I thought it said 11 (minutes), so I ran really hard at the end and saw it was 10:24 and I was pretty excited.”

In the 1,600, Ketchum, trailed Chinook’s Kyler Johnson for much of the race, until the final 100 meters, when Ketchum kicked it in and made up at least 20 meters to edge out Johnson by .17 seconds in one of the meet’s most exciting finishes.

“I just tried to run as hard as I could at the end there,” Ketchum said. “I wasn’t quite sure if I was going to be able to catch him but I just barely did at the end.”

Justin May of C/J-I joined Ketchum and Peterson in having a standout performance in his first 9C meet. May won the triple jump with a jump of 41-02.75, the long jump thanks to an 18-06 foot jump and the 300 hurdles by posting a time of 42.56. Brandon Theel also contributed heavily to the Hawk’s second-place finish by winning the discus with a throw of 134-03 and the 100 with a time of 11.75.

Ben Hulme of Fort Benton also took home three individual titles in the meet. He won the 200 and the 400 with times of 23.23 and 54.25, respectively, as well as the 110 hurdles with a time of 15.37.

Chinook, which finished third in the meet, was spurred on by strong performances in both the 400 and 1,600 relays. The Sugarbeeters won both events as Gavin Gunderson, Travis Roth, Thomas Reid and Cody McCracken had a time of 48.35. In the long relay, the same four runners posted a winning time of 3:35.7.

All the individuals who qualified for divisionals will compete at the Northern C divisional track meet in Great Falls next Thursday.

District 9C Track Meet

Boys

Team Scores – 1. North Star 109, Chester/J-I 97, Chinook 89, Box Elder 86, Big Sandy 42, HLP 42, Fort Benton 30, Turner 17.

100 – 1. Brandon Theel, C/J-I, 11.75; 2. Thomas Reid, CHI, 12.09; 3. Kyle Strutz, BS, 12, 1; 4. Payton Peteron, NS, 12.19; 5. Talon Morsette, BE, 12.25; 6. Gavin Gunderson, CHI, 12.35.

200 – 1. Ben Hulme, FB, 54.25; 2. Kyle Strutz, BS, 56.12; 3. Justin May, C/J-I, 56.54; 4. Geno Mennard, BS, 58.3; 5. Travis Roth, CHI, 58.50; 6. Tristian Bernard, BE, 25.27.

400 – 1. Ben Hulme, FB, 54.25; 2. Kyle Strutz, BS, 56.12; 3. Justin May, C/J-I, 56.54; 4. Geno Menard, BS, 58.3; 5. Travis Roth, CHI, 58.5; 6. Eddy Harmon, TUR, 58.59.

800 – 1. Shane Ketchum, BE, 2:11; 2. Travis Roth, CHI, 2:12; 3. Kyler Johnson, CHI, 2:18; 4. Eddy Harmon, 2:22:40; 5. Damian Schumacher,TUR, 2:39; . 6. Nathaniel Pedersen, NS

, 2:42.

1,600 – 1. Shane Ketchum, BE, 4:51.2 ; 2. Kyler Johnson, CHI, 4:51.37; 3. Tough Snow, HLP, 11:22; 4. Isaiah Runs Above, HLP. 5:38.

3,200 – 1. Shane Ketchum, BE, 10:24; 2. Kyler Johnson, CHI, 10:41; 3. Tough now, HLP, 11:22; 4. Isaiah Runs Above, HLP, 11:52; 5. Thomas Nerat, NS, 14:36; 6. Jon Sonju, NS, 15:00.

110 Hurdles – 1. Ben Hulme, FB, 15.37; 2. Cory Kelly, C/J-I, 16.67; 3. Cody McCracken, HI, 18.02; 4. Alex Gardipee, BE, 20.66; 5. Tyler Humphreys, TUR, 21.36; 6. Damian Schuamcher, TR, 22.66.

300 Hurdles – 1. Justin May, C/J-I, 42.56; 2. Geno Menard, BS, 43.99; 3. Cory Kelly, C/J-I, 46.25; 4. Alex Gardipee, BE, 46.65; 6. J.J. Colby, CHI, 53.37.

4x100 Relay – 1. Chinook, 48.35; 2. Box Elder, 51.14; 3. Turner, 51.46; 4. HLP, 53.05; 5. North Star, 55.93;

4x400 Relay – 1. Chinook, 3:53; 2. Box Eler, 4:03; 3. HLP, 4:25; 4.North Star, 5:38.

High Jump – 1. Payton Peterson, NS, 5-08; 2. Clark Diemert, C/J-I, 5-06; 3. Kyle Strutz, BS, 5-06; 4. Cody McCracken, CHI, 5-04; 5. Geno Menard, BS, 5-02; 6. Jerrod Four Colors BE, 5-02.

Pole Vault – 1. Payton Peterson, NS, 10-06; 2. Gavin Spinler, NS, 8-00; 3. Nathaniel Pedersen, NS, 8-00.

Long Jump – 1. Justin May, C/J-I, 18-06; 2. Tristian Bernard, BE, 18-03; 3. Payton Peterson, NS, 18-03 4. Charles Werk, HL, 17-06; 5. Jesse Dannels, CHI, 17-03; 6. Tyson Shambo, HLP, 17-02.

Triple Jump – 1. Justin May, C/J-I, 41-02; 2. Payton Peterson, NS, 38-01; 3. Jesse Dannels, CHI, 37-07; 4. Matt Helmbrecht, 37-04; 5. Tyson Shamb, HLP, 36-05. 6. Lucas Reed, Turner, 36-03.

Shot Put – 1. Jaxon Simonson, NS, 43-10; 2. Robert Gardipee, BE, 41-10; 3. Brandon Theel, C/J-I, 41-04; 4. Matt Helmbrcht, NS, 37-03; 5. Wade Schneider, CHI, 37-02; 6. Sterling Whitecow, HLP, 35-11.

Discus – 1. Brandon Theel, C/J-I, 134-03; 2. Jaxon Simonson,NS, 132-03; 3. Matt Helmbrecht, NS, 126-11; 4. Shane Ketchm, 121-11; 5. Gavin Spinler, NS, 111-06; 6. Chris Laverly, HLP, 91-08.

Javelin – 1. Matt Helmbrecht, NS, 142-01; 2. Robert Gardipee, 134-06; 3. Brandon Theel, C/J-I, 132-10; 4. Sterling Whitecow, HLP, 130-05; 5. Wade Schnieder, CHI, 124-02; 6. Clark Diemert, C/J-I, 123-07.