Knights make it a 9C sweep in track

Heading into the District 9C track meet, the North Star boys track team was looking for its third consecutive district title and after a dominating effort last Friday at the Havre Middle School track, they got it.

The Knights, who used a combination of depth and talent to overwhelm the rest of the field, ran away with first place as they racked up 166 points, compared to just 93 for second-place finisher Chester-Joplin-Inverness. Box Elder finished third with 86 and Turner was fourth with 66.

“Every year our goal is to win the district,” North Star head coach Brian Campbell said. “That is our No. 1 goal. We obviously want to also try to qualify as many kids for divisionals as we can and we did that today, but it’s always great when you can win the district.”

There were a number of North Star athletes who had great performances, but Payton Peterson’s was arguably the best as the senior placed in five different events. Peterson won the high jump (5-04) and the pole vault after tying a school record with a vault of 12-6. Peterson also finished second in the long jump, the triple jump and the 200-meter dash.

Matthew Helmbrecht also had a big day for the Knights as he placed in all three throwing events, highlighted by a first-place showing in the shot put thanks to a throw of 39-09.75. Helmbrecht also finished second in the javelin and the discus and finished third in the 100 meter.

“We had a bunch of kids step up and score points in events,” Campbell said. “I had some of my throwers in the sprinting events and we got some points there, Helmbrecht placed third in the 100 and we had a bunch of kids score points in multiple events like that.”

North Star continued to clean up in the running events as Devon Miller won the 100 (11.84), finished third in the 110 hurdles, fourth in the javelin, fifth in the shot put and fifth in the discus. Dylan Miller also finished third in both the 400 and the 800.

The Knights won the 400 relay thanks to strong performances from Helmbrecht, Dylan Miller, Jimmy Snow and Gavin Spinler. North Star added even more points by coming in third in the 1,600 relay. Spinler added a third-place showing in both the discus and the shot put.

Nathaniel Pedersen and Snow both garnered points as well for North Star by finishing fourth in the 110 hurdles and 100 respectively.

“We just have a couple more point scorers,” Campbell said. “There are a lot of great individual athletes on the other teams, we just have a few more point scorers.”

In terms of great individual performances, Justin May of CJI and Shane Ketchum of Box Elder had as good as any. May won every event he entered including the 200 (24.40), the 300 hurdles (41.46), the javelin (166-01), the long jump (21-05.5) and the triple jump (42-02).

Like May, who helped the Hawks get second, Ketchum was a big reason why Box Elder ended up third as he placed in four different running events. The senior won the 3,200 with a time of 10:22. He also won the 800 after running a 2:03.6. Additionally, he notched a third-place finish in the 1,600 (5:10.7) and a fourth-place showing in the 400 (57.37).

Ketchum was also on the Box Elder 1,600 relay team, which took first-place after a time of 3:55. The other Box Elder runners included Leo Johnson, Shane Ketchum and Trey Henderson.

The other three individuals who won events at the 9C meet were Eddie Harmon of Turner, who took first in the 400 after a 54.77, Kyler Johnson of Chinook, who won the 1,600 with a 4:58 and Cameron Davis, who captured the discus with a throw of 132-06.

The top six finishers in each event qualify for the Northern C Divisional track meet, which will take place in Great Falls May 19.

District 9C Track Meet

Boys Team Scores

North Star 166, CJI 93, Box Elder 86, Turner 66, Chinook 48, Hays-Lodge Pole 35, Fort Benton 30.

100 - 1, Miller, Devon, North Star, 11.84. 2, Harmon, Eddie, Turner, 11.94. 3, Helmbrecht, Matt, North Star, 12.40. 4, Snow, Jimmy, North Star, 12.44. 5, Hasbrouck, Ty, Fort Benton, 12.64. 6, Shortman, Drew, Hays-Lodge P, 12.87.

200 - 1, May, Justin, CJI, 24.40. 2, Peterson, Payton, North Star, 25.13. 3, Hasbrouck, Ty, Fort Benton, 25.93. 4, Snow, Jimmy, North Star, 26.57. 5, Johnson, Leo, Box Elder, 26.60. 6, Lenz, Chase, Chinook, 27.43.

400 - 1, Harmon, Eddie, Turner, 54.77. 2, Henderson, Trey, Box Elder, 56.73. 3, Miller, Dylan, North Star, 57.33. 4, Ketchum, Shane, Box Elder, 57.37. 5, Hasbrouck, Ty, Fort Benton, 58.94. 6, Bird, Damon, Fort Benton, 1:00.34.

800 - 1, Ketchum, Shane, Box Elder, 2:03.60. 2, Harmon, Eddie, Turner, 2:03.70. 3, Miller, Dylan, North Star, 2:11.60. 4, Johnson, Kyler, Chinook, 2:12.40. 5, Van Valkenburg, Bret, Turner, 2:12.60. 6, Todd, Ken, Fort Benton, 2:17.90.

1600 - 1, Johnson, Kyler, Chinook, 4:58.10. 2, RunsAbove, Isiah, Hays-Lodge Pole, 5:02.80. 3, Ketchum, Shane, Box Elder, 5:10.70. 4, Todd, Ken, Fort Benton, 5:12.10. 5, Snow, Gilbert, Hays-Lodge P, 5:12.70. 6, Anderson, Jerel, Box Elder, 5:25.50.

3200 - 1, Ketchum, Shane, Box Elder, 10:22.00. 2, Johnson, Kyler, Chinook, 11:00.90. 3, Anderson, Jerel, Box Elder, 11:11.30. 4, Kinyon, Zack, CJI, 11:28.90. 5, Snow, Tough, Hays-Lodge P, 11:54.00. 6, Pfile, Landon, Fort Benton, 12:43.90.

110 hurdles - 1, Kelly, Cory, CJI, 18.18. 2, Schuhmacher, Damian, Turner, 20.62. 3, Miller, Devon, North Star, 20.75. 4, Pedersen, Nathanial, North Star, 21.59.

300 hurdles - 1, May, Justin, Chester/Jopl, 41.46. 2, Welsh, Cody, Turner, 46.33. 3, Kelly, Cory, Chester/Jopl, 48.03. 4, Colby, J.J, Chinook, 48.37. 5, Henderson, Trey, Box Elder, 49.83. 6, Reed, Ross, Chinook, 51.44.

400 relay - 1. North Star, 48.80; 2. Turner 49.73; 3. Chinook 50.37; Hays-Lodge Pole 52.44; Fort Benton 53.07; Box Elder, 53.60.

1,600 relay - 1. Box Elder, 3:55.9; 2. Turner 4:10.1; 3. North Star 4:10; 4. Chinook 4:15.3; 5. Hays-Lodge Pole 4:16.9.

High jump - 1, Peterson, Payton, North Star, 5-04. 2, Snow, Gilbert, Hays-Lodge P, J5-04. 3, RunsAbove, Isiah, Hays-Lodge Pole, 5-02. 4, Henderson, Trey, Box Elder, J5-02. 5, Shambo, Desmond, Hays-Lodge Pole, J5-02. 6, Gardipee, Peyton, Box Elder, 5-00.

Pole vault - 1, Peterson, Payton, North Star, 12-06. 2, Tran, Kobe, CJI, 9-06. 3, Snow, Jimmy, North Star, J9-06. 3, Miller, Dylan, North Star, J9-06. 5, Pedersen, Nathanial, North Star, 9-00. 6, Borlaug, Keevan, North Star, 8-00.

Long jump - 1, May, Justin, CJI, 21-05.50. 2, Peterson, Payton, North Star,18-03. 3, Henderson, Trey, Box Elder, 17-10.50. 4, Kelly, Cory, CJI,17-02. 5, Hasbrouck, Ty, Fort Benton, 16-08.50. 6, Wu, Jonathan, Turner, 16-06.

Triple jump - 1, May, Justin, CJI, 42-02. 2, Peterson, Payton, North Star,38-05.50. 3, Johnson, Kyler, Chinook, 35-07.50. 4, Wu, Jonathan, Turner, 35-00.50. 5, Lenz, Chase, Chinook, 32-07.50. 6, Borlaug, Keevan, North Star, 29-06.50.

Shot Put - 1, Helmbrecht, Matt, North Star, 39-09.75. 2, Blansett, Matt, Fort Benton, 38-07.25. 3, Spinler, Gavin, North Star, 38-05. 4, Duran, Elias, Box Elder, 37-06.50. 5, Miller, Devon, North Star, 36-01.50. 6, Davis, Cameron, CJI, 36-00.75.

Discus - 1, Davis, Cameron. CJI, 132-06. 2, Helmbrecht, Matt, North Star, 119-07. 3, Spinler, Gavin, North Star, 111-03. 4, Duran, Elias, Box Elder, 109-04. 5, Miller, Devon, North Star, 105-07. 6, Blansett, Matt, Fort Benton, 102-04.

Javelin - 1, May, Justin, CJI, 166-01. 2, Helmbrecht, Matt, North Star, 147-06. 3, Duran, Elias, Box Elder, 144-09. 4, Miller, Devon, North Star, 123-05. 5, Schneider, Cord, Chinook, 119-04. 6, VanValkenburg, Bret, Turner, 119-02.