Knights take District 9C boys crown

The North Star Knights made winning the District 9C track meet one of their primary goals at the start of the season, and Wednesday at the Havre Middle School track, they accomplished what they set out to do.

Yet it didn’t come easy, as North Star and Chinook were neck-and-neck for much of the meet and were tied in points following 13 events. But some late points by the Knights, including a first-place finish in the 1,600-meter relay, delivered a fourth-consecutive 9C championship.

North Star finished the meet with 112 points, eight more than Chinook, which ended up with 104. Box Elder was third with 75, followed by Turner in fourth with 71. Fort Benton was fifth with 64. CJI finished sixth with 62 and Hays-Lodge Pole wound up seventh with 36.

“Winning the district track meet, that is always the No. 1 goal for us,” North Star head coach Brian Campbell said. “That may not be the same for other programs, they might have different priorities, but our goal is always to win this meet. And I am proud of these kids because they worked hard and worked together as a team to make it happen.”

North Star had a first-place finisher in just three of the 17 events, but had three athletes, Devon Miller, Caden Rettig and Dylan Miller, who each placed in four different events as individuals. Devon Miller was one of two Knights to take home an individual title and did so by winning the javelin with a throw of 149-07. Miller also finished second in both the 100-meter dash and the discus, while also placing fourth in the shot put.

The other individual medalist for North Star was Rettig, who earned the top spot in the pole vault after posting a height of 11-06. Yet Rettig was far from finished, as he also got second in the long jump, third in the triple jump and third in the 200. Dylan Miller was also essential for the Knights as he racked up second-place showings in the pole vault, the 200 and the triple jump.

North Star also got some much-needed points from both the 1,600 relay, which the Knights won with a time of 3:49 and the 400 relay, where they finished fifth. Nathaniel Pedersen also pitched in with a fifth-place finish in the pole vault, while Hayden Massar finished third in the 300 hurdles, fifth in the 110 hurdles and also ran the 400-meter relay.

“We only have seven (boys), so we are short numbers,” Campbell said. “And I’ll tell you, we had four boys, who haven’t run the 400 (relay) all year long and they ran it and got the baton around and they got two points. But what they did is they enabled Devon Miller to run the 100. They enabled Caden Rettig to run the 200 and enabled Dylan to do all his individual events and we scored a lot of points, that we would not have gotten if they didn’t run that relay. So to me, that (400) relay team, two of them are strictly throwers and the other two are hurdlers and for them to do that and sacrifice for the team, that’s what we’re about and we were successful because of that.”

North Star may have won the team title, but Chinook also had a number of standout performances, including Wade Schneider, who won the shot put with a throw of 42-05. The senior also finished second in the javelin and third in the discus for the Sugarbeeters. Another senior, Kyler Johnson also reached the podium in multiple events, ending up second in the 1,600 and the 3,200, as well as fourth in the 800 and triple jump.

Trajan Hannum also placed in multiple events for the second-place Beeters. He was second in the 3,200, third in the 1,600 and also third in the 800. Another top performer for Chinook was Cord Schneider, who was second in the shot put, while also finishing fourth in both the discus and javelin. Ross Reed also notched a second-place finish for Chinook in the 300 hurdles.

“We have a nice track team,” Chinook head coach Paula Molyneaux said. “Our kids work hard and we have accomplished some nice things and today they really put it all together nicely.”

Chinook and North Star may have emerged as the top two in the team competition, but the best individual performance at the meet was put forth by Cory Richter of CJI. Richter swept the jumping events, taking first in the high jump (5-06), the long jump (18-07) and the triple jump (39-05). The senior also finished fourth in the 100. The other Hawk to notch a first-place finish was Cameron Davis, who won the discus with a throw of 140-10.

Nobody matched Richter’s three individual titles, but Isiah Runs Above of HLP blew away the competition in both the 1,600 and the 3,200 with times of 4:53 and 10:18 respectively. He also finished third in the javelin to lead the way for the Thunderbirds.

Runs Above was one of four athletes that won multiple events Wednesday and another was Trey Henderson of Box Elder, who won the 100 (12.14) and the 200 (24.15). Henderson, the Bears top point scorer on the day, was also second in the 400.

Turner, which finished just four points behind Box Elder for third place, got two individual titles from Cody Welsh, who won the 110 (17.43) and the 300 hurdles (44.61). He was also second in the high jump. Eddie Harmon also had a solid day for Turner, winning the 400 with a time of 52.93 and the 800 with a time of 2:02. Harmon also finished third in the 100 and contributed to the Tornadoes 400-meter relay team, which got first place with a time of 49.18.

Every individual that finished in the top five earned a spot in the Northern C Divisional, along with those who had already qualified previously. The Northern C track meet is set for May 18 in Great Falls.

Team Scores

North Star 112, Chinook 104, Box Elder 75, Turner 71, Fort Benton 64, Chester-Joplin-Inverness 62, Hays-Lodge Pole 36

100: 1, Henderson, Trey, Box Elder, 12.14. 2, Miller, Devon, North Star, 12.27. 3, Harmon, Eddie, Turner, 12.34. 4, Richter, Cory, Chester/Jopl, 12.47. 5, Johnson, Leo, Box Elder, 12.51. 6, Taylor, Landon, Fort Benton, 12.57.

200: 1, Henderson, Trey, Box Elder, 24.15. 2, Miller, Dylan, North Star, 24.28. 3, Rettig, Caden, North Star, 25.05. 4, Hasbrouck, Ty, Fort Benton, 25.38. 5, Johnson, Leo, Box Elder, 25.61. 6, Gardipee, Peyton, Box Elder, 26.34.

400: 1, Harmon, Eddie, Turner, 52.93. 2, Henderson, Trey, Box Elder, 52.97. 3, Miller, Dylan, North Star, 53.97. 4, Bird, Damon, Fort Benton, 56.37. 5, Hasbrouck, Ty, Fort Benton, 56.81. 6, Johnson, Leo, Box Elder, 56.89.

800: 1, Harmon, Eddie, Turner, 2:02.89. 2, Bird, Damon, Fort Benton, 2:07.56. 3, Hannum, Trajan, Chinook, 2:08.39. 4, Johnson, Kyler, Chinook, 2:15.27. 5, Harmon, Jack, Turner, 2:24.38. 6, Mulonet, Steven, Chinook, 2:39.23.

1600: 1, Runs Above, Isiah, Hays Lodge P, 4:53.49. 2, Johnson, Kyler, Chinook, 5:02.26. 3, Hannum, Trajan, Chinook, 5:08.94. 4, Anderson, Jerel, Box Elder, 5:19.51. 5, Snow, Tough, Hays Lodge P, 5:31.93. 6, Ball, Logan, Fort Benton, 5:46.14.

3200: 1, Runs Above, Isiah, Hays Lodge P, 10:18.70. 2, Johnson, Kyler, Chinook, 10:58.04. 3, Anderson, Jerel, Box Elder, 11:14.12. 4, Harmon, Jack, Turner, 11:50.70. 5, Snow, Tough, Hays Lodge P, 12:00.10. 6, Ball, Logan, Fort Benton, 12:38.37.

110 H: 1, Welsh, Cody, Turner, 17.43. 2, Schnabel, Connor, Fort Benton, 18.16. 3, Kelly, Cory, Chester/Jopl, 18.36. 4, Diekhans, Garett, Fort Benton, 18.90. 5, Massar, Hayden, North Star, 19.80. 6, Tran, Kobe, Chester/Jopl, 20.36.

300 H: 1, Welsh, Cody, Turner, 44.11. 2, Reed, Ross, Chinook, 46.28. 3, Massar, Hayden, North Star, 46.52. 4, Diekhans, Garett, Fort Benton, 47.38. 5, Hauer, J.T, Chinook, 49.52. 6, Hamilton, Kurtis, Chinook, 50.49.

400 Relay: 1, Turner 49.18. 2, Box Elder 49.42. 3, Fort Benton 49.65. 4, Chinook 51.38. 5, North Star 55.29.

1600 Relay: 1, North Star 3:49.02. 2, Box Elder 3:51.42. 3, Fort Benton 3:53.59. 4, Chinook 4:00.66. 5, Hays Lodge Pole 5:18.87.

High Jump: 1, Richter, Cory, Chester/Jopl, 5-06. 2, Welsh, Cody, Turner, J5-06. 3, Schneider, Cord, Chinook, 5-04. 3, Gardipee, Peyton, Box Elder, 5-04. 5, RunsAbove, Isiah, Hays Lodge P, J5-04. 6, Giles, Logan, Fort Benton, 5-02.

Pole Vault: 1, Rettig, Caden, North Star, 11-06. 2, Miller, Dylan, North Star, 11-00. 3, Tran, Kobe, Chester/Jopl, 10-06. 4, Schnabel, Connor, Fort Benton, 9-06. 5, Pedersen, Nathanial, North Star, 8-06.

Long Jump: 1, Richter, Cory, Chester/Jopl, 18-07.50. 2, Rettig, Caden, North Star, 18-02.75. 3, Taylor, Landon, Fort Benton, 17-03. 4, Tran, Kobe, Chester/Jopl, 16-07. 5, Mulonet, Steven, Chinook, J16-07. 6, Christensen, James, Chinook, 16-01.75.

Triple Jump: 1, Richter, Cory, Chester/Jopl, 39-05. 2, Miller, Dylan, North Star, 37-11.25. 3, Rettig, Caden, North Star, 37-04.25. 4, Johnson, Kyler, Chinook, 34-10.25. 5, Snow, Tough, Hays Lodge P, 33-11. 6, Bauer, Ryan, Fort Benton, 33-09.75.

Discus: 1, Davis, Cameron, Chester/Jopl, 140-10. 2, Miller, Devon, North Star, 124-07. 3, Schneider, Wade, Chinook, 122-03. 4, Schneider, Cord, Chinook, 107-09. 5, Ereaux, Malachi, Fort Benton, 101-06. 6, Tran, Kobe, Chester/Jopl, 100-11.

Javelin: 1, Miller, Devon, North Star, 149-07. 2, Schneider, Wade, Chinook, 136-04. 3, RunsAbove, Isiah, Hays Lodge P, 133-04. 4, Schneider, Cord, Chinook, 127-05. 5, Anderson, Jerel, Box Elder, 125-00. 6, Welsh, Cody, Turner, 122-11.

Shot Put: 1, Schneider, Wade, Chinook, 42-05.50. 2, Schneider, Cord, Chinook, 39-02.50. 3, Duran, Seth, Box Elder, 37-03. 4, Miller, Devon, North Star, 36-08. 5, Striker, Bernard, Box Elder, 35-04. 6, Ereaux, Malachi, Fort Benton, 34-03.