Fort Benton takes its shot at Class C track title

The Fort Benton girls track team has put together a spectacular season and this weekend, the Longhorns are hoping to cap it off with a Class C state championship.

In the past two weeks, Fort Benton has won the District 9C girls championship and the Northern C Divisional, which was last Thursday in Great Falls. This weekend in Laurel, the Longhorns will go for the trifecta at the Class C state track meet. The field events will get underway Friday at 9 a.m., followed by the running events, which will start at 10:30 a.m.

“Fort Benton has a really good team,” North Star head coach Brian Campbell said after the District 9C track meet in Havre two weeks ago. “It would not surprise me if they won state. I think they have to be one of the favorites. Chinook, they are another team that has a chance to do really well. Both of those teams are deep and have a lot of great athletes.”

State track at the Class C level may be the hardest to predict, but according to the website Montana Track, the Longhorns are currently projected to edge out Twin Bridges for the title with 59 points compared to 55 for the Falcons. Chinook, which is projected to score 26 points, should also contend for a trophy.

Yet no team comes into the meet with the firepower that Fort Benton does. Led by Coya Nack, Maddy Thompson, Leah Gannon and Kaitlyn Bird, the Longhorns have an impressive nucleus. Nack, who will participate in the shot put, discus and javelin, should rack up some points in the field events for Fort Benton, who will also be looking to Gannon and Thompson to score points in the jumps.

Thompson, who won the pole vault at the Northern C, should also contend to score points there as well, while Gannon will try to place in the 200-meter dash and the 400. Bird, a senior along with Nack, is a strong bet to place in the 800 and the 300 hurdles. As a team, the Longhorns are also strong in both the 400 and 1,600 relays.

While Chinook doesn’t have quite the depth Fort Benton does, the Beeters do have Megan Molyneaux, who is a contender to win both the 100 and the 200. Rochelle Chaffin is another Chinook girl, who has a chance to do well in the 300 hurdles, while Kourtney Hanson is projected to place in the 800. Brooke Elliot will also compete for the Beeters in the shot put, discus and javelin.

On the boys side of things, the local team with the potential to perform the strongest are the Turner Tornadoes, who are expecting big things from Eddie Harmon, who is projected to finish top 3 in both the 400 and the 800.

Other local athletes who have a chance to do well in the meet are Isiah Runs Above of Hays-Lodge Pole, who is a contender in both the 1,600 and the 3,200, as well as Cory Richter of Chester-Joplin-Inverness, who could push for a spot on the podium in the 100, as well as in all three jumping events. Cory Kelly of CJI also has a chance to some damage in the discus, while Trey Henderson of Box Elder has a chance to score points in the sprints, particularly the 400.

In addition to the Class A/Class C track meet being held in Laurel, the Class B state track meet is also being held simultaneously in Butte, along with the Class AA meet. In terms of local athletes, Harlem has the best chance to make an impact in Class B, as both the boys and girls teams are projected to score points at state.

Reece Hutton of Harlem has done well in the throwing events all year long for the Wildcats, and he will look to do so again at state, where he is projected to win the shot put and place in the discus. Damon Adams should place in the 400, while Taggert Devaney should have a chance in the 800. On the girls side of things, Harlem freshman L’Tia Lawrence is projected to be a top-3 finisher in both the 1,600 and the 3,200.

The Class A/C track meets will be held in Laurel and the Class AA/B track meets will be in Butte. Both combined track meets get underway Friday and continue through Saturday.