Thinclads off and running

The track and field season got off to a running, jumping and throwing, and oh yeah, vaulting start at the Jim Johnson Invitational in Frenchtown March 27 and three of Sanders County's four high school teams were there to usher in the new season.

Of those county teams in Frenchtown, the Thompson Falls boys and the Plains girls enjoyed the most early season success, as the Hawk boys scored 61 points to pull down third in team scoring, while the Plains girls posted 53 points to take fourth on their side of the meet.

Rounding out the county's showing in Frenchtown, the Plain boys scored 24 points, the Thompson Falls girls rang up 20, the Noxon girls 12 and the Noxon boys 10.

Danny Hoisington led the Thompson Falls boys by winning the 110 meter hurdles and triple jump and also scoring fifth place points in the long jump. Hoisington's longest triple jump of 41 feet, 4.5 inches not only won that event it also automatically qualified him for the State B meet later on this spring by surpassing the established criteria for earning that bid early on.

Elsewhere on the track and in the field, Nate Thibeault ran down a third place finish in the 400 meters and jumped to third in the long jump, Cody Garrison won third in the javelin, fifth in the 300 meter hurdles, and sixth in the pole vault, Parker McConnell placed third in the 3200 meters and fourth in the 1600, and Colby Lantz took fourth in the 3200.

The Hawks' 1600 meter relay team also placed fourth.

Distance runners Josey Neesvig and Rachel Ribeiro paced the Lady Hawks by each winning third place in their races, Neesvig in the 1600 and Ribeiro in the 3200.

Maya Stiles won fifth place in the pole vault, Gabriella Pallister placed fifth in the 200 meters, Haley Morgan took fifth in the 400 and Jody Detlaff was fifth in the high jump. The Lady Hawk 1600 meter relay also ran down sixth place in that event.

Jessica Thompson, who also plays softball, freed up more time for her other sport by qualifying early for the State C meet in all three of her specialty events, winning first place in the shot put (39 feet, 2.5 inches) and javelin (125-6) and taking a strong second in the discus (117-11) for the Plains Trotters.

Kara Altmiller (second in the javelin, third in the discus and sixth in the shot put), Linday Laws (third in the javelin), Cree Lulack (fifth in the 300 meter hurdles) and Rachel Huenink (sixth in the discus) completed the Trotters' scoring efforts in Frenchtown.

The Trotters' 400 meter relay quartet pulled down the team's final placing point by winning sixth in that event.

Sinjin LaDeaux and Rusty Stuart were the stars of the day for the Plains Horsemen.

LaDeaux won second place in the long jump, fourth place in the triple jump and fifth in the high jump, while Stuart threw down points for fourth place in the discus and fifth place in the shot put.

The Noxon girls scored 12 points and the Devil boys 10 in the Johnson meet.

Kristina Brown won fourth place in the javelin, Phalyn Fickas grabbed fourth in the 3200 meters, Delaney Weltz placed fifth in the discus, Cory Brodmerkle was fifth in the shot put and Anna Kaiser sixth in the triple jump.

Levi Brubaker and Rylan Weltz combined to score all of the Noxon boys' points, Brubaker by bounding 40 feet, 5.5 inches to win second place in the triple jump and Weltz by spinning the plate 105-5 to take fifth place in the discus.