Make your marks

Make your marks while the sun is finally shining.

Under glorious, sunny skies, the Thompson Falls Invitational track and field meet was held at Previs Field April 16 and area athletes took advantage of the weather by posting good marks and times when finally given the opportunity. Eleven teams, including squads from as far away as Lincoln and including all four from Sanders County, competed for honors.

The host Thompson Falls Blue Hawk boys and Lady Hawks both ran away with the team titles in the annual meet, bringing a twinkle of satisfaction to the eyes of coach Trenna Ferris.

"We were thrilled with the results of the Thompson Falls Invite," she said. "Our athletes really wanted it that day and had the support of their families and the home crowd."

Jody Detlaff, the starting shortstop for the Lady Hawk softball team, showed her track and field chops by winning the high jump (with a State B qualifying effort of 5 feet even), taking second in the discus and third in the shot put.

Maya Stiles cleared 8-6 in the pole vault to win that event and claimed top honors in the 100 meter hurdles, in addition to winning third in the 200 meters.

Sierra Hanks (third in the high jump and 800, and fourth in the 400), Josey Neesvig (second in the 3200 meters and third in the 1600), Riley Wilson (also the Hawk softball team's catcher who won third in the 100 meter hurdles and tied for fourth in the high jump), Gabriella Pallister (second in the pole vault, fourth in the 100 meter hurdles and fifth in the 200), Shaylynda Walker (fourth in the 3200 meters), Ellison Pardee (tied for fourth in the high jump), Megan Baxter (also the Lady Hawks' current leading lady on the golf team who earned fifth in the 400), Annalynn Stover (sixth in the shot put) and Trinity Godfrey (sixth in the 200) also scored points for the Falls.

Both Lady Hawk relays finished third in the 400 and 1600 races.

With the boys, Trey Fisher (first in the javelin and sixth in the shot put and discus), Cable Cooper (first in the 3200 and third in the 1600), Justin Morgan (second in the 3200 and fifth in the 1600), Cody Burk (second in the discus and third in the shot), Cameron Lee (second in the 400), Ben Beauchman (fourth in the 400 and 800), Nick Viera (fourth in the long jump and in the 200), Roman Sparks (fith in the 200) and Wyatt Griffith (fourth in the 3200) rounded out individual scoring for the Hawks.

The 400 and 1600 meter relay teams each took second place in those races.

Led by jumping phenom Levi Brubaker and throwing force Rylan Weltz, the Noxon boys showed well in the Thompson Falls Invite.

Brubaker triple jumped 42-2 to easily win that event, in addition to running down third in the 200 meter dash and fourth in the 100, while Weltz went the distance needed (130-2) to win the discus while also claiming second place points in the shot put (39-8.75) and javelin (148-7).

Noxon's best hurdles racer, Edison VanVleet ran down second place in the 110s and third in the 300s, besides joining Brubaker, Jared Webley and Avery Vogel in winning the 400 meter relay. Webley also placed sixth in the individual running of the 400 meters and ran a leg on Noxon's third place relay in the 1600 meters.

Only one Noxon girl scored in the varsity portion of the Thompson Falls Invite but Delaney Weltz scored in a big way, claiming first place wins in the javelin (106-4), the discus (95-1) and the shot put (33-5).

Freshmen Katelyn Christensen and Jack McAllister did the most scoring for the Hot Springs girls and boys teams.

Christensen won the 200 meter dash, took third in the long jump, fifth in the 100 and sixth in the javelin. For his part, McAllister won second place in the high jump, third in the triple jump and fifth in the javelin and 300 meter hurdles.

Jack's older sister Elena McAllister won third place in the 300 hurdles and fifth in the 100 hurdles to complete scoring for the Hot Springs girls.

Tyler Carr (third in the 400 meters) and Kyle Lawson (third in the 110 hurdles and sixth in the 300s) completed individual scoring for the Spa City boys. The Heat's 1600 meter relay quartet also placed fourth in that race.

Kylee Altmiller's second place win in the javelin paced the Plains Trotters. Cree Lulack (fourth in the 300 meter hurdles), Audrey Brown (sixth in the 400 meters) and Rachel Huenink (sixth in the discus) also scored for the Plains girls, as did the 400 meter relay team, which finished fourth.

Malachi Paulsen won third in the javelin and Charlie Rehbein fourth in the discus for the Plains Horsemen's only points in the meet.