View from the Sidelines

These men and women of Sanders County worked hard at their track and field skills all spring, honing their skills, training their bodies and minds, taking advantage of every opportunity to further their standing in chosen events, specific tests of athletic prowess.

Some of them were rewarded with MHSA medals, medals which represent awards for all the effort put in to getting them.

Here are some of their stories.

***

Trey Fisher just kept throwing it farther and farther and farther, way further than he had ever pitched the javelin before.

By the time he was done piercing the Flathead County sky with high-arching throws that stair-stepped up in distance each time, Fisher had won second place, and very nearly captured a State B title.

Not bad for a guy who finished fourth in the Western B-C a week earlier.

A Thompson Falls junior, Fisher had been throwing the javelin well all spring but he went off the charts at Legends Stadium in Kalispell Friday. After previously throwing a best distance of 154 feet earlier this season, Fisher found his range was well beyond that Friday, marking 159 feet on his first throw in the qualifying round, sticking the spear at 166 feet on his second, and finally, rocket-launching his final qualifying attempt an amazing distance of 176 feet, 2 inches.

Trey’s best throw at the Western B-C divisional meet a week earlier was a respectable 148-2 but was in no way a portend for the way he threw in Kalispell Friday.

Fisher didn’t know where his timely power surge came from so suddenly, but was glad to see it arrive in time for the State B meet.

“I’ve been throwing pretty consistent in the 150 range all year,” he said. “My goal going in was to at least make the top 10 and get into the finals, but I guess I ended up doing a little better than that.”

Indeed, Fisher’s 176-2 became the mark everyone else was shooting for most of the rest of the way, through the rest of the trials and through most of the final round after that. Try as they might, it seemed like Fisher’s mark was just a little too far out there for anyone else to reach.

First, St. Labre’s Tameron Medicine hit a big throw, but it measured 174-11; then Jakeb Kindel of Eureka threw one out there a long ways, but just not quite far enough, landing at 170-7.

Finally, just when it looked like Fisher’s 176-2 just might stand up and win it all, Dawson Allen of Fairfield uncorked a fabulous throw of 177-3 right near the end of the competition to edge out Fisher by a measly 13 inches and win the championship.

Fisher said he was really comfortable at the line when he made his big throw.

“Everything just felt right, really good,” he said. “I don’t really remember the actual throw all that well, I

Please turn to page 14

just remember thinking to myself just go out there and let it go.”

The end result was not your typical javelin throw. Instead of coming down to earth rather quickly like it usually does, this throw did what the really good ones do, it seemed to keep sailing, finally touching down 176 feet, 2 inches from the line.

Fisher credits throwing coach Jake Susic and his teammates for his success. “Coach has really worked hard with me, and it really paid off last week,” he said. “I really want to thank him and all my teammates for hanging in there with me, and for all their support.”

The starting quarterback for the Blue Hawk football team and a varsity member of the Hawk basketball squad, Fisher’s high school sporting priorities were rearranged some by his success in Kalispell. Admittedly not all that enamored with track and field in the past (he does after all, also play baseball for the Clark Fork Valley Cougars this time of year), Trey’s performance last week has him thinking a lot more about how far he can now go with the javelin.

“I am looking at maybe going to some throwing camps this summer,” he said, and stated his goal for next spring. “I want to keep improving and hope to be throwing in about the 190 range next year.”

Trey Fisher wasn’t the only Sanders County athlete to stand out in the javelin in a state track meet last week. Hot Springs freshman Katelyn Christensen used a lifetime-best throw of her own to land second place in the State C meet in Laurel, and Plains junior Kylee Altmiller also placed, spearing fourth place.

The Christensen clan knows their way around in the track and field world and it appears to be at least partially genetic. Katelyn’s third cousin is the legendary Larri Jo Christensen of Plains who starred in the throwing events for the Trotters in the early 1990s, winning several individual state titles in that era. Her State B winning shot put throw of 46 feet, 8.5 inches in 1993 still registers as the third-best shot put in Montana ever.

What’s more, Katelyn’s cousin Claire Kovatch of Seeley-Swan is only a sophomore and already a two-time State C champ in the discus after winning the event in Laurel with a best throw of 144-2, almost 30 feet beyond the second place mark.

Good genes or not, competitors have to step up to the line and perform when it counts and Katelyn demonstrated that ability again and again in Laurel, particularly in the javelin but also in the long jump, where she won fifth place with a best effort of 16 feet, 2.25 inches, a new personal record.

The javelin was the exciting event though as Katelyn and Autumn Morse, also of Seeley-Swan, dueled it out in the final round.

Katelyn’s mother Jen Christensen took it all in as it unfolded.

“They were throwing together in the finals, Katelyn first and then Autumn,” Jen said. “Katelyn threw 115 or 116 on her first throw and Autumn gets a new personal best of around 126. Then Katelyn hits a new personal best of 120-something on her second throw and Autumn again gets around 126.

“Finally, Katelyn throws her big one (127-7) and shocked everyone, including herself, to take the lead,” Jen added. “But Autumn answered again with another great throw (this one measuring 130-11) and ended up winning.”

Katelyn’s second-place winning throw sounded a lot like the way Fisher described his.

“It didn’t feel like anything special,” she said. “I thought it might be like another 120 but it ended up going farther than that.”

Like Fisher, a multi-sports athlete who also excels in volleyball and basketball, Christensen now has her sights set on realizing her potential in the javelin in the next few years, saying she also plans on attending some camps, mentioning the upcoming Todd Riech camp in particular.

Riech will be in Kalispell guiding a camp at Glacier High School June 23 and in Eureka for another one June 24.

Riech is possibly the most famous Sanders County athlete ever after twice winning the State C track and field team championship single-handedly for Hot Springs in the late 1980s and going on to an incredible career throwing the javelin. He qualified for and participated in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and also made the U.S. team for the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia.

Riech’s expert advice and guidance could help Christensen realize her own immense potential in the javelin.

“I want to go to some camps to see if I can keep improving,” she said. “It was exciting competing at the State C, I will keep practicing hard and see where that takes me.”

Noxon senior Levi Brubaker did not quite reach his goal of setting a new State C record and repeating as champion in the triple jump, but he came darn close in Laurel.

Brubaker marked a best jump of 44 feet, 5 inches to finish a solid second to Melstone’s Brody Grebe, who bounded 45-6.75 to win.

Levi’s season was still a resounding success on the tracks and fields around western Montana. Brubaker triple jumped a lifetime best 45-0 to win the prestigious Top 10 meet title in Missoula several weeks ago and was undefeated in the event all season long, until last week.

The record Brubaker and Grebe were shooting for in Laurel last week – 45-7.75, set by Greg Stene of Columbus way back in 1976 – will live on for at least one more year.

An athlete for all seasons in the West End, Brubaker was an All-State C 6-Man football player for the Red Devils last fall and also a starter for the Noxon basketball team last winter.

Throwback…

Five years ago this week at the Multi-Sports Complex in Great Falls, the Plains-Hot Springs Trotters won the cooperative softball program’s first State B-C trophy ever by claiming third place in the 2014 State B-C tournament.

Coached by Jeff Rude at the time, the Trotters shocked Huntley Project 5-4 in the first round to set the tone for the rest of the tournament. Catcher Alex Green of Hot Springs played a crucial role in that big win over the Red Devils, driving in four of P-HS’s five runs in the game, including the game-winner on a solo home run in the top of the eighth inning.

Pitcher Tia Thompson of Plains, who pitched every inning of every game for the Trotters that season, set Huntley Project down in the bottom of the eighth to seal the win.

The Trotters then lost to the Tristin Achenbach-led Conrad-Choteau Cowgirls 4-1 in the semifinals before coming back to defeat Ronan 10-6 and Glasgow 12-6 to earn a spot in the loser-third game, again with Conrad-Choteau.

Achenbach, who went on to pitch the rest of her high school career at the Class AA level and who now pitches for the Montana Lady Griz softball team, shut down the Trotters 4-0 in that loser-third contest. Conrad-Choteau then went on to lose to Florence, the State B-C champs that year.

Plains-Hot Springs finished season play with a 19-9 record in 2014.