Ronan/St. Iggy track teams look to finish strong

KALISPELL - The Archie Row Invitational hosted 16 teams including Ronan / St. Iggy track whose boys took 14th place with six total team points beating Bigfork and Missoula Sentinel.

Zanen Pitts highlighted the team taking fourth in the 3,200 with 9:54 beating Flathead's Seth Grossman by one second.

Alan Skogen, who typically places third or better in the discus, fell a couple of spots but placed nonetheless with a personal best throw of 142-05 outdoing Loyola's Derek Wherley by over a foot.

"Overall, I was pleased with the performances of the day. The big test will come at ABC when it is just the Northwestern A Conference at the meet," said head boys coach Aaron Griffin.

Griffin is concerned for Gus McDonald, RSI's heavyweight in weight events who is recuperating from a hurt elbow. McDonald's performance in the javelin could be hindered as a result of his injury.

The girls placed one athlete, Tenille Hennessy who took sixth with 28:34 in the 200 after running her first open 400 with a time of 64.2 which would have placed her in the varsity but she ran it in the junior varsity, according to head girls coach Crystal Pitts.

"This is a big tough meet to compete in," said Pitts. "It is a long day and the athletes need to stay aware of what is happening so that they don't miss their events."

"The meet has a varsity, junior varsity, and freshman level competition which can be a confidence booster for some," she added.

The 400 relay of Stephanie Salomon, Tenille Hennessy, Kelly McMillan, Briana Malmquist ran a 53.1 to finish 5th.

Briana Malmquist qualified for the 100 meter finals.

"She ran a great trial race and finished second in her heat," said Pitts.

Kaneesha Benson ran the 1600 in freshman and was second with a 5:42 while Kelsey Salomon ran the 800 in varsity and was 10th with a 2:39.

Saturday, May 14 RSI goes to ABC Polson at 10 a.m. This will be the final meet before divisionals.