Polson boys track takes the lead, girls finish second

Polson boys track athletes broke the 100 point mark to claim the top spot at the Bigfork Invite last Saturday, while the girls came in a solid second with 94 points, right behind Ronan with 124.

It was a meet full of personal bests. Andy Nelson took second in the 110 meter hurdles with 15.4. Ted Morigeau earned second in the javelin with 162'5" and fourth in the pole vault with 12'6". Kalvin Patterson broke his personal record with a shot put of 41' 6" to come in sixth and with a 122' 7" discus, he took third. In the 800M, Logan Torgison topped himself with a time of 2:08.7 for first place. In the 1600M, Torgison again shattered his record to take first with 4:45. Rob Kelley came in fourth in the discus with a personal best of 119'7". In a time of 16.06, Cody Doyle came in third in the 110H and came in sixth with 44.8 in the 300H. Freshman Ryan Kelley came in third in the javelin with a personal best of 13'0".

The boys 400M and 1600M relay teams came in second with Brandon Hoy, Nelson, Morigeau, Bryce Picard and Tim Browne running.

Torgison led in individual points with 26. Picard earned 18, as did Ted Morigeau.

"I was extremely happy with the way we competed last weekend. We have a good nucleus of competitive athletes. They have been working hard in practice and their hard work showed up in results at the meet," said head boys coach Bob Gunderson.

The boys did well despite losing one of their top athletes to an injury.

"Having Chris Ogle injured was definitely a major factor this week. He makes us a lot tougher as a team when he is there. We really don't know when he will be healthy enough to run for us again. It is a day to day thing at this point. He hasn't worked out in over a week," Gunderson said.

Even so, with only 26 boys on the team (relatively low compared to Whitefish and C-Fall, who each boast about 60 athletes) earning 114 points at the invite is an accomplishment, he noted.

"We ask a lot out of some of our better athletes. Most of them are entered in five events at nearly every meet and we have to stay nearly injury free if we are to do well as a team," he said.

On the girls side, there was also a lot of success and personal bests. Alex Noble took third in the 3,200, while Brittany Gardner and Merilee Mowbray took second and third in the javelin.

State champ Danielle Rowe picked up where she left off last year, taking first in the high jump with a height of 4"10. Gardiner also took third in the shot put.

The team took fourth in the 400 relay, while Mowbray finished first in the 400, Tana Bull took third and Jessica Buckless took sixth. Jennifer Gallitin had a second place finish in the discus, behind defending state champ Charlo's Amanda Murphey, and Gardiner took third.

Noble had a third place finish in the 1,600, while Bull had a fourth place finish in the 200 with a time of 28.96.

Results of Tuesday night's meet in Kalispell were not available.