Charlo takes first hurdle

FRENCHTOWN — While the rest of Lake County’s track teams had to stay home after canceled meets in Columbia Falls and Missoula this past week, Charlo launched into competition on Saturday in Frenchtown.

Placing athletes in several events, the boys and girls of the Vikings ran, hurdled, leaped and chucked their way to an eighth place finish overall.

In the running events, the Vikings did well for their first time digging their shoes into a track, head coach Bret Thompson said.

Back in Charlo, the Vikings had only dirt, grass and concrete to practice on. Some of the other Class C schools were still dealing with mounds of snow in the same conditions, Thompson said.

“I had a townsperson laughing at us the other day because we were working on our relays on the sidewalk,” Thompson said.

Sidewalk or not, it worked. The Charlo girls took third in the 1,600-meter relay with junior Jaris Kelley, sophomore Brittany Shaver and freshmen Dawn Blevins and Deondra Brown working together to finish in 4:31:18.

The boys placed sixth in both the 400 and 1,600-meter relays. The Vikings on the shorter tour included junior Chance Firestone, sophomore Chico Stipe, sophomore Austin Bauer and freshman Josh Lords.

The longer course was run by sophomores James Roylance, Chance Rosenbaum, and Stipe, and was captained by senior Clay Hoyt.

On the running end, some of the young Charlo girls made some impressive times, Thompson said.

“I hope its good things ahead of us. I expect the best of them, but was I surprised? Yeah, I was surprised with some of the things we were able to turn out,” he said.

Blevins might have been one such surprise, competing with girls who had been at it for years and coming away with a fifth place finish in the 800-meter, and sixth in the 1,600 -meter — as a freshman.

Fans can imagine what she might do later in the spring once she’s tuned those wheels a bit more.

Charlo’s Saelyn Fell took fifth place in the 100-meter hurdles and Kelley finished with Bronze in the 300-meter hurdles.

Kelley doesn’t only run - she also throws - a shot put 31 feet and 3 inches in fact, enough for a fourth place finish.

Right behind her was Charlo senior Kate Coburn, whose toss fell a couple inches short of Kelley’s, for a sixth place finish. Coburn also took fourth in the discus.

Kelley also pole-vaulted her way to a silver medal, flying over the eight-foot mark before hitting the pad. All four of Charlo’s varsity vaulters placed, the other three being Firestone, who also took silver with a 12-foot monster of a jump, junior Jame Petersen who finished fourth and Rosenbaum who took fifth.

“It was just one of those days where the weather turned out to be nice for them,” Thompson said, explaining that adverse conditions make everything different, from gripping the pole and traction on the runway to the way the pole will bend in the vaulter’s hands.

Two of the boys from the relays took individual honors. Stipe sprinted the 100-meter in 11.75 seconds for a bronze metal and took sixth in the 200-meter dash as well.

Fellow sophomore Rosenbaum earned himself a sixth place finish in the 800-meter run.

The performance of those young athletes spells hope for the Viking’s not to mention the performances by some of the JV athletes.

“I thought our young freshman and sophomore boys did really well in this meet. Some of their handheld times would have placed them in the varsity meet,” Thompson said.

One such freshman was Stephen Delaney who triumphed in a lot of events, none more so than the 110-meter tall hurdles.

Not a very tall kid, Thompson said to see him leaping over the 39-inch hurdles at speed is to see athleticism in motion.

He should be a fun one to watch down the line.

Charlo’s next meet is at 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 18 at Bigfork.