Polson starts to peak

POLSON — In one last meet before divisionals, the boys and girls of Polson track strapped them up on their home track for a go-around with teams from all around Class A in the Nelson/Thomas Athletic Booster Club Invitational.

The Lady Pirates won the meet, scoring enough personal bests to make it official: these girls are ready for the post-season.

Leading the way in the running events was sophomore Sierra Pete, who captured 22 points and finished in the top three at the 100, 200 and 400-meter dashes, not to mention scoring personal best times on all three.

She was also a part of the gold medal long relay team, which scored the best time of the season to beat out previous state leader Hamilton, and ran with the silver-medal short relay squad.

It wasn’t a bad day at all, she said.

“I’ve been feeling really good lately, I’m finally warmed up,” she said. “It’s been kind of a cold season especially after coming off last season because I didn’t run at all.”

A pulled hamstring neutralized the sprinter last year, but she still managed to suck it up for one last hurrah and join the gold medal short relay team at state.

She isn’t the only Lady Pirate to feel the wave of timely success come over her, she said.

“Our team’s been kind of worried about state this year. And we’ve finally started to get fast. It seems like we’re doing it at the right time,” she said.

Running up 131 points to nearest competitor Hamilton, that little extra oomph found its way onto the score sheets in a big way.

For Pete, her 400, which she placed second in ABC, is the one she wants most at state.

“But there’s a lot of good competition out there, so we’ll see,” she said.

Leading in the field events and in overall points was junior Loni Havlovick. She took gold in the shot put, second in the discus and third in the javelin.

All the top thrower’s medals added 16 points to Polson’s side.

If Pete was the champ in the sprints, then sophomore Mesa Starkey was for long distance, and sophomore Breanne Kelley for the hurdles.

Starkey took gold in the two-mile and fifth in the single, while Breanne snagged second and third in the 300 and 100 hurdles.

Breanne was also on both relays.

Senior Tara Johnson snagged gold in the javelin and pole vaulted her way to a third place finish.

And junior Christa Redcrow, the team’s other two-event placer, leapt for a silver in the long jump and a fourth place triple jump finish.

As head coach Bob Gunderson put it, “The team had their best showing of the year with season bests in the track events recorded all over the place.”

On the boys end, the absence of junior Jason Bowman-who coaches opted to rest for divisionals because his hip flexor had been bothering him-cost the Pirates some points.

But junior Joe Andrews and senior Chris Alfiero stepped up with a couple personal bests to score some points.

Andrews took third in the 200 (his season best) and Alfiero finished sixth in the event (his season best)  and took home a bronze of his own in the 300 hurdles (his season best).

Both boys were on the third-place 400 relay and fifth-place 1,600 relay teams.

Alfiero was happy to hit those marks and looks to improve next week.

“It feels great,” Alfiero said. “I’ve been working all season and I just felt it all come together finally. Hopefully I’ll go even faster in divisionals.”

Alfiero said he wants a win in the 400 at divisionals and would like to make it to state in the 200 as well.

In his final year he looked back on how far he had come, and summed up entering his final divisional meet.

“It feels weird. It feels like it’s gone so fast but I think I’ve made it worth it. I just want to go out with a bang and get my fastest times,” he said.

At the pole vault, it was junior Trae Fouty’s day. Hitting a 13-6 for a personal best and a silver medal made a dent on the score sheets as did senior Ryan Kelley’s jump of the same height for a third place finish.

Junior Miles Bieber took fourth in the 3,200 with freshman Alex Nystrom on his heels for fifth.   

Junior Brock Picard took fifth in the javelin and junior Alex Havlovick took sixth in the shot put.

Gunderson said it will take a big effort to keep a big divisional streak alive for the Polson boys.

“We are going to have to get a number of P.R.’s next weekend if we are going to keep our streak of 14 straight divisional trophies intact,” he said.

Polson hosts the Northwest A Divisional Track Meet at 3 p.m. on Friday and 12 p.m. on Saturday at Polson High School.