Lady Pirates track and field takes second

MISSOULA - Before Polson senior Loni Havlovick stepped into the shot put circle Saturday at the Missoula Invitational she stretched the shot high above her head with her right arm.

As she walked into the circle, she shifted the shot in her left hand and shook her muscles loose. She then got into position to throw.

"I adopted that routine about a week ago," Havlovick said of her new ritual.

Following her preparations, Havlovick threw her personal best, 37-4.

That was enough to take home first place.

"It felt really easy. It felt like I didn't even have to work hard," Havlovick remembered of her throw.

She didn't stop by surpassing just one of her personal records. She took second in the discus with another personal best throw of 126-11.

"Both of those throws should put her at the top, or near the top, of the best throws so far this season in class A," head coach Robert Gunderson said.

Gunderson said the girls' team had their best showing ever last Saturday at the Missoula County Public School Invitational, finishing second, ahead of much larger schools from Montana, Washington and Idaho.

Junior Breanne Kelley placed in all five events she entered, including the 400-meter relay and the 1600 relay, events in which Polson finished second.

The girls' 400 relay team finished behind Great Falls with a time of 51.5 seconds. The 1600 relay team won their heat with a time of 4:16.97, but placed second due to a faster time, four-hundredths of a second, by Kalispell Flathead in the previous heat.

Senior Nicole Davey also had an impressive meet, placing in all four of the events she entered, including a season best in the pole vault and 400.

"We were kind of the underdogs going into this meet. I think that gave us more of a drive," Davey said of the tough competition.

Junior Mesa Starkey returned to competition this week after a family vacation in Hawaii. She proved that the time off the track didn't hurt her 3200 time by placing sixth.

Freshman Darly Conko-Camel threw a personal best 99-8, finishing seventh in the discus. Senior Natasha Lafferty finished fifth in the shot put with a throw of 33-7 3/4. Senior Christa Red Crow finished fifth in the long jump with a distance of 15-3 3/4.

For the boys' team, the invitational marked another step in their progression with what coach Gunderson sees as "a number of outstanding early season marks."

Because of the large number of entries in the races, trials were run to weed out runners for the finals. Senior Jason Bowman had the fastest 100 time in the trials with an 11.06, but his weak start in the finals cost him.

"He still ran a good race, finishing third to some very fast sprinters," Gunderson said of Bowman. "There is very little room for error in this race, and the start is extremely important."

"Colter Bull continues to run impressive doubles," Gunderson said of the senior's 800 and 1600. "Both times in these races were season bests. He came from 17th place to fifth in the final lap of the 1600, clocking a 62-second split on his last lap."

With that comeback, Bull took fifth in the 1600 with a time of 4:40.94 and finished the 800 in seventh place with a time of 2:05.19.

"One of the things I love about track and field is that you can measure improvement in every athlete," Gunderson said.

Senior Alex Havlovick certainly showed improvement with a personal best throw of 145-2, good enough to place him fourth in discus.

"I've been working on some things like trying to calm down and controlling my adrenaline before throwing," Havlovick said. "I think I did a good job of that Saturday."

Freshman Mike Devlin jumped 19-9, placing him eighth in long jump and marking a record for the Northwest A conference. Devlin stands at second in the 400 rankings in the conference.

Despite the overall finish of ninth, strong showings were made in individual events, with a third place finish in the 400 relay, the runners coming in at 44:75 on the clock and a sixth place finish in the 1600 relay with a time of 3:38.05.

Senior Ty Fouty of Polson took fourth in pole vault with a 12-6 jump.

Polson's next track meet is 10 a.m. Saturday in Frenchtown.