Ronan-St. Ignatius athletes give their all
Josh Miller pushes through during a race in Bigfork.
BIGFORK - Beautiful weather set the mood for the 18 teams competing in Saturday's meet at Bigfork, where boys' head coach Noelle Decker said many Ronan and Mission athletes were able to post their personal bests so far this season.
Track and field is a new sport to many of the team's young athletes and foreign exchange students, but Decker said given the team's youth, she is pleased with their progress.
Although senior Gui Silva, a foreign exchange student, hasn't had any exposure to track and field before this year, Decker said he has a lot of natural talent.
"He loves to hurdle and has focused on making the 110 and 300-meter hurdles his races," she said. "I look forward to him being right in the mix come divisionals on both of those races."
Junior Jordan Franklin placed third in the 110 hurdles with the season's best time of 16.62 seconds. Sophomore Marcus Hungerford ran the 400 for the first time this season, placing fourth in both the 400 and the 800.
"His 800 time was the same as last week in Columbia Falls, but I am hoping we can break that 2:05 mark this next weekend in Libby," Decker said. "We have focused on his 400 splits, but he is lacking some endurance that will just come as the season progresses."
Given the team's overall youth, with only one senior boy participating this year Decker said younger boys ‘have stepped up to take on leadership roles.
"They are a great bunch of kids to work with," Decker said.
Although Decker is confident in the team's work ethic, she said it is going to take some hard work and patience to get the team where they need to be to be competitive.
"As long as we continue to see improvement each week, I am happy, and [improvement] is what it's all about."
Junior Adessa Durglo scored all 36 points for the Ronan-St. Ignatius girls' team. She placed first in the long jump with a 15-1 1/2, first in the high jump with a jump of 4-10, second in the triple jump with a jump of 31-7 3/4 and third in the 200 with a time of 28.6.
The girls' team saw many improvements on the track and field this past week, girls' head coach Crystal Pitts said.
Freshman Victoria Crenshaw ran a personal best 2:54 in the 800 and a 6:31 1600. Freshman Mariah Cheff and Junior Mackenzie Trudeau also had personal best times of 14.9 for Cheff and 14.1 for Trudeau
"With the improvements the girls showed we hope to see more of them joining her [Durglo] in the scoring column," Pitts said.
The next Ronan-St. Ignatius track meet is at 10 a.m. on Saturday at Libby.