Charlo boys finish second

GREAT FALLS - The Charlo track and field team wrapped up an impressive season by leaving it all on the track this weekend at the State C meet in Great Falls.

The boys' team captured three gold medals en route to a second place team trophy, its first in eleven years.

"We knew it was going to be hard and we knew it was going to come down to every point," senior Cody Nitschke said. "We all ran our best of the season, so we were satisfied with the second place."

As expected, nothing came easy for the Vikings, who are familiar with gritting out close races.

"I thought it ended up a pretty good weekend," head coach Bret Thompson said. "You always have a few events that you wish you could have done a little better in, but overall the kids did a good job."

It didn't help that Joliet had a great meet, winning with 89 points to Charlo's 56 and getting some points that, on paper, they weren't expected to get, Thompson said.

Nitschke's three gold and one silver medal highlighted the meet. After coming up just short of gold in the 300-meter hurdles, Nitschke earned sweet redemption against Harlowton's Caleb Dick in the 110 hurdles, the event he had wanted to win most of all.

"It was the one I trained the hardest for and it was my favorite event," he said. "We were neck-and-neck until about the seventh hurdle and then Caleb Dick, who was supposed to win it, clipped a hurdle and I pulled away from him."

Nitschke's 14.89 was his personal best, as was the 40.75 from Friday's event.

A late addition to this year's Viking squad, Nitschke had to run full speed ahead in every race during the last month of the season.

"Having fewer races, but with a lot of wins really built my confidence for the weekend," he said. "I think it kinda worked to my advantage."

Joining forces with senior Chance Firestone and juniors Chance Rosenbaum and Chico Stipe, Nitschke anchored the formidable 1,600 relay team to a two-second PR and a gold medal in 3:32.11. The 400 relay team, which ran junior Austin Bauer in place of Rosenbaum, also won in 44.44, another PR.

"When I came on to join those guys, I wasn't sure how I was going to do, but we trained hard and it was very rewarding," Nitschke said of the relay events.

Scoring valuable points for the Vikings, sophomore Stephen Delaney helped to carry on the strong Charlo tradition in the hurdles. He gutted it out to a tight fifth place finish in the 300 hurdles with a PR time of 42.59, then just missed another fifth, placing sixth by .04 in the 110 hurdles (16.26).

"He's got big shoes to fill," hurdle and high jump coach Jared Miller said. "I know he can fill them. He's a hard-working kid."

Junior Michael Smith again lowered his school record in the 3,200 for the third week in a row. He ran to a fourth place finish Friday in the event with a time of 10:32.54. Then, on Saturday, Smith pulled out an impressive sub-4:50 1,600, crossing in fifth place and earning another medal and his team's only non-relay points that day.

The Lady Vikings produced impressive efforts across the board and ended the meet in ninth place.

One of their biggest surprises came from the girls' 1,600 relay, Thompson said. Their time of 4:16.64 was especially impressive because they didn't run in the fast heat, but slipped into a silver medal podium finish from what was supposed to be a non-scoring heat.

"They beat all the faster teams except for one," Thompson said. "They all ran fast times."

Senior Jaris Kelley cleared the 9-0 bar in the pole vault to secure a silver medal in the event. Her teammate, senior Stephanie Maughan placed in the same event, clearing 8-0 in a three-way tie for sixth.

Kelley's season finished on a high note after a basketball injury this winter had her sidelined for a few months. A natural athlete, she excelled almost immediately at the throwing events, also qualifying for the state meet in the javelin.

"It took us a while to find events that she could be in without getting hurt," Thompson said. "She did a good job by the end of the year with those."