Polson track queens

LAUREL - By some accounts, track and field is an "individual" sport. While athletes may compete in their own lanes or throw, vault and jump one-at-a-time, it was nothing short of a total team effort that won the Polson Lady Pirates a state track and field title Saturday in Laurel.

While senior Loni Havlovick was the team's only individual state champion, in the discus, seven runners-up and a host of solid top-six finishes carried the Pirates more than 30 points above second place Hamilton to clinch the school's fourth state title in eight years and their second since 2008.

The Pirates scored 86 points over two days of competition, sealing the deal when junior Mesa Starkey crossed the line second in the 3,200-meter, crushing her own school record by thirteen seconds in the process.

"It was a really great feeling when Mesa ran a great 3,200 and iced the championship for us with two events to go," coach Bob Gunderson said. "It was nice to have the meet sewn up early, a lot more relaxing than usual at a meet like this."

"It's a great way to end the senior season," senior thrower Natasha Lafferty said. "We thought about how it would be so awesome to go out with a state title."

Lafferty and senior teammates Havlovick, Nicole Davey and Christa Red Crow knew the sweet taste of a championship season after winning two years ago, and all year long, they were hungry for another one.

"We all had the same goal in mind," Davey, who earned five medals placing third in the 400 and second in the 300 hurdles, pole vault and both relays said. "We set a goal as a team and set goals as individuals, but once you do good for yourself, you know you're also helping the team."

The seniors, who Gunderson calls "some of the most competitive people I have met in my 41 years of coaching," led their team to two state titles and one third place finish in four years. They know how to compete and how to get the job done.

"The pressure came from ourselves because we wanted to do it for each other," Red Crow said. "We all try to push each other and help each other out."

Havlovick, who came up one inch short of a first place medal in the shot put on Friday did not let that disappointment keep her from earning gold on Saturday in the discus.

"Natasha, my parents and my brother really helped me out," she said. "They told me to try and keep your head up. You still have a job to do tomorrow."

Havlovick was all business Saturday. When she needed to unleash her best throw of the weekend to win the discus, she heaved 130-feet on her final attempt to make it happen. The Montana State signee and her teammate Lafferty had similar experiences on the weekend.

"We both really feed off each other," Havlovick said.

Lafferty was not going to make the finals in the shot put, according to Gunderson, until on her final throw in the preliminaries. She also launched a massive personal record to secure a spot in the finals and wrap up her senior year with a sixth place medal at state.

"It seems that ‘Tasha always comes through when it counts," Gunderson said.

Davey came close to winning her own individual state titles, twice. The all-around track star lost in a tie-breaking jump-off in the pole vault and, in the 300 hurdles, crossed the line .09 seconds behind Corvallis' Paige Squire.

"I can't say enough about the leadership Nicole brings to our track team," Gunderson said. "She competes at such a high level in every one of her events. She literally leaves it all out there every time."

The big surprise of the weekend, however, came from freshman Anna DiGiallonardo, who took second in the 100 after winning her qualifying heat with a 12.8 personal record. According to Gunderson, she led the finals for the first 90 meters and lost at the wire to Belgrade's Aimee Beck.

DiGiallonardo teamed up with Davey and juniors Katie Finley and Breanne Kelley to break the school's 400 relay record in 50.34. The 1,600 relay, which swapped Finley for Red Crow, again smashed the school record in 4:05.56.

"It's really been a fun bunch to coach," Gunderson said. "They are clutch. They don't back down. You have to beat them."

Easier said than done.

The Polson boys' team had a successful weekend at the state meet as well.

Senior Colter Bull earned two fourth-place medals in both his 800 (2:00.9) and 1,600 (4:33.38) events. According to Gunderson, he was boxed-in during the 1,600 or he might have been able to finish higher.

"He gave us some great efforts this season," he said.

Senior Brock Picard and senior Joe Andrews finished three-four in the javelin, throwing 173-5 and 171-1 into a cross wind, "the worst possible scenario for this event," Gunderson said.

Andrews finished just out of the medals in seventh for the 200 by several hundredths of a second. He combined with freshman Mike Devlin, senior Jordan Cross and sophomore Chris Cote to earn personal records and place sixth in the 1,600 relay, an event in which the Pirates almost didn't compete.

"They had been incorrectly disqualified at the divisional track meet and were a late addition to the state field," Gunderson said. "A protest that I filed with the Montana High School Association over their divisional disqualification was upheld and the boys got to run. They weren't picked to place anywhere near that high."