Ronan track preps for state

LIBBY - Ronan-St. Ignatius junior Jordan Franklin crossed the line of his 100-meter preliminary heat in third place Friday at the Northwestern A Divisional track meet in Libby. With only the top two advancing to the finals, he thought he was down and out even though he had posted faster times in the prelims than a number of boys who qualified for the finals in their separate heats. After some deliberation amongst the coaches later that night, however, they invited Franklin to compete in a two-man pre-final final heat with the previous day's fourth-place finisher, Derek Crittendon from Whitefish, who had also run a quicker time.

"I knew after the trials that Jordan had one of the faster times, but the decision had already been made to take top two in each heat so felt it was a done deal," coach Noelle Decker said. "I'm not exactly sure how it all came to be, but Jordan went from not making finals to winning the whole darn thing. It was something else."

At the end of the day, Franklin qualified for the state meet in the high jump, which he won with a leap of six feet, the 100 and both hurdle races.

Seven RSI boys will make the trip with him. Eric Malmquist made it in the high jump, finishing fourth with a jump of 5-8.

"It has been a difficult season for Eric, as he just came back the last two weeks due to hip pointers," Decker said. "For him to come back as strong as he did was great to see."

Both relays qualified as well, with Riley Dennis, Cody Johnson, Austin Durglo and Marcus Hungerford contributing to two fourth place finishes in those events.

The season concluded this past weekend for many of the athletes, but not due to a lack of effort, Decker said as almost every boy on her team turned in personal records in individual events.

"I just can't say enough about the whole team," she said. "I truly am proud of their efforts."

With a strong contingency of distance runners returning to the team next season, big things are in the works for RSI.

"They are young and some had never been exposed to running, track and field, or belonging to a sport," Decker said. "It was great to see their growth over the course of the season and how excited they were each meet when they just kept getting better and better."

With a young team, it's often hard to predict where the season will go.

"Those seasons can be the most rewarding because you see the growth and development," Decker said. "They all came a long way this year. I look forward to getting them all back."

The Ronan St. Ignatius girls' track and field team made the last three months all worth while last weekend, crushing personal records across the board.

Christina Williams beat not just a personal record, but the St. Ignatius school record as well, with a blistering time of 5:46 in the 1,600.

"What you hope for is that you can give the athletes enough information, practices, and training that at their final competition of the season they meet or exceed their best performances and that is what happened this past weekend," coach Crystal Pitts said.

Junior Adessa Durglo secured the triple jump crown for the third year and added the long jump championship to her resume, too.

Seven Maidens qualified for the state meet in Laurel. Durglo will compete in five events (100, 200, high jump, triple jump and long jump); junior Jenny Larsson in two (high jump, javelin); and Victoria Crenshaw, Roslyn Hardy, LaGlen Mitchell, Trudeau Mackenzie and Williams will combine to cover both relay events.