Vikings tracksters dominant at Tripp
The Charlo High School boys, girls track program is synonymous with high level placers who fair well at the MHSA Class C track meet.
Long-time Vikings, Lady Vikings’ track coach Bret Thompson and his team have the credentials that allow them to be one of the perennial favorites to be mentioned in early conversations for MHSA Class C state hardware.
This season, Charlo established itself as one of the teams that could potentially be considered to capture an MHSA Class C state title – and it’s only the Vikings’ second meet.
Between the Florence-Darby and Dave Tripp Memorial meet, Charlo has a combined 26 individual top-10 finishes, excluding the relay teams and they will look to add to their growing list of accolades the rest of this season.
Three Vikings are legitimate threats to capture state hardware: Wills Degrandpre, Toby Odom and one of Charlo’s most decorated all-around athletes, Landers Smith.
Smith and Degrandpre have accumulated the most first-place finishes among their Vikings’ teammates in the first two track meets.
Degrandpre, one of Charlo’s top-notch cross country runners, excelled in distance events at his first race at the Dave Tripp Memorial Friday afternoon at Polson High School.
Degrandpre captured first place in both the 1,600-meter and 3,200-meter race, recording times of 4 minutes, 58.76 seconds in the 1600 and 11 minutes, 4.94 seconds in the 3,200.
In Smith’s first meet of the season at Tripp, he didn’t place lower than second in the four events he participated in. Smith PRed in the 100-meter and captured first place in the pole vault.
In the pole vault, Smith cleared a distance of 12 feet, 6 inches. The closest contestant to Smith’s distance was Fairfield’s Levi Gibson of Fairfield, who cleared 12-feet in the event.
Smith got a PR with 11.69 seconds in the 100-meter dash and was a key component in the 4X100 and 4X400 relay teams. The 4X100 relay team included team members Garett Vaughan, Brock Tomlin and Toby Odom with a time of 47.72 seconds and the 4X400 relay Bridger Foust, Toby Odom and Brock Tomlin finished second with a time of 3 minutes, 51.30 seconds.
Odom had two second-place finishes and was part of two second-place relay teams. Odom ran the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 17.83 seconds and the 300-meter hurdles recording a time of 45.14 seconds. Vaughan was a member of the 4X100 and 4X400 relay teams and finished 6th in the 100-meters with 12.08 seconds, a personal record.
Other Vikings that excelled with top-five finishes included Bridger Foust, Tomlin, Connor Koenig, Vaughan, Roper Edwards, Odom at the Tripp Memorial.
Foust placed third in the pole vault recording a distance of 9 feet, 6 inches, a personal record and fourth in the 1,600-meter dash with a time of 5 minutes, 18.54 seconds. He was a member of the second place 4X400 (Foust, Odom, Tomlin, Smith) relay team that recorded a time of 3 minutes, 51.08 seconds.
Koenig had one individual top-5 performance recording a time in the 1600-meter dash of 12 minutes, 53.23 seconds.
Garett Vaughan finished fourth in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 18.41 seconds, fourth in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 47.38 seconds and finished third in the pole vault clearing a distance of 9 feet, 6 inches.
Roper Edwards also finished with one top-five finish by finishing fourth in the 800-meter dash with a time of 2 minutes, 30.37 seconds, a personal record.