Despite small team, Rams feel they can contend

TALKEETNA — Susitna Valley coach Jane Buskirk believes the Rams will be a force to be reckoned with this weekend at Skyview High School, which is hosting this year’s Region II Track and Field Championships.

Though the Rams will bring only 20 total athletes to the meet — 13 boys, seven girls — Buskirk said her team has plenty of bang for its buck.

“I think we’ll be right there,” Buskirk said.

The Su-Valley girls team is led by Caitlin Hunt, a junior high jumper whose leap of five feet even is tied for the best in the state this season.

“This year was a breakthrough for her,” Buskirk said of Hunt, who is ranked third in Region II in the long jump and helps out on the relays as well. “It wasn’t a surprise. She’s a real good athlete.”

For the first time this year, Su Valley will be competing for berths not at an all-schools state meet, but at the newly-created small-schools meet. That means that the winners from this weekend’s Region II meet each advance to state, as do the next four best times and distances among class 1-2-3A competitors.

Buskirk said she believes the small-schools meet will help open up opportunities to teams from schools that wouldn’t otherwise be able to compete based simply on overall numbers.

“(Small-schools teams) may not have a lot of kids out, but they have a lot of talent,” she said.

Having a small team means coaches and athletes sometimes have to improvise. Buskirk said one of her jumpers, freshman Ashley Evans, a top distance runner had never triple jumped until last week, yet still managed to rip off the second-longest jump in the region this year.

“She just learned on Friday,” Buskirk said.

Hunt is also a threat in the running events as is Missy Scott, a sophomore ranked among the top four Region II girls in the 200, 400, 800 and 1,600.

On the boys side, freshman Nick Nysewander-Kellard has burst onto the scene this year, putting up the fastest 100 and 200 times in Region II en route to winning the 100 and placing fourth in the 200 at the Mat-Su Borough meet.

“And he also long jumps,” Buskirk said of Nysewander-Kellard, who is ranked third in that event.

Triple jumper Bill Kelly, a sophomore, is also a top seed and has jumped nearly five inches farther than any Region II athlete this season.

Senior Grant Hicks is second only to Cook Inlet’s Scott Litchfield in the discus, having thrown 97 feet, nine inches this season. Buskirk said if Hicks breaks 100 feet this year, he’s getting a specially-baked, discus-shaped brownie.

While Su Valley has a number of athletes who should find the podium, Buskirk said the best part of her team is its versatility. Because the Rams are a small squad, she said nearly all her athletes participate in the maximum four events.

“It’s kind of fun because they’re really gung-ho,” she said.

That attitude, she said, makes for a strong all-around team.

“If somebody’s hurt, the kids will just jump in and go.”

Contact Matt Tunseth at 352-2265 or matt.tunseth@

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