State tracksters hit the road

MAT-SU — All Gary Howell wanted was a weekend bus ride.

“I want to put in a bus request instead of just renting a car,” the

Wasilla High School track and field coach said in April, a year after the Warriors took only a handful to the 2007 state track meet in Fairbanks.

This weekend, Howell is getting his wish.

Wasilla has qualified 16 athletes for the ASAA Class 4A State Track and Field Championships, a meet that starts today at Lathrop High School.

And as it turns out, Howell is not the only coach to change the travel plans this spring. Every Mat-Su Valley team is going to have to find transportation for extra athletes.

Colony qualified a Valley-high 24 to the state meet, compared to 16 last year. Palmer moved 19 into state, an improvement from 16 in 2007. The Warriors’ 16 state competitors greatly exceeds their total of five last year. Houston tripled its total after qualifying one athlete last season.

Susitna Valley will take eight to the newly-formed 1-2-3A championships after taking three to the all-schools meet last year.

Howell said, all-around, 2008 was a great year for Region III track and field.

“It’s exciting,” Howell said. “It’s not one of those seasons where it’s an off year. It’s definitely been a competitive year in the regions and the state.”

Wasilla is the most improved team in the Valley, sending 11 more athletes to state this season than last. What’s even more exciting for Howell is the fact WHS is taking only three seniors north to the meet.

“That shows good growth for next year,” he said.

Thirteen of the 16 Warriors are on the girls side, a group led by three relay teams.

Howell said the 3,200-meter relay team (Jessica Gross, Alison Kelly, Kendra Nelson, Keri Clump and Katie Bialka) could be a wild card.

“Our four-by-eight could potentially be fourth or first in state,” Howell said. “In the two-mile relay, you’re one or two seconds out of first place. In a relay one or two miles long you can find a second along the way.”

And the Warriors have a few others who could step on to the podium on Saturday afternoon. Rachel Hoffman was a double winner in the hurdles at the Northern Lights Conference Championships at Palmer High last week and could medal in the Interior.

Hoffman is one of three Warriors to qualify in the hurdles events, joining Skyler Nuss (100-meter hurdles) and Kelly MacKenzie (100 and 300 hurdles). Hoffman is also teamed with Gross, Clump, Kelly and Nelson and the 1,600-meter relay squad.

Howell said a late change to ASAA’s list of qualifiers allowed his girls’ 400-meter relay team (Kahla Oosting, Shelby Fulton, Makala Conant and Gigi Nickerson) to go to state. Initially, Howell said, an error was made that put Juneau ahead of Wasilla in the overall results for the event.

Jillian Troisi will represent the Warriors in the shot put.

John Knowles, one of three Warrior boys in the state meet, could throw his way to a medal. Knowles qualified in both the shot and discus, and is joined by teammate Beebo Russell in the discus event.

Josiah Stewart, who found success in the jumping events after starting the

season as a distance runner, qualified in the triple jump.

Colony Knights

Colony’s Valley-high number of athletes is evenly spilt between the genders, with 12 boys and 12 girls in the state meet.

The Knights are not only well-represented in the meet, but they’ll stay plenty busy.

Seven boys qualified for state in the maximum four events, while two boys and four girls will compete in three events.

On the girls’ side, Colony is led by the NLC’s top jumper, Sierra Hodgson. The sophomore won the region title in both the long and the triple jump.

She’ll also compete in the high jump at the state meet.

Hodgson is joined by jumpers Siobhan Johansen (high jump, 300 hurdles) and Megan Wilson (long jump, triple jump).

Katie Troxel (discus) and Shellina Irwin (shot put) will throw in the state meet.

Sophomore Heidi Doner leads the Knights in the distance events, with spots in the 1,600, 3,200 and 3,200-meter relay. Doner is joined by Sydney

Stewart, Katie Forsner, Charity Bonn, Megan Bowker and Maria Wick on the relay squad.

Stewart also qualified in the 3,200, while Ellen Van Gorder will run the 400.

NLC champions Antone Zagars, Brad Truax, Brian Cox and Matt Jaronik are among seven Knights to qualify for four events. Zagars won the region title in the high jump and will also compete in the long jump, 3,200 and 3,200-meter relay at the state meet.

Truax won the Region III 800 and also qualified for the 400, 800-meter relay and 3,200-meter relay.

Cox, the region champion in the long jump, will also participate in the high jump, triple jump and 800-meter relay. Jaronik, a sophomore, won the 400 at the region meet and qualified for the long jump, 800-meter relay and 1,600-meter relay.

Also qualifying in four events are Cody Huggins (800, 1,600, 3,200 and 3,200-meter relay), Dave Gray (110 hurdles, 300 hurdles, 1,600-meter relay, 3,200-meter relay) and Matt Swan (400, 800-meter relay, 1,600-meter relay and 3,200-meter relay). Jaron Murphy (300 hurdles, 800-meter relay, 1,600-meter relay) and Doug Gray (300 hurdles, 1,600-meter relay, 3,200-meter relay) each qualified in three events.

Also representing Colony in the state meet are Jesse Thornock (long jump, triple jump) and John Jensen (triple jump) and Todd Atwood (800-meter relay).

Palmer Moose

The Palmer coaching staff had a feeling the Moose could send about a dozen boys to state, but were unsure about the girls team.

“The girls, it was hard to tell,” Palmer head coach Dale Ewart said on Wednesday. “We figured Jacquie (Lutz) and Geneva (Ratcliff), but after that we weren’t really sure what we’d end up with.”

Lutz and Ratcliff are among seven girls in the state meet, a number Ewart said the Moose are excited about.

Lutz qualifed in the 1,600 while Ratcliff — back with the Moose after two years away from the track and field team — will throw in both the discus and shot put. Ratcliff finished as the region runner-up in both throwing events last week.

Tabitha Corbin also finished as the region runner-up in two events, the 100-meter dash and the long jump, and will compete in state in both events.

A young group of throwers will follow Ratcliff to the state meet. Underclassmen Monica Nuernberg (discus), Erika Chambers (discus) and Erin LaMere (shot put and discus) will throw at the state meet. Morgan Whitfield also qualified in the 400.

The Palmer boys won four events at the NLC Championships and finished nine points shy of a region title.

Colony (127 points) and Palmer (120) each finished within reach of region champ Kodiak (129), and Ewart figures to see all three schools in the mix in the state meet team standings.

“Definitely,” Ewart said. “It’s going to be a battle.”

Seniors Devin Konkler (200) and Tony Guzman (triple jump) each won individual titles for the Moose, who also scored victories in the 400- and 800-meter relays.

The Moose have five boys who qualifed in four events: Konkler (200, 400, 400 relay, 1,600 relay); Guzman (long jump, triple jump, 100 hurdles, 800 relay); Jake Parisien (800, 1,600, 3,200, 3,200 relay); Kevin Smith (400, 800, 1,600 relay, 3,200 relay); and John Daly (100, 200, 400 relay, 800 relay, 1,600 relay).

Parisien shattered the region record in the 3,200 last week, but still finished second to Kodiak’s Trevor Dunbar. The nationally-ranked rivals will clash again in a 3,200 that could see both runners break the state record. Dunbar, a junior, ran the ninth-fastest time in the nation last weekend at regions, while Parisien, a UAA-bound senior, clocked the 12th-fastest time in the country.

Rick LeCheminant (800, 1,600 relay, 3,200 relay) and John Scoresby (100, 400 relay, 800 relay) each qualified in three events.

Anthony Anderson (800 relay), Thorton DePriest (1,600 relay, 3,200 relay), Davis Dunlap (3,200 relay) and Ryan Cunningham (1,600 relay, 3,200 relay) will also represent PHS at Lathrop High School this weekend.

Houston Hawks

Repeat qualifier Israel Morales is one of three Houston Hawks to qualify.

Morales was the lone Houston athlete to make the trip to the Interior last year, and will throw the discus as a senior in the state meet.

Teammate Dustin Dodds qualified in the 300 hurdles, while Jessica Larrabee is the lone member of the girls squad headed to state.

Su Valley sends 8 to inaugural event

ASAA’s 1-2-3A championships will make its debut this weekend in Fairbanks and Susitna Valley will have eight athletes competing in the inaugural event.

There’s also a good chance a Ram could be standing at the top of the podium following the first small-schools state track and field championships.

Junior Caitlin Hunt is currently one of four athletes to record a state-best mark of five feet in the high jump.

“She’s jumped five feet pretty consistently,” Su Valley co-head coach Jane Buskirk said, also noting the Rams’ school record in the event could be in jeopardy.

Kristin Johnson hit 5-2 for the Rams in 1988.

Hunt is joined by Ashley Evans in the high jump. Evans also qualified in the 800-meter relay with Hunt, Missy Scott and Marina Cron.

Hunt also qualified in the long jump.

Leading the Su Valley boys is freshman Nick Nysewander-Kellard, who was named the most outstanding boys’ track athlete of the Region II meet in Soldotna last week.

The freshman won region titles in the 100 and 200, and also qualified in the 800-meter relay with teammates Mike Stevenson, Grant Hicks and Steen Timmers.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.