Wasilla girls dominate sprints, relays

SOLDOTNA — Skyview’s Thit Bak jumped the highest and farthest in three events despite a tender ankle.

Wasilla’s Dajanae Harris blazed past the field in a record-breaking sprint, while teammates Morgan Dampier and Brianne Bohn proved nearly unbeatable.

And Kenai Central’s Tyler Spalding learned mid-year results mean nothing when it comes to the postseason.

Bak, Spalding and the Wasilla speedsters headlined the Region III Northern Lights Conference Track and Field Championships at Skyview High School Friday and Saturday.

The Kodiak boys and Wasilla girls earned team titles, defeating Soldotna, Kenai Central, Skyview, Colony, Palmer, Houston and Homer.

“We are coming on strong when we need to,” said Wasilla coach Gary Howell, who was named the girls’ coach of the year after watching his squad dominate the sprints, hurdles and relays. “You don’t want to flatline at this time of the year.”

On consecutive windy afternoons, Bak, Spalding and the Wasilla girls took center stage in earning automatic berths to the two-day 4A state championships, which are next weekend in Fairbanks.

Bak, a foreign exchange student from Denmark, swept the triple jump, high jump and long jump on a sore left ankle she has been nursing the past two weeks. She won the long jump with a distance of 15 feet, 4 inches, and the high jump in 5-0 and the triple in 34-11.5.

Bak has dominated the jumping events all season, boasting the state’s top mark in the high jump at 5-4 and the second-best mark in the triple at 35-2. Now she is focused on the state meet.

“I hope I can place in the top three in the high jump and triple jump,” Bak said. “That’s my goal.”

Spalding, a state champion in 2010, won two events and placed second in two others.

The senior won the high jump with a leap of 6-2 — he posted a 6-6 last week — and he broke the school record with distance of 44-4 in the triple jump.

Making history in the triple was something Spalding had been aiming to accomplish all season.

“I’ve been working toward it, working really hard for it,” he said. “It feels really good because it was almost expected that I’d do it.”

A favorite to win the discus, Spalding was topped by Wasilla’s Devon Teeling, who also won the shot put.

Teeling tossed the discus 148-7 to what for Spalding was a disappointing 131-5. Spalding entered the meet with the state’s top mark at 153-7, one of three events in which he holds the state’s No. 1 slot.

Spalding said his footwork wasn’t good enough, resulting in his best throws flying out of bounds.

“It’s definitely some motivation for next week,” he said of state. “I just need to stay healthy — mentally strong and physically strong — and hopefully get up there and have a great meet.”

The region meet couldn’t have gone much better for the Wasilla girls, who scored twice as many points as runner-up Colony (78).

Harris broke her own meet record in the 100-meter dash in 12.66 seconds, edging teammate Dampier (12.86). She cruised in the 200, running a 27.08 to the 28.47 of SoHi’s Jelly Nolden. Harris also ran a leg on the winning 800 relay.

Dampier was equally dominant, winning the 400 in 1:01.03 after breaking the meet record with a 57.26 in Friday’s preliminaries. She won the 800 by more than five seconds in 2:16.38 and anchored the 1,600 relay to a first-place time of 4:15.46.

Not to be outdone, Bohn swept the hurdles and ran the opening leg of the 800 relay. In the 100 hurdles, Bohn posted a 16.50. In the 300 hurdles, she posted a 48.89.

“We performed well where we thought we were going to perform well,” Howell said of the girls. “They’ve been working really hard and should do some big things at state.”

Other notable finishers from the Matanuska-Susitna Valley included Colony’s Shellina Irwin, who won the shot put and discus; Palmer’s James McCall, who won the 100 and 200; Palmer’s Mason Minturn, who won the 800; Colony’s Anthony Bricker, who won the 110 hurdles; Palmer’s Joe Day, who won the 300 hurdles; and Palmer’s first-place 400 and 3,200 relays. The Moose took second in the team standings, while Colony placed second in the girls standings.

The top 16 individuals and top eight relays from regional competition advance to state, with region winners qualifying automatically. The list of state competitors will be released Monday, coaches said.

In one of the most competitive events of the meet, the Skyview boys earned a surprising win in the 800 relay.

Running together for the first time this season, Richard Reynolds, Albert White, Kyle Shedd and Jasen Suonvieri teamed up for a time of 1:34.56. Suonvieri, who finished second in the 100, held off Kodiak’s Joshua Corpuz down the final straightaway, nosing out Corpuz by .03 seconds.

Wasilla was favored to win, but a botched handoff on the second exchange of the baton resulted in a disqualification. The race was tight when the fumble occurred and the Warriors had their two fastest runners in line to bring it home. Howell said the unit was made up of seniors, all of whom run 24-second splits, which the coach said is too slow to qualify for state individually, but is among the state’s fastest when combined on a relay.

“It’s really disappointing,” Howell said. “We kind of put all our eggs in that basket, but it didn’t work out.”

2011 Class 4A region III track and field championships

Skyview High School, Saturday

Team scores

Girls — 1. Wasilla, 156; 2. Colony, 78; 3. Soldotna, 63; 4. Kodiak, 57; 5. Skyview, 55; 6. Kenai Central, 50; 7. Palmer, 41; 8. Houston, 28; 9. Homer, 3.

Boys — 1. Kodiak, 116; 2. Palmer, 108; 3. Colony, 62; 4. Skyview, 59.5; 5. Wasilla, 50; 6. Kenai Central, 47.5; 7. Soldotna, 44; 8. Houston, 32; 9. Homer, 12.

Girls results (top six)

100 meter run — 1, Harris, Dajanae, Wasilla, 12.66. 2, Dampier, Morgan, Wasilla, 12.86. 3, Holen, Taylor, Houston, 13.44. 4, Nolden, Jelly, Soldotna, 13.54. 5, Houchen, Sarah, Palmer, 13.58. 6, Gillespie, Claire, Houston, 13.63.

200 — 1, Harris, Dajanae, Wasilla, 27.08. 2, Nolden, Jelly, Soldotna, 28.47. 3, Holen, Taylor, Houston, 28.57. 4, Schleich, Cori, Wasilla, 28.70. 5, Mucha, Bree, Soldotna, 29.57. 6, Henning, Ashley, Kodiak, 29.69.

400 — 1, Dampier, Morgan, Wasilla, 1:01.03. 2, Beeson, Bailey, Kenai Central, 1:01.88. 3, Mucha, Bree, Soldotna, 1:03.88. 4, Winter, Gretchen, Palmer, 1:03.90. 5, Hann, Tracie, Colony, 1:06.02. 6, Barnett, McKenzie, Kodiak, 1:06.09.

800 — 1, Dampier, Morgan, Wasilla, 2:16.38. 2, Michaelson, Audrey, Colony, 2:21.60. 3, Beeson, Bailey, Kenai Central, 2:23.57. 4, Bethea, Jaymi, Kodiak, 2:23.82. 5, Pahkala, Jessica, Wasilla, 2:27.07. 6, Hutchins, Alyssa, Wasilla, 2:28.63.

1,600 — 1, Bethea, Jaymi, Kodiak, 5:11.67. 2, Michaelson, Audrey, Colony, 5:15.99. 3, Burroughs, Mariah, Wasilla, 5:24.11. 4, Ford, Jenna, Wasilla, 5:25.36. 5, Jahn, Abby, Colony, 5:35.37. 6, Meier, Bailey, Colony, 5:37.99.

3,200 — 1, Bethea, Jaymi, Kodiak, 11:10.53. 2, Michaelson, Audrey, Colony, 11:19.30. 3, Burroughs, Mariah, Wasilla, 11:37.89. 4, Ford, Jenna, Wasilla, 11:44.54. 5, Jahn, Abby, Colony, 11:53.49. 6, Thompson, Makenzie, Colony, 12:06.45.

100 hurdles — 1, Bohn, Brianne, Wasilla, 16.50. 2, Ulen, Mariah, Soldotna, 16.62. 3, DeVito, Shaynee, Kenai Central, 16.67. 4, Oliver, Samantha, Kodiak, 16.73. 5, Sandahl, Leah, Kenai Central, 17.18. 6, Lautrup, Natalie, Colony, 18.27.

300 hurdles — 1, Bohn, Brianne, Wasilla, 48.89. 2, DeVito, Shaynee, Kenai Central, 49.09. 3, Sandahl, Leah, Kenai Central, 49.71. 4, Hollers, Elisha, Skyview, 50.26. 5, Schleich, Cori, Wasilla, 50.66. 6, Ng, Sarah, Kodiak, 50.99.

400 relay — 1, Palmer ‘A’ (Blake, Taylor, Whitfield, Tress, VanHoomissen, Jamie, Houchen, Sarah), 52.50. 2, Soldotna ‘A’, 54.65. 3, Kodiak ‘A’, 54.99. 4, Houston ‘A’, 55.69. 5, Skyview ‘A’, 57.44. 6, Colony ‘A’, 57.64.

800 relay — 1, Wasilla ‘A’ (Bohn, Brianne, Harris, Dajanae, Schleich, Cori, Young, Haley , 1:52.25. 2, Soldotna ‘A’, 1:52.83. 3, Kodiak ‘A’, 1:54.18. 4, Skyview ‘A’, 1:54.31. 5, Houston ‘A’, 1:56.35. 6, Palmer ‘A’, 1:58.09.

1,600 relay — 1, Wasilla ‘A’ (Burroughs, Mariah, Ringgenberg, Mandi, Hutchins, Alyssa, Dampier, Morgan), 4:15.46. 2, Kenai Central ‘A’, 4:16.98. 3, Palmer ‘A’, 4:20.96. 4, Kodiak ‘A’, 4:33.56. 5, Colony ‘A’, 4:51.39. 6, Homer ‘A’, 4:51.50.

3,200 relay — 1, Wasilla ‘A’ (Ringgenberg, Mandi, Burroughs, Mariah, Pahkala, Jessica, Hutchins, Alyssa), 9:54.55. 2, Colony ‘A’, 9:55.47. 3, Kenai Central ‘A’, 10:08.30. 4, Kodiak ‘A’, 10:10.70. 5, Palmer ‘A’, 10:11.70. 6, Skyview ‘A’, 12:51.93.

High jump — 1, Bak, Thit, Skyview, 5-00. 2, Ulen, Mariah, Soldotna, 4-10. 3, Barnett, McKenzie, Kodiak, 4-06. 3, Strick, Alice, Wasilla, 4-06. 5, Jaronik, Jacklyn, Colony, J4-06. 6, James, Savanna, Houston, J4-06.

Long jump — 1, Bak, Thit, Skyview, 15-04. 2, Strick, Alice, Wasilla, 14-11. 3, Cunningham, Marlee, Skyview, 14-06.50. 4, Stewart, Taylor, Colony, 14-06. 5, Houchen, Sarah, Palmer, 14-04. 6, Gordon, Megan, Soldotna, 13-10.

Triple jump — 1, Bak, Thit, Skyview, 34-11.50. 2, Stewart, Taylor, Colony, 34-01. 3, Harris, Dajanae, Wasilla, 33-11.75. 4, Strick, Alice, Wasilla, 32-11.25. 5, Cunningham, Marlee, Skyview, 31-02.50. 6, Ulen, Mariah, Soldotna, 30-06.50.

Shot put — 1, Irwin, Shellina, Colony, 35-06.50. 2, LaMere, Erin, Palmer, 35-05.50. 3, Blake, Taylor, Palmer, 33-02.50. 4, Mahan, Marissa, Skyview, 32-10.50. 5, James, Savanna, Houston, 31-11.25. 6, Oliver, Samantha, Kodiak, 31-10.50.

Discus — 1, Irwin, Shellina, Colony, 118-11. 2, Duke, Jessie, Soldotna, 114-05. 3, Imoe, Alexis, Wasilla, 108-03. 4, James, Savanna, Houston, 107-00. 5, Parham, Megan, Skyview, 106-11. 6, Cristiano, Hannah, Soldotna, 101-04.

Boys result (top six)

100 meter run — 1, McCall, James, Palmer, 11.56. 2, Suonvieri, Jasen, Skyview, 11.63. 3, Buzby, Charlie, Houston, 11.71. 3, Corpuz, Joshua, Kodiak, 11.71. 5, White, Albert, Skyview, 11.73. 6, Foster, Cale, Colony, 11.78.

200 — 1, McCall, James, Palmer, 23.56. 2, Schneider, Colton, Soldotna, 23.84. 3, Buzby, Charlie, Houston, 24.13. 4, Foster, Cale, Colony, 24.18. 5, Cubbedge, Gage, Kodiak, 24.38. 6, Gentz, AJ, Palmer, 24.48.

400 — 1, Schneider, Colton, Soldotna, 51.67. 2, McFarlin, Riley, Kodiak, 52.42. 3, Buzby, Colton, Houston, 52.76. 4, Nymeyer, Caleb, Kodiak, 52.81. 5, Agosti, Adam, Kenai Central, 53.86. 6, Johnston, Michael, Wasilla, 54.09.

800 — 1, Minturn, Mason, Palmer, 2:02.96. 2, Fogle, Jordan, Kodiak, 2:03.44. 3, Schafer, Brandon, Colony, 2:04.09. 4, Osowski, James, Kodiak, 2:08.11. 5, Deer, Nathan, Kodiak, 2:08.23. 6, Christiansen, Cole, Kodiak, 2:08.50.

1,600 — 1, Christiansen, Cole, Kodiak, 4:39.05. 2, Osowski, James, Kodiak, 4:39.22. 3, Deer, Nathan, Kodiak, 4:40.08. 4, Hilbish, Micah, Skyview, 4:42.25. 5, Schafer, Brandon, Colony, 4:45.69. 6, Holt, Brayden, Skyview, 4:47.97.

3,200 — 1, Christiansen, Cole, Kodiak, 9:54.97. 2, Osowski, James, Kodiak, 9:56.35. 3, Deer, Nathan, Kodiak, 9:59.18. 4, Holt, Brayden, Skyview, 10: 12.12. 5, Osiensky, Chris, Palmer, 10:20.87. 6, Williams, Cody, Skyview, 10:22.66.

110 hurdles — 1, Bricker, Anthony, Colony, 15.75. 2, Smylie, Thomas, Palmer, 17.33. 3, Gardner, Chris, Palmer, 17.46. 4, Sandahl, Joe, Kenai Central, 17.48. 5, Sterns, Nathan, Kodiak, 17.51. 6, Elder, Garrett, Houston, 17.85.

300 hurdles — 1, Day, Joe, Palmer, 40.54. 2, Bricker, Anthony, Colony, 41.24. 3, Wyatt, Mitch, Homer, 41.79. 4, Sparks, Bud, Skyview, 42.97. 5, Gardner, Chris, Palmer, 44.27. 6, Sandahl, Joe, Kenai Central, 44.42.

400 relay — 1, Palmer ‘A’ (Aumavae, Vincent, Gentz, AJ, Turner, Levi, McCall, James), 45.27. 2, Skyview ‘A’, 45.90. 3, Wasilla ‘A’, 46.10. 4, Kodiak ‘A’, 46.12. 5, Houston ‘A’, 47.21. 6, Colony ‘A’, 48.47.

800 relay — 1, Skyview ‘A’ (Reynolds, Richard, White, Albert, Shedd, Kyle, Suonvieri, Jasen), 1:34.56. 2, Kodiak ‘A’, 1:34.59. 3, Houston ‘A’, 1:36.01. 4, Palmer ‘A’, 1:38.46. 5, Colony ‘A’, 1:41.85. 6, Soldotna ‘A’, 1:43.50.

1,600 relay — 1, Kodiak ‘A’ (Cubbedge, Gage, Nymeyer, Caleb, McFarlin, Riley, Fogle, Jordan), 3:36.09. 2, Palmer ‘A’, 3:39.51. 3, Skyview ‘A’, 3:43.79. 4, Wasilla ‘A’, 3:47.72. 5, Kenai Central ‘A’, 3:50.24. 6, Houston ‘A’, 4:01.15.

3,200 relay — 1, Palmer ‘A’ (Day, Joe, Osiensky, Chris, King, Ben, Minturn, Mason), 8:10.83. 2, Kodiak ‘A’, 8:11.53. 3, Skyview ‘A’, 8:33.05. 4, Wasilla ‘A’, 8:35.14. 5, Soldotna ‘A’, 9:21.97. 6, Kenai Central ‘A’, 9:30.89.

High jump — 1, Spalding, Tyler, Kenai Central, 6-02. 2, Schneider, Colton, Soldotna, 5-08. 3, Ulen, Jay, Soldotna, J5-08. 4, Buzby, Colton, Houston, 5-06. 5, Casebeer, Lucas, Kenai Central, 5-02. 5, Shedd, Kyle, Skyview, 5-02.

Long jump — 1, McCall, James, Palmer, 20-11.50. 2, Foster, Cale, Colony, 20-01. 3, Schneider, Colton, Soldotna, 19-03. 4, Rilatos, Mitchell, Wasilla, 18-00. 5, Bricker, Anthony, Colony, 17-11. 6, Anderson, Tyler, Wasilla, 17-10.50.

Triple jump — 1, Spalding, Tyler, Kenai Central, 44-04. 2, Bricker, Anthony, Colony, 41-01.25. 3, Anderson, Tyler, Wasilla, 40-00.50. 4, Rilatos, Mitchell, Wasilla, 38-09. 5, Black, Jordan, Colony, 38-08.25. 6, Reese, Arron, Houston, 37-09.25. 7

Shot put — 1, Teeling, Devon, Wasilla, 50-01. 2, Spalding, Tyler, Kenai Central, 46-05.50. 3, Stewart, Rio, Colony, 45-00.75. 4, Rodriguez, Alex, Skyview, 44-05.25. 5, Sega, Mua, Kodiak, 43-09.25. 6, Scheibe, Kyle, Palmer, 43-08.75.

Discus — 1, Teeling, Devon, Wasilla, 148-07. 2, Spalding, Tyler, Kenai Central, 131-05. 3, Sorensen, David, Palmer, 124-08. 4, Wyatt, Mitch, Homer, 117-03. 5, Farber, Trey, Colony, 117-02. 6, Minogue, Tanner, Soldotna, 115-09.