Relay team leads Bulldogs at state track meet

BOISE — It’s been a long, strange track season, racing Mother Nature every step of the way.

So it seemed only fitting the winds howled out of the north and the chill was just a little biting under the lights in the final event of the day Thursday at the 4A state track and field meet at Ed Jacoby Track at Boise State University.

Brooke DeMers set it up. Melinda Van Dyk ran the second leg into a headwind, passing off to Nicole Van Dyk for the final curve and Desi Hutchings hammered the 400 loop and the Sandpoint girls 800 medley relay finished second in a tight battle with Middleton.

Middleton won in 1 minute, 53.83 seconds. The Bulldogs were right there with a time of 1:54.63.

Sandpoint came in as the top seed, but Middleton rose to the challenge.

“This means a lot because everybody is going to run their best time at the state meet,” said Hutchings. “It’s a real challenge because you can really see the great athletes that are here.

“It’s fun to be challenged and we couldn’t have done it without each other. We all pushed so hard and you really have to be there for all your teammates and I thought we did that for our school and ourselves.”

Sandpoint was in lane 4 and from a runner’s perspective, that’s a good spot to see it as race develops.

“I felt really fast, but I couldn’t tell if I was gaining on the stagger,” DeMers said. “I like lane 4 because you’re right in the middle and you can see everything that’s going on.”

After the first exchange, it’s Van Dyk to Van Dyk and they hammered that back straight away, wind and all.

“I had the long stretch into the headwind, but it went good I thought,” said Melinda. “It’s tough and our exchange went well actually. It was great.”

Nicole Van Dyk had the corner, which was a headwind going in and the wind at her back coming out. Her and Melinda made the exchange with the Bulldogs in third place.

“We were right in the middle at the exchange and it seemed dead even,” Nicole said. “My job is to hold the position and not fall back.

“We came in with confidence, but in a race like this, anything can happen, so we feel pretty good about this.”

Earlier in the day, Brittany Groenhout worked through a tricep injury to finish fourth in the pole vault. The Bulldog senior cleared 9-feet, 6 inches to earn a medal. Ariel Johnson of Moscow won the 4A state championship with a height of 10-6. Sandpoint’s Susan Kovalchuk finished 11th in the pole vault with a jump of 8-0.

Kathleen Vardell finished eighth in the 3,200 with a time of 12:22.71, behind Kaylee Campbell of Preston’s winning time of 11:33.37.

DeMers never did settle into the groove in the high jump. She qualified for the 100-meter hurdles in between jumps, but that’s nothing new. She just couldn’t get comfortable over the bar, finishing 10th with a height of 4-8.

“I felt really good into it, but something wasn’t right,” said DeMers, whose personal best is 5-4. “I’ve had a couple of my best jumps this year jumping in the wind, so that wasn’t a factor.

“It’s disappointing because I’m a senior. It just wasn’t there, but it wasn’t because I wasn’t trying.”

The state runner-up in the relay helps there. The Sandpoint girls are currently in eighth place with 15 points. Rigby, whose Diana Blauer set a new class record in the high jump going 5-7 to break the old standard of 5-5, is in first with 48 points. Christina Johnson finished eighth in the discus with a throw of 100 feet, and Groenhout triple jumped 31-9 to finish 14th and round out the girls placers in the finals.

On the boys side, Sandpoint freshman Freedom Watson marked with a throw of 45-feet 1/2 to place sixth in the shot put. Teammate Jimmy Byers threw 43-2, good for 9th place overall. Byers also finished 8th in the discus, posting a throw of 126-4. Blackfoot’s Michael Cardinal won with a throw of 56-9 1/2.

Corey Hoffman finished 11th in the triple jump, leaping 37-7. Zach Kuhl finished 12th in the high jump, clearing 5-8 and rounding out the boys places in Thursday’s finals.

The 4A state championship will be decided today at Ed Jacoby Track.

? Gibson surprises in prelims

The Bulldogs had a host of runners fair well in Thursday’s preliminaries. Senior Kyle Gibson, who played baseball all season and turned out only for the district meet, finished a surprising 3rd in the 300 meter hurdles. His time of 41.17 was less than .5 second of the top time, giving him high hopes for a podium finish in today’s finals.

Josh Kopsa ran 11.27 for a 5th place finish in the 100 prelims, only .13 off the top time.

Melinda Van Dyk ran a 12.9 100, good for fourth in the 100 prelims, .21 off the top time. Desi Hutchings was fourth in the 200, running a 26.38. She’ll try and improve upon last year’s second place finish in the finals today.

Brooke DeMers ran a 17.10 in the 100 hurdles prelims, good for 7th place.

Priest River’s Taylor Stewart finished fifth in the 3A shot put with a 32-7.