Johnson, Van Dyke nab wins at West Valley meet

SPOKANE — Senior Christina Johnson, who finished third at state last season in the discus, uncorked a throw of 113-8 in her first meet of the season, helping lead the Bulldog girls track team to a third place finish among 11 teams at the West Valley Invitational on Saturday.

Johnson’s mark Saturday was three inches better than she threw at state last year, a sign of good things to come for the season.

Melinda Van Dyk ran a 27.34 to win the 200 meters, Molly Burgstahler ran 13:23 to place third in the 3,200 and Maddy Suppiger high jumped 4-10 to lead the Bulldog girls, who finished behind Mt. Spokane and University in the team standings.

The boys team finished seventh out of 11 teams, led by a strong early-season showing in the 4X100 relay. Chris Turnbull, Mike Hubbard, Anthony Gold and Cody Hecker clocked a 45.37 to win by nearly a full second.

Hubbard had a nice all-around meet, also finishing second in the high jump (6-0) and third in the 400 (53.38),  Hecker grabbed third in the 110 high hurdles (17.20) and Brandon Hawkins finished third in the 800 (2:07.52) for the Bulldogs.

Perhaps the biggest surprise on the boys team was Dillon Gingerich, who jumped 41-7 to finish second in the triple jump in his first season of track. The first meet of the year went about as head coach Dave DeMers expected, and he was especially happy with his jumpers and distance runners.

“All the jumpers set personal records over the weekend, as did a lot of the distance kids,” he said. “I feel the chemistry is there to do really well in the region and at all the big meets we have on our schedule. We have to teach them to be patient and take it one day at a time for training purposes.”

Shot put and discus standout Freedom Watson has decided to quit the team.

Sandpoint is at the Christina Finney Invitational in Post Falls on Thursday.