Van Dyk, Pfeifer post wins to lead Bulldogs

SPOKANE — Seniors Melinda Van Dyk and Danny Pfeifer each posted wins to start the season strong for the Sandpoint track team, which opened the season at the West Valley Invitational in Spokane on Saturday.

Van Dyk clocked a 13.42 to beat more than 40 girls from 12 teams in the 100 meters, finished eighth in the 100 hurdles and teamed with Blake Plaster, Emma Carter and Lily DeAragon to finish 5th in the 4X100 relay.

“Melinda had a good race in the 100 meters as she got out fast with a great start and held on to win,” said Bulldogs head coach Dave DeMers. “Her time was about where we thought it would be with the lack of conditioning we’ve had. We will step up the conditioning before the break to get a good foundation.”

Pfeifer ran 10:09 to win the 3,200, a great start to the season considering his PR is 9:58 and he had no one pushing him the entire race.

“I was very impressed with how confident and aggressive he was during the whole race,” said distance coach Matt Brass, also praising Molly Burgstahler, who finished 12th in the girls 3,200 but ran her best time ever at 12:49, shaving 13 seconds off her personal best. “I was happy with our performance from top to bottom on the distance side. Over half of our returners had PR’s for their event.”

Chris Turnbull was 9th in the 100 meters, Jimmy Mathews was 13th in the 1,600, Kevin Hill was 13th in the 300 hurdles, Paul Hill was 13th in the pole vault, Kevin Hutchens was 15th in the shot put and Tyler Navarro was 16th in the discus to round out the boys finishers.

Breanna Jones was 7th in the 800, Cymbre Martin was 8th in the 400 and 11th in the 200, Nikole Alamillo was 8th in the shot put, Maddie Suppiger was 9th in the high jump, Blake Plaster was 11th in the 100,  and Megan McCoy was 15th in the shot to round out the Bulldog girls.

The track team competes in the Christina Finney Invitational in Post Falls on Thursday. See Thursday’s Daily Bee for a season preview.