Sandpoint track rakes in medals at Bonners Ferry Invitational

Under clear, spring skies and around a blinding, snowbank of an infield, Sandpoint track and field placed second on the boys’s side and fourth on the girls’ at the Bonners Ferry Invitational last Saturday.

Although the Bulldogs didn’t fill all the events they could have, head coach Matt Brass said the team score wasn’t the goal of the early-season meet. At this point in the year, some of the athletes are still figuring out which events to focus on for the rest of the season.

“Right now, we let them focus on their strengths,” Brass said. “That’s what Saturday was: Go up and have a couple races or field events in [their] strengths and get used to competing.”

And focus they did. Sandpoint took home 25 medals across all events — including eight first-place finishes across the board.

With that said, here are a few of the highlights from the Bonners Ferry Invitational.

Brady Nelsen’s “inspiring” 3200 sets the tone

If one event set the tone for the rest of the meet, then it was junior Brady Nelsen’s second place finish in the 3200.

Timberlake junior Logan Hunt, who won the 3A Districts cross-country race last fall, threw in surge after surge in the grueling, eight-lap race, threatening to break open the race every time.

But Nelsen battled back.

He responded to all but Hunt’s final, race-winning kick, yet was rewarded with a 34-second PR of 10:08.44.

“[Nelsen’s] two mile was inspiring to watch,” Brass said. “It’s that grit mentality, and he’s just built with it. His mindset is that he can always take a little bit more. And that’s why it’s always so fun to watch him race.”

Luckily for those who enjoy watching Nelsen race, the junior also set a new PR by placing third in the mile with a 4:54.92.

Bionce Vincent qualifies for Pascoe Invite, then wins 400

When junior Bionce Vincent rounded the final turn of the 400 meter dash, she wasn’t expecting to see eight lanes of daylight ahead of her.

So as the finish line bounced up and down on the horizon, Vincent dug deeper, pushed through the pain and won the 400 meter dash in a 1:04.11 — more than a second faster than her best time last season. Not only that, Vincent managed to PR without running in a stacked 400 heat.

“Leading this time, I just kept thinking, ‘The next person’s behind me, so I have to keep going and going,’” Vincent said. “And on the home stretch I thought I was giving it my all, but then I started to push more and then my quads started to cramp. But I finished. It was kind of crazy.”

Last Saturday’s 400 victory was an exclamation mark on a busy week for the junior. Two days prior in Lewiston, Vincent qualified for the Pascoe Invitational in the open 800 shortly after running the 800 in Sandpoint’s Pascoe-qualifying distance medley relay team.

“I was three seconds off my season PR from last year,” Vincent said of her 2:29.38 time in the open 800. “I was totally not expecting to be that close to it. I’m usually in a lot more pain towards the end, but that time I wasn’t.”

Vincent credits the offseason training for her success so far, which she says has made a “humongous” difference between this year and last year.

“This year I’ve put in more mileage and I’m already seeing results,” Vincent said. “I’m very excited.”

Braedon Dressel’s fast start leads to two PRs

Going into the 2019 season, Sandpoint’s boys sprint team had the unenviable task of replacing six seniors — three of whom were in the 4x100 relay.

So far, junior Braedon Dressel has gone above and beyond.

Dressel is the fastest 100, 200 and could be Sandpoint’s best 400 meter runner through two meets so far. At Bonners Ferry last weekend, the Sandpoint soccer star placed second in the 100 with a personal best 11.77 seconds (hand-timed), ran third leg of the Bulldogs’ meet-winning 4x100 relay and ran his first-ever 400 in Sandpoint’s runner-up 4x400 finish.

His split time? Around 54 seconds.

“I wasn’t expecting to do as well as I did on [the 4x400] leg,” Dressel said. “My coach told me to sprint the first 60 and float the rest. I wasn’t as tired as I thought I would be and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I’d do it again.”

The junior credits his offseason training for the blistering start to his season, in which he has already set new PRs in the 100 and 200 meters, while also solidifying his spot in the 4x100 team.

“The third leg is kind of my thing,” Dressel said. “I love running that curve. I think we might switch our second leg and our first leg and clean up our hand-offs, we can run mid-44s.”

All in all, Dressel cites early PRs and the positive chemistry on the 4x100 team — which consists of Victor Zhong, Braden Kappen, Dressel and Tyren Witthaus — as some positive takeaways in the season so far.

“It feels pretty good,” Dressel said. “I know that I’ve done a lot better than I thought I’d do so far. I know I have to watch out for Moscow because they had a guy that ran 11.4 [in the 100] last season. But I looked at his times and he was mainly an 11.7 or an 11.6 [seconds]. And I know I can get below that. I think I have a shot at making state in the 100.”

Led by his football coach, Brandon Casey has blossomed into a talented thrower

Saying that Sandpoint junior thrower Brandon Casey and throwing coach Ryan Knowles spend a lot of time together would be an understatement.

Casey starts his day in Knowles’ weightlifting class, is one of Knowles’ teaching assistants later in the day, then spends his afternoons as one of Knowles’ leading shot put and discus throwers.

Not only that, Knowles is also Sandpoint’s head football coach, while Casey is an integral part of the Bulldogs’ offensive line.

“It’s part of the reason why I wanted [Casey] to come out for track,” Knowles said. “This is such a different environment.”

Unlike the frenetic, controlled chaos from typical football practices, throwing in track has allowed Casey to use his abilities in different ways.

Even though the counter-clockwise throwing motion in the shot and the discus isn’t the same as the lateral strength Casey needs along Sandpoint’s offensive line, his inherent strength has made him take significant strides in the circle this season.

“He’s been doing well,” Knowles said. “He’s raw. With a few little tweaks, he’ll be up to 48, 49 [feet], and that’s being modest. I’m hoping he can break 50 this year.”

As it stands, Casey’s 42’5 mark from the Lewiston Invitational gives the junior a spot at the Pascoe Invitational on April 3. Although his discus PR of 100’ from last weekend has him on the outside looking in for a Pascoe spot, few athletes have improved in such a short span. In merely two meets, Casey has added 13 feet to his discus PR.

Yet Knowles believes Casey is capable of more improvement.

“He’s a technician. He likes to really study the movements,” Knowles said. “He’s got a long ways to go, but it’s been fun.”

BOYS RESULTS

Sandpoint athletes in bold

100 — 1. Holycross (Priest River), 11.76. 2. Dressel (Sandpoint), 11.77. 3. Witthaus (Sandpoint), 11.91

200 — 1. Crupper (CDA Charter), 24.56. 2. Holycross (Priest River), 24.61. 3. Kappen (Sandpoint), 25.27

400 — 1. Lucas (Sandpoint), 56.36. 2. Alverez (Bonners Ferry), 56.71. 3. Crupper (CDA Charter), 57.24

800 — 1. Graham (Sandpoint), 2:04.46. 2. Pahl (Timberlake), 2:04.71. 3. Woodward (Sandpoint), 2:05.70

1,600 — 1. Hunt (Timberlake), 4:37.73. 2. Braedt (Sandpoint), 4:38.60. 3. Nelsen (Sandpoint), 4:54.92

110 hurdles — 1. Kluss (Timberlake), 17.27. 2. Martinez (Priest River), 17.84. 3. Womelduff (CDA Charter), 18.43

300 hurdles — 1. Holycross (Priest River), 45.45. 2. Dittman (St. Maries), 49.40. 3. Gorton (Bonners Ferry), 49.49

4x100 relay — 1. Sandpoint (Zhong, Kappen, Dressel, Witthaus), 45.26. 2. Bonners Ferry (Nielsen, Scott, Walker, Alverez), 47.95. 3. Timberlake (Barnes, Bernal, Paslay, Riley), 50.25

4x200 relay — 1. Bonners Ferry (Mendenhall, Valladares, Jelinek, Tompkins), 1:42.64. 2. Timberlake (Barnes, Bernal, Paslay, Riley), 1:42.32. 3. Priest River (Anselmo, Hegel, Martinez, Matthews), 1:44.32

1600 sprint medley — 1. Timberlake (I. Gardom, Kluss, Plunkett, Pahl), 3:56.47. 2. Priest River (Anselmo, Hegel, Fulton, Phillips), 4:12.35. 3. Bonners Ferry (Bonnell, Walker, Hyer, Hinthorn), 4:16.17

4x400 relay — 1. Timberlake (I. Gardom, Pahl, Riley, C. Gardom), 3:39.75. 2. Sandpoint (Dressel, Zhong, Graham, Woodward), 3:40.22. 3. Valley Christian (Akers, Reese, Bruno, Blew), 3:58.47

3,200 — 1. Hunt (Timberlake), 10:00.17. 2. Nelsen (Sandpoint), 10:08.44. 3. Braedt (Sandpoint), 10:17.07

Long jump — 1. C. Gardom (Timberlake), 20-01.25. 2. Gallegos (CDA Charter), 19-10.5. 3. Miller (Kellogg), 19-03

Triple jump — 1. C. Gardom (Timberlake), 42-11. 2. I. Gardom (Timberlake), 38-01. 3. Kluss (Timberlake), 37-08.5

High jump — 1. C. Gardom (Timberlake), 6-0. 2. Moreno (Sandpoint), 5-10. 3. Rice (St. Maries), 5-8

Pole vault — 1. Robinson (Sandpoint), 10-00. 2. Ryan (Sandpoint), 9-0. 3. Falck (Bonners Ferry), 8-6.

Shot put — 1. McLemore (Timberlake), 41-11.25. 2. Tucker (Bonners Ferry), 41-09. 3. Casey (Sandpoint), 40-02.25

Discus — 1. McLemore (Timberlake), 137-04. 2. Paslay (Timberlake), 119-11. 3. Tucker (Bonners Ferry), 116-09

GIRLS RESULTS

Sandpoint athletes in bold

100 — T-1. Allred (Kellogg), Craven (Timberlake), 13.66. 3. Ansley (Bonners Ferry), 14.04

200 — 1. Craven (Timberlake) 28.61. 2. Clark (Valley Christian) 28.83. 3. Allred (Kellogg), 28.98

400 — 1. Vincent (Sandpoint), 1:04.11. 2. Clark (Valley Christian), 1:05.03. 3. Sullivan (Kellogg), 1:08.62

800 — 1. Braedt (Sandpoint), 2:33.26. 2. Kupper (Bonners Ferry), 2:40.55. 3. Cutler (CDA Charter), 2:42.57

1,600 — 1. Peightal (Timberlake), 5:56.48. 2. Kupper (Bonners Ferry), 5:57.60 3. Davidson (Sandpoint), 5:58.82

110 hurdles — 1. Hathaway (Clark Fork), 17.23. 2. Caudle (Timberlake), 17.66. 3. Figueroa (Kellogg), 18.65

300 hurdles — 1. Davidson (Sandpoint), 51.38. 2. Caudle (Timberlake), 52.63. 3. Petesch (Bonners Ferry), 55.47

4x100 relay — 1. Timberlake (Yeirian, Caudle, Wall, Craven) 53.31. 2. Kellogg (Figueroa, Wendt, DeHart, Allred), 55.22 3. Newport (Waterman, Hankey-Clark, Carter, Robinson) 55.30

4x200 relay — 1. Bonners Ferry (Burt, Ussher, Pinkerton, McIntyre), 1:57.13. 2. Timberlake (Mitchell, Sumas, Wall, Gervais), 1:57.55. 3. Kellogg (Allred, Donaldson, Wendt, DeHart), 1:58.54

4x400 relay — 1. Timberlake (Wall, Caudle, Peightal, Gervais), 4:32.68. 2. Bonners Ferry (Ussher, Burt, McIntyre, Pinkerton), 4:35.25. 3. Kellogg (Beier, Ferreria, Milholland, Gilmore), 5:07.62

3,200 — 1. Gorton (Bonners Ferry) 12:36.56. 2. Brass (Sandpoint), 12:41.31. 3. Peightal (Timberlake), 12:50.65

Long jump — 1. Hayes (Valley Christian), 16-04.75. 2. Ansley (Bonners Ferry), 16-02.5. 3. Wendt (Kellogg), 14-01.5

Triple jump — 1, Hayes (Valley Christian) 34-09.5. 2. Ansley (Bonners Ferry), 33-00. 3. Morgan (Sandpoint), 30-4.5

High jump — 1. Hayes (Valley Christian) 5-2. 2. Huang (Sandpoint) 4-10. 3. Hathaway (Clark Fork), 4-8

Pole vault — 1. Davidson (Sandpoint), 8-06. 2. Beier (Kellogg), 7-06. 3. Prudek (Priest River), 6-06

Shot put — 1. Rae (Bonners Ferry), 37-10. 2. Jeffs (Timberlake), 34-08.25. 3. Chapman (Sandpoint), 28-07

Discus — 1. Rae (Bonners Ferry), 119-11. 2. Curran (Kellogg), 100-07. 3. Jeffs (Timberlake), 97-06.5