PR Roundup: Track opens season in Lewiston; all four teams compete this week

PRIEST RIVER — The Priest River track and field team competed in the Lewiston Invitational this past Saturday to open its 2021 campaign.

For many of the Spartans, this was their first taste of a high school track meet. Head coach Jared Hughes said it was nice to get the athletes a feel for the level of competition they will see at this level.

"The kids performed very well for this early in the season," he said in an email. "The weather was great and led to some good early season marks. We have a very young team with only one senior and four kids that have competed in a high school track meet before."

Priest River finished ninth on the boys side and 10th in girls out of the 10 schools that took part in the meet. But the Spartans stacked up well against the three other Intermountain League teams at the event, Hughes said.

With 15 points, the boys were 23 points behind Coeur d'Alene Charter in eighth and 68 behind fifth-place Timberlake, while Kellogg was unable to score any points. The girls finished just a handful of points behind CDA Charter and Kellogg, who took eighth and ninth respectively, and 33 short of the Tigers in sixth.

For the girls, junior Erika Swoboda led the way by placing second in the high jump with a mark of 4 feet, 4 inches. She also took 12th in the 400-meter.

Senior Annika Rantala ran a 13:21 in the 3200 to secure fourth. She was also a part of the 4x200 relay team that took fifth, along with Allyson Barton, Elisheva Davis and Allyson Dickinson.

Barton grabbed ninth in the shot put and discus, just one spot short of scoring points in both events for the Spartans. She also took 10th in the triple jump.

Dickinson was 10th in the 400 and 14th in the 200.

Jordan Nortz had the highest finish in an individual event for the boys by capturing third in the triple jump with a 37-6. The junior was also ninth in the long jump and ran a leg on the 4x200 relay team that placed third, along with Dylan Nortz, Erik Deem and Matyus McLain.

Dylan was ninth in the triple jump and 14th in the high jump. McLain grabbed 11th in the high jump, and Deem secured eighth in the pole vault and 14th in the 110 hurdles.

Caleb McDermeit, Rafe Gregory, Bradley Gleason and Shane Gamber led the boys to a seventh-place finish in the 4x400 relay.

Gamber earned 10th in the 300 hurdles, 13th in the 110 hurdles and 14th in the pole vault.

Jimmie Isenberger notched 12th in the 400 and 110 hurdles. Dylan Lord, who placed 50th in the 3A cross country state championships this fall, finished 12th in the 1600. Ethan Korff was 15th in the 3200 and Aidan Troumbley took 14th in the pole vault.

The full results for Priest River from the meet are included at the end of this article.

The Spartans head to the Bonners Ferry Invitational at 10 a.m. Saturday.

Golf hopes strong turnout leads to success

The Priest River golf team is 19 (12 boys, 7 girls) strong this spring and head coach Dan Buttrey is optimistic about the future of the program.

Buttrey expects the boys team to be highly competitive in league, while the girls are rebuilding a bit. Only one golfer is back from last year, senior Olivia Hepfner. The rest are freshmen and sophomores.

"We have all newcomers," Buttrey said about the girls.

Kameron Salesky, Bowen Fegert and Luke Butler will contend for the No. 1 spot on the boys side throughout the season, Buttrey said.

"The strongest link in our chain is our golf instructor John Vickers, the owner and golf pro at The Ranch Club Golf Course," Buttrey said. "With all his help, we have a stronger foundation and program."

The Spartans will take on Timberlake, Bonners Ferry and Kellogg in an IML match on Thursday at Pinehurst Golf Course.

Baseball reloads, opens season with three games at Orofino

The COVID-19 pandemic ripped away what could have been a special season for Priest River baseball in 2020. With a core of eight seniors, the Spartans were poised to make a run at state after going 0-2 at the tournament in 2019.

But the team has moved past the lost opportunity and will lean on seniors Coby Rogers, Konner Johnson, Gavin Doster, Brendan Reeves and Tyson Brooks in their pursuit of a district title.

The Spartans have 13 players this spring and six newcomers — Kyle Patterson, Kevin Reeves, Shayd Wong-Yuen, Colton Brooks, Tyson Troudt and Landon Reynolds. Head coach Mark Schultz is looking forward to watching that group progress throughout the season.

"The returning players are all hard working, good leaders who are helping our new players to the program," he said. "They each have to step up — which they have done in practice — to help us have success this season. I am very proud of our returning players and what they have done on and off the field to help us become a better team."

Schultz is also expecting big things from juniors Everett Hannah and Nadin Thompson, who have both been in the program for three years.

Schultz said his team has strong leadership and they just need to get on the field and build some chemistry after having last season canceled.

The team opens the season with a doubleheader at Orofino on Friday at 4 p.m. The Spartans close out the road trip with another game against the Maniacs at 10 a.m. Saturday.

Softball looks to make some noise

The Spartan softball team also has 13 players at their disposal this spring, but only one of them has ever played in a high school softball game — senior third baseman Kylee Lederle.

With so much inexperience, Ron Kruse, the new head coach, is looking for the younger players to step up and fill some key roles.

Lederle along with Shelby Hanna are the two seniors on this year's team. Besides junior Ona Rose, a newcomer, the rest of the team is made up of freshmen and sophomores.

Despite the youth, Kruse expects his team to improve as the season goes on and he sees them shaking things up at the district tournament in May.

"We are a young team, but we are having fun," he said. "It's great to be outside and have a chance to play again. This is a really good, enthusiastic, hard-working bunch of girls, so we are excited to play and learn."

Kruse said he is looking forward to seeing what Lilly Freitas, Jaylein Zylstra, Faith Spaude, Brodie Hanson, Faith Taylor and Cheyenne Thompson can do this spring.

The Spartans play three games at Orofino to open the season, a doubleheader Friday and a single game Saturday morning. The team's home opener is next Tuesday at 4 p.m. against Troy.

LEWISTON INVITATIONAL

BOYS

TEAM SCORES — 1, Sandpoint 123. 2, Coeur d’Alene 121. 3, Lewiston 104. 4, Lakeland 101. 5, Timberlake 83. 6, Orofino 49. 7, Kamiah 39. 8, Cd’A Charter 38. 9, Priest River 15.

PRIEST RIVER RESULTS

200 — 24, Joey Hayes, 26.81. 29, Aidan Troumbley, 29.28. 30, Rafe Gregory, 30.88. 400 — 12, Jimmie Isenberger, 59.03. 17, Rafe Gregory, 1:08.40. 800 — 17, Bradley Gleason, 2:26.61. 19, Dylan Lord, 2:28.53. 22, Ethan Korff, 2:35.49. 1,600 — 12, Dylan Lord, 5:10.97. 3,200 — 15, Ethan Korff, 12:52.31.

110 hurdles — 12, Jimmie Isenberger, 22.82. 13, Shane Gamber, 23.09. 14, Erik Deem, 24.17. 300 hurdles — 10, Shane Gamber, 49.90. 4x200 relay — 3, Lakeland (Jordan Nortz, Dylan Nortz, Erik Deem, Matyus McLain), 1:38.42. 4x400 relay — 7, Priest River (Caleb McDermeit, Rafe Gregory, Bradley Gleason, Shane Gamber), 4:18.80.

Shot put — 25, Levi Hanna, 30-0.5. Discus — 23, Matyus McLain, 82-9. 28, Levi Hanna, 68-7. 31, Ethan Korff, 60-7. High jump — 11, Matyus McLain, 5-4. 14, Dylan Nortz, 5-2. Pole vault — 8, Erik Deem, 9-6. 14, Shane Gamber, 8-0. 14, Aiden Troumbley, 8-0. Long jump — 9, Jordan Nortz, 19-0.5. 18, Dylan Nortz, 17-0.5. Triple jump — 3, Jordan Nortz, 37-6. 9, Dylan Nortz, 35-4.

GIRLS

TEAM SCORES — 1, Lewiston 153.83. 2, Coeur d’Alene 138.83. 3, Sandpoint 102.5. 4, Orofino 73. 5, Lakeland 55. 6, Timberlake 50. 7, Kamiah 27. 8, Cd’A Charter 23. 9, Kellogg 19.83. 10, Priest River 17.

PRIEST RIVER RESULTS

200 — 14, Allyson Dickinson, 30.48. 30, Alexis Hunter, 34.09. 31, Elisheva Davis, 34.26. 400 — 10, Allyson Dickinson, 1:09.36. 12, Erika Swoboda, 1:13.95. 3,200 — 4, Annika Rantala, 13:21.67.

4x200 relay — 5, Priest River (Allyson Barton, Elisheva Davis, Allyson Dickinson, Annika Rantala), 2:03.03.

Shot put — 9, Allyson Barton, 27-0.5. Discus — 9, Allyson Barton, 89-2. High jump — 2, Erika Swoboda, 4-4. Long jump — 15, Elisheva Davis, 12-0. Triple jump — 10, Allyson Barton, 27-7.