Hot Springs Junior High meet hosts over 200 young athletes
Photo by Adam Herrenbruck Drew Payne floats in the air during the high jump competition. The Savage Heat eighth-grader cleared 5 feet, 6 inches to take first among A-Boys. The mark was also a personal record for Payne.
Eleven teams competed at the Hot Springs Junior High Track and Field Invitational Friday as schools as far away as Drummond and as nearby as Paradise and Dixon came out to throw, run and jump at Hot Springs School. Four Sanders County teams, three Mineral County teams, three Lake County teams and a Granite County team (Drummond) compiled more than 220 athletes for a day of competition.
Hot Springs provided five boys and seven girls for their home meet with Drew Payne highlighting the Savage Heat effort by taking first overall in the A-Boys high jump and long jump competitions. The eighth-grader Payne said he set a personal record when he cleared 5 feet, 6 inches to win the high jump.
Trout Creek’s Johnathan Carter and Jordan Eichert provided a Sanders County boost on the boys end of the competition. Carter, competing in B-Boys, took first in the 800-meter run, shot put, discus and turbo javelin.
Carter’s discus and turbo javelin throws eclipsed the competition as the seventh-grader heaved the discus 107 feet, 1 inch, and the turbo jav 124 feet, 5 inches. The next closest to those marks were 77 feet, 2 inches (discus) and 97 feet, 6 inches (turbo javelin). Carter’s javelin toss would have been enough for second in A-Boys behind his teammate Eichert who threw it 126 feet.
Eichert, among A-Boys, took first in shot put and turbo javelin and took second in discus. Abram French, who was one of only three athletes representing Paradise — and the only boy — finished second in the 200-meter hurdles and fifth in discus among B-Boys competition.
In A-Girls competition, Jocelyn Stevens of Dixon was the only Sanders County female to place. Stevens took fifth in the shot put and third in the turbo javelin with her throw of 64 feet, 4 inches.
For B-Girls, Alyssa Foster and Alex Green stood out for Hot Springs. Foster secured first place in the turbo javelin with a throw of 82-5. Foster also placed third in the 100-meter dash, third in the 200-meter dash and sixth in the shot put and Green took third in the high jump and sixth in the discus. Also in B-Girls, Kaylee Cook of Paradise took fourth in the 1,600-meter run, sixth in the 800-meters and fourth in the 100-meter hurdles. Trout Creek’s Jessalynn Holman took sixth in the 400-meter dash.
Hot Springs B-Boys also saw stand-out performances from Dylan Skellenger, Jarod White and Wyatt Nagy. In the 100-meter dash Skellenger, White and Nagy took second, third and fourth respectively. Nagy also took second in the long jump, third in the 100-meter hurdles and third in the high jump.
Charlo brought the largest team Friday at 38 and it showed in the results as the Vikings managed 28 first-place finishes (21 as individuals) among A and B, boys and girls. Trout Creek led the way among Sanders County teams with the most first-place finishes overall thanks to Eichert and Carter and their six wins between them.
The next junior high track and field competition in Sanders County will be the Thompson Falls Invite April 25 at 12 p.m. The following Friday, May 2, Thompson Falls will host the county meet.