County readies for track season

Record number athletes come out for County track and field teams

With their first meet fast approaching, Mineral County's track teams are gearing up for one of their biggest seasons yet.

All three Mineral County schools have record numbers of players this year and are looking forward to a different level of competition for their track teams.

The first meet of the season is being held by Alberton at the University of Montana Track in Missoula. Alberton track coach Rachael Clevenger said that there will be 18 teams at the meet.

“There are going to be lots of kids running around, and it's usually a really fun meet,” Clevenger said.

Clevenger said that she has 31 students on the team this year, a huge jump from the 11 who competed for the Panthers last year. She said that last year's team's accomplishments helped build this year's track team.

“I think the kids last year had a really fun time and a lot of kids came in support of the kids at the track meets,” Clevenger said.

Clevenger said she took two competitors to the state track meet in Missoula last year. James Wemple, now a junior, broke a 20-year long jump record by a quarter of an inch when with his jump of 22 feet, 2 1/4 inches. Shelby Jutila, now a sophomore, broke a school record of 2:29.31 in the 800-meter run with her time of 2:26.73.

While she has many students from last year's track team on the field this year, Clevenger said that the larger team has brought in fresh blood. “We have quite a few seniors and a lot of kids that have never done track before,” Clevenger said.

She said that despite their lack of experience, she expects her team to take away quite a few victories. Clevenger said that she has a lot of talent on her girl's team in relay and individual competitions and that with the sheer volume of boys on her team she expects many of them to succeed.

Clevenger said that she expects her team to do well in divisionals because there are not many teams in the district, but she expects the district competitions to be challenging.

Superior is also warming up one of their biggest track teams ever. Head coach Tori Lucier said that she expects great things from her 38 athletes this year.

Lucier said that much of the increase in players is because their team sent 14 competitors to state last year. Since only two of those athletes graduated, Lucier said that she has a lot of talent to work with and she is very excited about the season. “There's a lot of positive thought about us,” Lucier said.

Lucier said that Superior has a really well rounded team this year, and they are working on getting the team into shape for the season. “Right now we're working through the sore muscles. We've got some pretty sore kids,” Lucier said.

St. Regis has had a huge increase as well this year with the Tigers doubling in size. First-year coach Gena Ferlan said that the 12 athletes she has competing this year are really excited about the season.

“I think we're going to have a really good boys' relay, short and long,” Ferlan said. This is Ferlan's first year both teaching and coaching at St. Regis. She previously taught at Charlo, where she was an assistant track coach.

Ferlan said that the team has a lot of talent and she expects to see Ryane Burklund, the only Tiger to go to state last year, make it to the state track meet again this year.

“A lot more kids went out this year and I think they're going to do really well individually and as a team,” Ferlan said.