Oh so close!

Charlie Knapp, right, became only the second Montana runner this year to clock a sub-50 second 400. Knapp finished with a time of 49.99.

by Matt Unrau
| June 3, 2010 10:52 AM

Coach Randy Symon has seen this story before. With only the mile relay standing between his team and the state Class B track title, fortune frowns on the Bluehawks and the chips fall the way of the opponent denying them the crown and leaving them with the second place trophy.

In fact, this will be the third time Coach Symon has seen the trophy fall out of their hands during that race.

"I guess what you learn is that things happen that you can't control. We did a lot of things right and we had some lucky things happen to us. We competed real well in some events and competed not so well in other events," says Coach Symon.

Running in the first heat, the Bluehawks were seven points ahead of Colombus and either needed to place fourth in the event or have Colombus place third or lower.

Neither happened as Colombus took home first place and despite running what senior Stephen Block, runner of the second leg, believes was the team's fastest time in the last four years, the Bluehawks placed eighth in the race and fell to second place in the team event, one place short of bringing home their first team title since 2002.

"I was disapointed and I was down a little bit because you always want to strive for it and strive to be number one, but I was still very proud of our team and all of us had worked very hard all season long to get where we were," says Block.

Block was one of three winners on the first day of the track meet that led to the Bluehawks jumping out to a huge twenty point lead early on, after Friday's event. Block won the pole vault by clearing 13 feet on Friday, while Mike Wood surprised everyone by winning the javelin and Charlie Knapp took home the 400 crown.

The win in the 400 by Knapp was the culmination of meteroic rise of the senior track star late in the season. After losing a terrific class of track athletes last year, the coaching staff expected this year to be a rebuilding year where they spent their time integrating underclassmen into the program.

However Knapp, competing in track for the first time this year, gave them a state-threat in both jumping events and when he finally started running the 400 with two meets to go in the season, Thompson Falls suddenly had a chance to not just place high at the state meet, but win it outright.

Although it wasn't a surprise to any of the coaches or his teammates, Knapp says a lot of the other racers in the 400 would be surprised and questioned him after the race asking him who he was, where he was from and how long he had been running the 400.

"They would ask me what my best time is and when I said 49.79 they were pretty surprised," says Knapp who remembers one disbelieving competitor responded "yeah, whatever."

Knapp, who finished the state meet with 30 of the Bluehawks' 58 points, competed in seven events at the state meet, a feat that worked to his disadvantage in the high jump, which he had to compete in immediately following a second-place finish in the 200.

It was also a tiredness that he remembers he felt before the mile relay.

"I was thinking this is my last race as a high school athlete and I'm gonna give it my all even though I'm pretty tired," says Knapp, who ran anchor.

After the race he had mixed feelings about the weekend.

"I was satisfied. I kind of wish we would've won. But I'm satisified by how I performed and I'm looking forward to going to the collegiate level," says Knapp.

Block also finished his high school career in that race and with his first place finish in the pole vault is one third-place finish short of placing in every position over his career.

"I'm happy with the places I got. It's taken a long time to get where I'm at and I really appreciate all the time the coaches have spent with me and helped me in more ways than one. They've been great to me. I've had a great career at Thompson," says Block.

For the girls, it was a freshman and a senior who were the sole placers at state.

Hope Reid placed third in the 110 hurdles and Beca Gunderson placed sixth in the 800.