Hot Springs ready for district meet
Hot Springs' seniors Randi Arnold and Devon White are forming quite a duo in the triple jump. After Arnold placed first at the Sanders County Meet in Noxon on Thursday with a jump of 33-10, adding at least three feet to her previous best jump, White turned around and placed first in the same event with a jump of 32-8 on Saturday at the Seeley Swan Invitational in Missoula.
Hot Springs' seniors Randi Arnold and Devon White are forming quite a duo in the triple jump. After Arnold placed first at the Sanders County Meet in Noxon on Thursday with a jump of 33-10, adding at least three feet to her previous best jump, White turned around and placed first in the same event with a jump of 32-8 on Saturday at the Seeley Swan Invitational in Missoula.
The flipflopping wins is creating a friendly competition between the two girls that are bringing both of them to new heights.
"Those girls are just feeding off of each other,"says Coach Dustin Herbert.
Another example of their closely matched competition is how Arnold's personal record at Noxon was almost infectious enough to cause White to pave her own record. She jumped 34-3 at the meet, but narrowly scratched disallowing the jump. Although it didn't count, the coaches measured it anyway, since it has been their goal all year long.
"Even though she scratched it, it was still good to see her get out there," says Coach Herbert. She ended up settling for 33-8, a mere two inches shy of Arnold.
At Missoula Arnold placed fourth in the competition, but placed sixth in the long jump by leaping 14-3 1/4.
Fellow senior, who should also make it to state in the triple jump is MacKenzie Wood.
On Saturday, her day was highlighted by a sixth place finish in the javelin at Missoula and second in the same event at Noxon.
Her throw of 94 feet even was a personal record in the javelin. Following in her aunt's footsteps, Diane Paige, who holds the Class C record in the old javelin, Wood's throwing motion is much improved and she is making great progress in the event especially considering she is in her first year of track.
On the boys' side, Reiley Winebrenner swept the hurdles in Noxon and placed three times at Missoula in the 400, 800 and the shot put. Running the 800 was a first for Winebrenner and although he placed fifth in the event Coach Herbert says it was purely for conditioning and he will not be competing in it for districts.
With the district meet starting on Thursday in Polson, the team is busy fine-tuning all of their events along with easing back on the workouts, so they can peak for the postseason.
Although they will not be able to match the depth of Charlo, who will boast a large team at Districts, Coach Herbert has hope for the girls' team.
"On the girls' side if we have some good performances it could be fairly close," says Herbert.