Plains flying high
With two days before the District Track meet in Bigfork senior Trent Thompson is throwing the best he has all season. After making news last week for breaking Plain's shot put record the senior went to the most competitive meet of the season, Archie Roe in Kalispell, and came away with two first place finishes in the shot put and discus and grabbed a personal record in the javelin.
With two days before the District Track meet in Bigfork senior Trent Thompson is throwing the best he has all season. After making news last week for breaking Plain's shot put record the senior went to the most competitive meet of the season, Archie Roe in Kalispell, and came away with two first place finishes in the shot put and discus and grabbed a personal record in the javelin.
"That's what we need from him right now," says Coach Don Stamm. "It's all about peaking at the right time."
It was his second personal record in the javelin this week. On Thursday, at the County Meet, Thompson won the javelin with a throw of 179-10 besting his previous long by 12-13 feet. At Archie Roe he did even better inching ahead with a throw of 180-2, placing fourth.
In the shot put and discus, he threw the shot put for 49-4 and the discus 159-0 beating competitiors from Missoula Helgate, Sentinel, Glacier and Flathead.
"That's one of the things about Trent is that he is consistent," says Coach Stamm. "He doesn't get rattled if he does have a bad throw."
Thompson's personal 24 points, coupled with Dillon Fryxell winning the high jump and Taylor Firestone placing in the long and triple jump gave the Horsemen a sixth place finish behind only Whitefish and the Missoula and Kalispell schools.
Fryxell, who won the high jump by clearing 6-6, is still working on his quest to clear 6-9. At meets where the high jumpers jump off of a rubber launch pad, Fryxell will jump high enough to win the event and then will move the bar up to 6-9 in order to try to beat his own school record of 6-8 1/2.
At Kalispell Coach Stamm says Fryxell cleared the bar a few times drawing oohs and ahhs from the crowd, but then would clip the bar with the back of his legs or his heels. Fryxell will have three more chances to clear 6-9 during districts, divisionals and state. All three venues will have a rubber launching pad.
On the girls' side, Senior Heather Earhart was the sole Trotter to place in the meet by emphatically grabbing second place in the javelin with a toss of 113-10.
"That's quite an accomplishment with all the schools there," says Coach Stamm who believes the throw was her best for this year, but that she has had longer throws in the past.
With the big heave on Saturday Coach Stamm believes she is poised to make the state meet, comfortably making it in the top six at divisionals.
At the Sanders County Meet at Noxon on Thursday the big story was Plains sweeping both the girls and the boys first place team trophies. Competing against the depth of Thompson Falls it is usually hard for Plains to snag a first-place trophy in these smaller meets and although Thompson Falls kept quite a few of their top athletes at home Coach Stamm still finds the win very satisfying.
"It's satisfying," says Coach Stamm. "The biggest thing is we competed as hard as we could and we got a trophy in it."
Coach Stamm was also excited to see the heart and desire out of his younger athletes especially the fight in the 1600 and 3200 races. In the mile Robert Earhart and Kenneth Beech went head to head in the final 200 of the race with Robert barely eding out Beech in a close finish. In the two-mile race Donald Damschem found himself in the same situation sprinting to the finish line in the last 200.
"Those two examples made that meet for me seeing those younger kids have that fire and not give up. I don't care if you're Trent Thompson or one of the younger kids. It's about competing and showing a little bit of fire," says Coach Stamm.
The District Meet will take place this Saturday at Bigfork.