Six - the lucky number
Red Devils track team competes at Jim Johnson Invitational and brings home six sixth place finishes, one fifth place finish.
NOXON –Six was the lucky number at the Jim Johnson Invitational meet in Missoula as the Red Devils Track and Field team brought home six sixth place finishes and one fifth place finish.
The meet was held at Dornblaser Field and featured a mixture of both Class B and Class C schools. Although Noxon may have not had a strong performance point-wise, the students all excelled on an individual level.
As a whole the boys team only scored 3.5 points, while the girls team rivaled that score with 4 points.
The numbers are not in Noxon’s favor partly because of their small team size. When competing against larger schools, their athletes are pitted against a vast amount of athletes.
Head Coach Matt Havens said the team may have not scored many points but the kids performed really well, especially the underclassmen.
“The freshmen really showed up and performed really well for their first high school meet,” Coach Havens said.
During the meet, Bradey Wilson placed sixth place in the 1,600 with a time of 5:05.47. Austin Johnson also took a sixth place finish in the 3,200 with a time of 12:03.22. Keeping with the trend of sixth place, the boy’s 1,600 relay team took placed with a time of 3:59.75, only seconds behind their rivals, Thompson Falls. The girls also finished sixth in the 1,600 relay team with a time of 5:07.10.
Nik Mueller took sixth in the high jump with a length of 5-2, while Zoey Osborne took sixth in the 400 with 1:12.75.
Breaking the streak of sixth place finishes, Michelle Zavoianu took fifth place in the 2,300 with a time of 15:41.19.
The team is continually working on conditioning to further improve. The better shape the team is in, the better they will perform on the field and on the track.
“We are still going to work on their fitness levels as I know we can and will get stronger,” Coach Havens said.
The team’s next meet will be in Hot Springs on Thursday, April 10. The Dave Tripp Invitational is a smaller meet and four to five teams are expected at the event. The less competitive nature of the meet will allow the kids to try something different.
“We will be trying out some new events for the kids before we really start to focus on specific events,” Coach Havens said.
Since track and field encompasses a large amount of different events, it takes time to figure out each kid’s strength. Teams often undergo a number of shifts before placing each athlete in their strongest event.
The team will then go on to Idaho for the Kellogg Invite on Saturday, April 12. Here the tournament grows in size and approximately ten schools, all around the same size of Noxon, will be in attendance.
The meet will give the kids an opportunity to be competitive, while continually strengthening their individual skills.
“This should be a really good meet for the kids to go and to compete in,” Havens said.