Young Bluehawk athletes dominate

BUTTE – The Bluehawks stormed the State B track championship, placing multiple young athletes, while showing promise for upcoming seasons.

The meet took place Friday, May 30 and Saturday, May 31 at the Bulldog Memorial Stadium. 

Head Coach Randy Symon said the kids could have done better, but overall he was pleased with the performances.

“For the most part, the kids competed hard and when you get to the state meet, there’s kids from all over the state for the same reason – to beat you and try to get a higher place than you,” Coach Symon said. “It’s just a very difficult place for a lot of our younger kids to compete, but I’m happy with how we competed.”

Although the tough competition may have been hard to face, the younger athletes were the ones who placed for the Bluehawks.

Both boys and girls team took twelfth place with 17 and 19 points respectively.

The boys team started off slow, only compiling three points on their first day of competition, however, they picked up steam throughout the meet.

Freshman McKenzie Holt proved to be a challenging competitor as he placed in multiple events.

Holt took third place in the 100 with a time of 11.31, fifth place in the 200 with 22.97 and also managed to take fifth place in the 400 meter with a time of 52.03.

Tanner Laws was the only other individual competitor to represent the boy’s team, taking sixth place in the 3,200 meter with a time of 10:36.62. Laws is only a sophomore this year. 

The 400-relay team placed third place with a time of 43.91.

As for the girls, the Hannum sisters were the only ones to land on the podium. 

Freshman Autrey Hannum placed in multiple events, taking first place in the high jump with a height of 5-4, fifth place in the triple jump with 34-8 and sixth place in the long jump with 17-7:50. 

Shey Hannum brought in third place in the high jump with a height of 5-2. 

Although Coach Symon said it wasn’t their strongest performance, the girls showed what they were made of and were able to bring home some hardware in the process.

“On that particular day it wasn’t their best performances, but they got metals,” Coach Symon said. 

With so many young kids placing, the future looks bright for the Bluehawks.

“We’ve got some good kids coming back, but so do the other schools. We’re going to have to do real well next season to be able to compete with them,” Coach Symon said. 

The experience gained at the state meet is invaluable to the younger athletes and the time spent competing helps them gear up for next season. 

“The kids who were there for the first time know now what the competition is and will know what they need to do (for next year),” Coach Symon said. 

This year the Bluehawks saw quite a few athletes get injured, something Coach Symon hopes to avoid next season. The injuries steered the team in a different direction and slowed the Bluehawks down. 

“We’ll have to look at next year to try to avoid some of those injury related things, if it’s possible,” Coach Symon said.

Whether that entails changing up the warm-ups or better conditioning the kids, Coach Symon is looking forward to being in better shape next year, again competing to the best of the kid’s ability.