Trotters take second at divisional meet

MISSOULA – Track and Field athletes from across western Montana descended on Missoula last week for the annual divisional meets.

The Western B Divisional Meet took place over two days, Friday and Saturday, at Dornblaser Field and featured tough competition in the girl’s meet.

The Plains Trotters narrowly missed out on a first place finish, ending the meet with 154 team points, only one point behind the first place team from Bigfork.

Plains Head Coach Denise Montgomery was pleased with the team’s performance during the divisional meet.

“We had an excellent weekend,” Montgomery said.

Thompson Falls finished the meet in third with 66 team points.

On day one of competition, Friday, May 15, the Trotters got a strong performance from several athletes in throwing events.

“All the throwers are consistently performing well,” Montgomery said.

Senior Kayla Holmes took first in the shot put competition with a throw of 41-04.75, a personal record.

Leah Thompson of Plains took second in the shot put event with a throw of 40-11.00.

In the javelin competition Carley VonHeeder took first for the Trotters with a throw of 134-11 and Kimberly Earhart finished the event in second with a throw of 132-11.

Plains senior Hailey Phillips also earned a first place finish for the Trotters on day one, winning the 400-meter event with a time of 57.63, breaking a meet record, which had stood unbroken since 1992, setting a new record for Plains High School in the process.

Shannon Dimond of Plains took fourth in the 400-meter event with a time of 1:02.88.

Analisa Loberg took fifth for the Trotters in the 1,600-meter event with an end time of 5:49.88.

The Trotter’s 400-meter relay team took third in their event, crossing the finish line with a time of 52.39.

On day one, the Lady Hawks got a first place finish from Autrey Hannum in the long jump event with a jump of 17-01.00, and Shey Hannum took third in the event with a jump of 16-00.25.

Madison Wheeler of Thompson Falls took fifth in the pole vault event with an 8-00.00.

In the javelin competition Logan Beckman took fourth with a throw of 122-00 and Lindsay Laws took fifth for the Lady Hawks with a throw of 117-09 and A. Hannum finished in sixth with a throw of 115-06.50.

Beckman also took sixth in the shot put competition with a throw of 31-09.50.

On day two of the Western B Divisional Meet, Phillips built on her impressive day one win and earned several more first place finishes.

Phillips took first in the 100-meter and 200-meter events, in addition to top finishes in the 100-meter hurdles and 300-meter hurdles.

In the 300-meter hurdles she broke the meet record, which she had set last season, with a time of 44.58

In the 100-meter hurdles she crossed the finish line first with a time of 15.31 and took first in the 100-meter and 200-meter events with times of 12.63 and 25.92 respectively.

Holmes took fourth in the 100-meter event for Plains, clocking in at 13.14.

In the 200-meter event Dimond took fourth with a time of 27.29.

In the 800-meter event Plains got top finishes from Demi Horton, Earhart and Loberg.

Horton took third with a time of 2:25.37, Earhart finished fourth with a 2:26.60 and Loberg crossed the finish line fifth with a 2:31.55.

Earhart and Horton also had top finishes in the 3,200-meter event with Earhart taking third with a time of 11:58.02 and Horton finishing fifth with a 12:32.

Earhart’s time of 11:58.02 set a school record for Plains in the event.

The Plains 1,600-meter relay team took third in their event with a time of 4:24.95.

In the discus competition, Thompson finished first with a throw of 126-06, Holmes took second with a throw of 125-01 and Lily Huenink placed fourth with a throw of 96-10.

On day two Thompson Falls got wins from both S. Hannum and A. Hannum.

S. Hannum took first in the high jump event with a jump of 5-05.00 and A. Hannum took second with a jump of 5-02.00.

A. Hannum finished first in the triple jump event with a jump of 34-11 and S. Hannum placed sixth following a jump of 32-06.50.

S. Hannum also took third in the 300-meter hurdles, crossing the finish line with a time of 49.9.

The team’s 1,600-meter relay squad took fifth in their event with a time of 4:32.65.

Both teams will head to Legends Stadium in Kalispell for the final competition of the year, the State Meet on Friday, May 22 and Saturday, May 23.

Montgomery encouraged community members to come out and support the team.  

“I hope people will get up to Kalispell and see the team compete. We have some phenomenal athletes,” Montgomery said.