Lady Savage Heat place 5th at Whitefish meet

So you dominate a track meet one weekend, what do you do for an encore?

You repeat the performance and add to it if you are Hot Springs senior standout Katelyn Christensen.

Fresh off a point-gathering festival last weekend at the Seeley-Swan Invitational, Christensen and her Lady Savage Heat teammates put together a fifth-place team finish in the Whitefish ARM Invitational this past Saturday.

What’s impressive about the fifth place finish is that Hot Springs was by far the smallest school among the 10 women’s and 11 men’s teams participating in the annual event at Whitefish High School.

The all-sport standout who will take her athletic and academic talents to Carroll College next year on a track/academic scholarship, won two events and took second in another along with a fifth place and a pair of seventh place finishes as Hot Springs amassed 50 team points to tie Class A Polson for fifth place.

Whitefish won the women’s team title with 151 points, while Bigfork captured the men’s team championship, also with 151 points.

Three teams from Sanders County, Hot Springs, Thompson Falls and Plains took part in the yearly track showcase. The T Falls girls finished eighth with 19 points, one point ahead of ninth place Plains.

On the boys side, Thompson Falls was sixth with 24 team points, while Hot Springs was tenth with eight points and Plains was eleventh with six.

Christensen’s day included wins in the 200 meters race and the javelin. She established a new Personal Record in the 200 meters event, breaking the tape in 27.10 seconds, just ahead of Columbia Falls sprinter Ally Sempf, who crossed the finish line in 27.21.

Also a standout basketball and volleyball player, Christensen finished tied for first in the javelin throw, with a toss of 111 feet. Thompson Falls thrower Chesney Lowe also threw 111 feet for the Lady Hawks, one of several events in which she finished among the top 10.

Christensen also placed fifth in the shot put event, heaving the iron ball 30-feet, 7 inches and then took second in the discus throw with a mark of 108-8.

She wrapped up her day with a pair of seventh place finishes in the 100 meters run and the 400 meters run.

Lowe also tied for fourth in the pole vault at 8-6, was seventh in the long jump with a leap of 15-5 and came in 10th in the triple jump to lead the Lady Hawks.

Thompson Falls teammates Hattie Neesvig and Trinity Riffle tied for sixth in the high jump event. Neesvig also tied for sixth in the triple jump.

Another area athlete who had a solid day was Plains Trotters weight thrower Alexis Deming, who came in second in the women’s shot put with a toss of 33 feet, was third in the discus and ninth in the javelin competition.

In the men’s competition, Thompson Falls distance ace William Hyatt took second in the 3200 meters run and fourth in the 1600 meters run to continue his outstanding season in those events. Fellow Blue Hawk Ryan Bucher came in second in the 400 meters run with a PR time of 52.58 Also scoring for the T Falls team was Breck Ferris, who was tied for third in the high jump, finished seventh in the long jump and ran a leg on the 4X400 meters relay team.

Plains Joseph Martin placed seventh in the 800 meters and tenth in the triple jump, while Horsemen teammate Mason Elliot was third in the 300 meters hurdles and fifth in the 110 meters hurdles.

Hot Springs got team points from junior weightman Garth Parker who was seventh in the discus with a PR of 121-3 and ninth in the shot put, also with a PR throw of 42-6.5. Savage Heat sophomore Qunicy Styles-Depoe was fifth in the 110 meters hurdles, seventh in the 300 meters hurdles (just ahead of teammate Nick McAllister who was sixth) and sixth in the javelin throw with a toss of 130-11, also a PR.

Hot Springs and Plains will travel to Missoula this weekend for the Kim Haines Memorial meet, while Thompson Falls goes to Kalispell for the Archie Row Invitational.

Thompson Falls also got a sixth in the high jump from Jesse Claridge, sixth from Bucher in the 200 meters and sixth in the high jump from Trinity Riffle.

Special good news from the Whitefish meet was that Hyatt’s time in the 1600, 4:42.58, qualified him for the state championships, beating the qualifying time of 4:43.50.

“This team continues to impress me with how serious they are taking their events,” Blue Hawks coach Trenna Ferris said. “Everyone wants to and is trying to improve week to week. The younger athletes are working hard to improve and our veteran athletes are stepping up and placing at the bigger meets”.