Noxon's Ricky Williams has a day at Fan-Tastic meet

With the challenge of a “light” turnout for this year’s track and field teams (boys and girls) already a reality, Noxon track coach Matt Havens could hope for quality over quantity.

Enter senior Ricky Williams, who in the season’s first meet won five events for the Red Devils at the Terrific and FanTastic Meet this past Friday in Eureka. 

The meet attracted just three teams, Troy, Noxon and host Eureka, but Williams and Noxon made the most of the trip to their northern neighbor. 

Noxon brought six boys and four girls to the meet and made the most of their small contingencies by placing second in both the boys’ and girls’ team events. 

The Noxon boys piled up 39 points, while Class B Lincoln County (Eureka) finished first in the boys’ team chase with 70.  Troy collected 13 points to finish third.  

It was the same order of finish in the girls’ team competition, with Eureka stacking up 77 points for first place and Noxon placing second with 26 points.  Troy was third in the girls’ team competition with 24. 

Almost every member of the Noxon team scored points during the one-day meet. 

Williams topped them all with first-place showings in the high jump, long jump, triple jump and discus. 

A state placer in the high jump the past two years, Williams cleared 6-4.5 inches in the event, well ahead of second place Kempton Sloan of Troy who made it over the bar at 5-8. 

Williams moved on to the long jump pit where he jumped 20-9, easily out-distancing Sloan, who was second with a leap of 17-3.5. The Red Devils added fourth and fifth place in the event (Brian Parrish and Chance McDaid, respectively). 

Next up for Williams was the triple jump, where he picked up his third first-place medal of the day with a hop, skip and jump of 41-6.75, nearly 10 feet better than Eureka’s Benjamin Byers, who jumped 32-4.5. 

Running unopposed in the 110-meter hurdles gave Williams his fourth victory of the day. He then wrapped up win number five with a discus-winning toss of 114-7.  Teammate Shane Murray placed third in the discus with a throw of 103-7. 

Another Red Devil who had a great day was McDaid, who placed second in both the 100-meter sprint (12.4 seconds) and the 200-meter run (25.38).  Eureka’s Emmet Manges won both sprints for the hometown Lions.  Noxon freshman Zane Brown was fourth in the 100, while teammate Bran Parrish placed seventh.  Brown also finished fifth in the 200, and Parrish was seventh. 

McDaid added a second-place finish in the 400-meter run, while Brown came in third. McDaid added a fourth-place medal in the javelin to his daily haul. 

Murray, a state javelin placer from last year, was second in the event at Eureka with a throw of 119-1.  The event was won by Eureka senior Jesse Day, who uncorked a throw of 166-4. 

Noxon’s girls were paced by junior Sandy Bonney, who won the long jump with a leap of 14-10, nine inches better than second-place Corteine Rogers of Troy.  Lady Devils teammate Abby Yoder was fifth in the long jump at 11-7. 

Bonney also won the girls’ javelin title with a heave of 86-5.  Teammate  Lieah Pritchard claimed third (68-10). Before Bonney, a sophomore was finished for the day, she added second place medals in the 100-meter sprint (14.64) and the high jump, where she cleared 4-4. 

Bonney added fourth place in the women’s 200-meter run (33.3). 

The Lady Devils also got first place from Yoder in the 400-meter run, breaking the tape at the 1:13.91 mark. 

Also adding the Noxon’s team total in the girls’ competition was junior Georgia Boehme, who was second in the 1600-meter run, and seventh in the discus event with a throw of 55-10.  Pritchard picked up a third-place medal in the girls’ shot put to round out the Lady Devils team scoring. 

Next up for the Noxon teams is the Libby Invitational, Saturday, April 12.