Team Races Are Tight In Rain At Lakeland

Prep track

The most important result in the raindrenched Lakeland Relays track meet Friday evening is there were no serious injuries.

That was the common concern among coaches with state-qualifying meets next weekend.

Still, there were some entertaining relay races and intriguing chases for team titles at Corbit Field in the last regular-season meet of the season that was contested under a steady rain from start to finish.

Sandpoint’s girls posted 95 points to slip past Post Falls, which had 94. Lakeland took third with 68.

In an equally tight boys’ meet, Post Falls piled up 109 points to top runner-up and host Lakeland, which had 100. Lake City finished with 83 to take third.

Nine teams participated, but the steady rain took its toll on Bonners Ferry, which packed up its boys and girls and headed home at the midway mark of the meet.

Girls

All events, including the jumps and throws, were scored as relays. In the field events, for example, three marks for each team were combined for an overall mark.

The girls’ meet was as dead even as the final points indicate. Post Falls and Sandpoint each won five events and placed second in two.

Post Falls’ advantage came in the throws. Jesse Downs, Lindsay Owen and Renata Kralikova combined to put the shot 96 feet, 11 inches for first, while Owen, Katie Mayberry and Kim Beatty combined for first in the discus at 266-9.

“We just tried to be as careful as we could,” Post Falls coach Wade Quesnell said about the slick track.

Sandpoint captured the two sprint relays. Amber Lauritzen, Deanne Raiha, Jessica Berghan and Keiki Lovell zipped to a time of 53.06 seconds to capture the 400, with Lauritzen, Berghan and Lovell joined by Jocelyn Bitton to take the 800 in a time of 1:53.59.

Raiha and Berghan combined with Missy Davis to capture the triple jump with a combined 90 feet, 1 inch.

Boys

Lakeland took the most events - six to Post Falls’ four - but the Trojans scored in all 16 events while the Hawks scored in 15.

Post Falls was just half as strong as it usually is in the throws Friday.

The Trojans’ standout thrower, Ian Waltz, scratched on four throws in the discus as he couldn’t find any traction on the slippy cement throwing ring.

“I know I had a great throw in me, too,” said Waltz, who figured at least two of his were in the 185-foot range - more than 2 feet beyond his personal best of 182-10.

The Trojans scored just one team point in the discus. Lakeland took first behind the combined 399- effort of John Bierne, Joe Brown and Tony Maiani. Bierne had the best of what were predominantly weak throws with a heave of 148-5.

Waltz, Austin Lee and John Huff bounced back in the shot put, however, with a winning combined length of 143-8. Waltz had the top individual mark of 58-10.

Lakeland claimed wins in the other four field events - high, long and triple jumps and pole vault.

Hawks jump standout Jim Noble anchored the victories. In fact, Noble was still competing in the meet 30 minutes after fans emptied the stadium following the final running relay.

Noble clipped the bar three times at 6-4 while attempting to break the school record of 6-4 in the high jump. He was well over the bar twice.

Post Falls’ Josh Mort, Keith Shepherd and Mike McLean anchored the 400 (45.75) and 800 (1:34.72) relays.