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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Lake City Blows Past Rival Coeur D’Alene Wind, Chill, Fatigue Take Edge Off Rivalry

The Lake City High boys and girls track teams easily defeated their crosstown rivals from Coeur d’Alene High Tuesday in the All-City Championships.

But there was little to no celebration.The meet lacked the intensity measurable in other athletic events involving the rival schools. And there were few personal bests in the bone-chilling wind.

The LC girls earned a share of the Inland Empire League championship with Post Falls by topping Coeur d’Alene 82-55.

The Timberwolves boys earned bragging rights - are their bragging rights in track? - by handling the Vikings 75-56.

Both coaches admitted they took a low-key approach to the meet, largely because most of the athletes were tired or sore coming off the Super-1 Invitational on Saturday.

It also was the sixth meet in three weeks for many athletes. With the state-qualifying meet a week from Friday, coaches kept their athletes from overextending.

Take, for example, the final event, the 1,600-meter relay.

With three of his four boys relay runners complaining of shin splits, LC assistant coach Van Troxel scratched his foursome.

The LC girls 1,600 foursome also was pulled, leaving CdA’s boys and girls to run against each other.

Vikings coach Bryan Duncan had planned the day before to throw three distance runners and a hurdler into the final distance relay.

So in perhaps the most entertaining event of the day, CdA’s female relay team beat the boys. The final lap featured standout Brenda Nipp against Clint Young, a two-event winner earlier in the 800 and high jump.

Young taunted his teammate the first 100 meters before Nipp opened a big lead. Realizing he didn’t have a chance at catching Nipp, Young ran most of the final 150 meters backwards.

Another example of the lack of intensity came early in the meet in the boys 800 relay. CdA dropped the baton on the second corner, leaving LC by itself, needing only to finish in order to gain the five team points. But at the third baton exchange, LC’s runners ran beyond the exchange zone and were disqualified.

Just as odd was the boys 400 relay. One of LC’s runners was in the bleachers and didn’t hear the event called. Then the runner who took the absent teammate’s spot had a false start.

Still, the LC junior varsity foursome won the event.

“Coming off Saturday we backed off quite a bit today,” Duncan said. “You have to give Lake City credit, but we weren’t pushing our kids too much. We want to stay healthy for district.”

Said LC coach Donna Messenger: “The main thing is there was good spirit between the kids on both teams, they competed hard and bucked the wind.”

There were a handful of highlights:

LC’s Scott Bushnell took three firsts - the pole vault (11 feet, 6 inches), 100 (11.61) and 200 (23.91) and finished second in the 400 (54.69).

The T-Wolves’ Ryan Duncan set a personal best in the shot put (47-3).

The T-Wolves’ Shannon Conley beat CdA’s Nipp for the first time in the 100, nipping the Vikings sprinter by one-tenth of a second (13.28).

Nipp came back to take wins in the 200 (28.53) and 400 (1:02.32).

On Friday, most of the area teams will participate in the Lakeland Relays, a twi-light meet beginning at 4 p.m.

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