Relaying The News: Post Falls Triumphed Late Correction Shows Trojans Won Unique Track Invitational

Talk about gracious hosts.

A scorekeeping error at the Post Falls Coed Invitational track meet Saturday allowed East Valley to go home thinking it had won the unique meet that combines boys and girls performances in relays and individual events to determine an overall champion.

The error wasn’t discovered until more than an hour after the meet concluded and the teams had left.

The corrected results had Post Falls with 142 points to East Valley’s 140. Before the error was discovered, officials credited East Valley with 141 and Post Falls 122.

Sandpoint took third with 94 in the seven-team meet.

The Trojans, winners each year since the meet began three years ago, captured nine of 17 events in the oneof-a-kind meet. The top two boys and girls marks were combined to determine winners in five field events, two hurdles and the 1,600- and 3,200-meter races. There were eight other relays that featured two girls and two boys exchanging batons.

As it turned out, though, all the athletes were winners Saturday as sunshine took the bite off a chilly breeze despite a few threatening clouds. Several coaches said it was the best weather for a meet thus far.

Post Falls weight specialist Ian Waltz contributed heavily to three victories, but in an unlikely way.

He captured firsts in the discus and shot put, as expected. But in the entertaining weightman’s relay, the 6-foot-2, 230-pound Waltz ran the anchoring 100-meter leg as he nosed out Sandpoint’s Brian Smith at the finish line.

“That was fun,” an out-of-breath Austin Lee said. Lee and Waltz combined with Lindsay Owen and Katie Mayberry to win the relay.

“We only get to do that once a year,” Lee said. “I thought Sandpoint was going to get us, but Ian held them off.”

Waltz broke his week-old school record in the discus when he heaved it an impressive 182 feet, 10 inches, topping his previous best of 173-8.

He launched the record throw on his first attempt following what he called a disappointing effort in the shot put. Waltz put the shot 59-8 on his first attempt before scratching his final three throws.

“I was a little fired up (after the shot),” said Waltz, who certainly had reason to celebrate his 18th birthday Saturday following the discus.

Waltz said he plans to sign a letter of intent to Washington State University today. WSU head coach Rick Sloan is scheduled to travel to Post Falls today to collect Waltz’s signature.

Post Falls coach Wade Quesnell said he will continue to offer the coed meet as long as the schools enjoy it.

“For us, it’s fun for the girls and boys to compete together and be scored together as one program,” he said. “The way we approach things is it’s Post Falls track - one program, not two separate programs.”

Post Falls offset EV’s strengths in the middle to long distances by dominating the field events and sprint relays.

EV co-coach Dave McCarty appreciates the meet format.

“It produces camaraderie between the guys and girls,” McCarty said. “The kids got lots of medals. (The meet) gave my distance crew some competition that they haven’t had for a while. And they get to see some other kids they don’t ever see.”

Post Falls Coed Invitational

AT POST FALLS, IDAHO

TEAM SCORING 1. Post Falls 142; 2. East Valley 140; 3. Sandpoint 94; 4. Lake City 61; 5. Kellogg 41; 6. St. Maries 24; 7. Wallace 17.

Shot put - 1, Post Falls (Waltz, Lee, Downs, Owen) 169-11 (meet record; old mark 161-4, PF, 1994). Discus - 1, Post Falls (Waltz, Lee, Owen, Mayberry) 509-0 (meet record; old mark 491-5, PF, 1994). Triple jump - 1, East Valley (Mattoon, Olson, Fergeson, Frey) 145-5. Long jump - 1, Post Falls (Cudmore, Wissenbach, Waltz, Siverson) 66-7. High jump - 1, East Valley (Fergeson, Claridge, Hendren, Kann) 21-10.

Low hurdles - 1, Post Falls (Pope, Atwell, Siverson, Olson) 1:09.6. Intermediate hurdles - 1, East Valley (Nicholson, Thompson, Shogren, Giblin) 3:11.9. 400 relay - 1, Post Falls (Stutzke, Mort, Swanstrom, McLean) 48.9. 800 relay - 1, Post Falls (Linerud, Nesbitt, Shepherd, Swanstrom) 1:44.2. 1,600 relay - 1, East Valley (Shogren, Gahl, Snyder, Cook) 3:56.5 (meet record; old mark, 3:59.1, Lewiston, 1993). Sprint medley - 1, Sandpoint (Lauritzen, Miles, Lovell, Trenholm) 1:45.5. Distance medley - 1, Post Falls (Shepherd, Waltz, Michaels, Olson) 4:20.8. Two-person 1,600 relay - 1, Post Falls (Shannon Olson, Alexander) 4:17.2 (meet record; old mark, 4:22.3, Kellogg, 1994). 3,200 relay - 1, East Valley (Simmers, Adams, Henderson, Skinner) 44:36.8. Distance relay - 1, East Valley (Skirvin, Cook, Wykovics, Adams) 9:33.9. 1,600 relay - 1, Post Falls (Clouse, Alexander, Finney, Olson) 21:26.8. Weight relay - 1, Post Falls (Owen, Lee, Mayberry, Waltz) 52.5.