Lake City crushes competition, takes gold at 5A State

BOISE — Kelly Reed has no doubt where his two-time State 5A track champion Lake City High girls team stands in state history.

At the top looking down.

“It’s the best girls track team in the history of the state,” Reed said emphatically. “I’ll never have another team like this one. Not to take anything away from the group that won last year — because most of the (athletes) are the same — but the depth and quality of performance this year was insane.”

Slight hyperbole perhaps, but it’s close to the truth.

Led by the individual state titles of junior Breanna Sande and three golds in four relays, the Timberwolves pulled off a repeat in grand fashion, running away from the field. LC piled up 118 points, 38.5 more than last year and nearly double runner-up Twin Falls (69.5), as the 87th annual state meets for 5A and 4A concluded Friday evening at Boise State University’s Bronco Stadium.

Dominating only begins to describe the Timberwolves.

LC also had three runner-up finishes among state medals in 16 of the 18 events, not to mention a couple of handfuls of school records and personal bests.

While several pair of feet were involved, none were more valuable than Sande.

She pulled off the long-distance triple, capturing state titles Friday in the 1,600 (5:11.3) and 800 (2:18.29) to go with gold in the 3,200 on Friday.

Then less than 20 minutes after defending her title in the 1,600, she ran a 400 leg on the winning 1,600 relay that broke the magical 4-minute mark (3:57.64) and came within .29 of a second from breaking the state record set in 1986.