Collins sisters lead Kootenai threepeat

BOISE – The Kootenai High girls track team’s drive to a State 1A championship threepeat Saturday was powered by AC/DC.

AC/DC as in Amy Collins and Darcy Collins.

The Collins sisters each captured two state titles as the Warriors finished with 86 points, 24.5 ahead of runner-up Oakley.

Amy, a senior, repeated in the 800 meters (2 minutes, 25.17 seconds) and 1,600 (5:34.43). Darcy, a sophomore, broke a state-meet record and defended in the 300 hurdles (47.06). She also won for the first time in the 100 hurdles (16.44), missing another meet-record by .10 of a second.

Darcy has won seven state titles in the seven events she’s qualified for in two years. Her other two gold medals this spring came Thursday in the high jump and Friday in the medley relay. As a freshman she won state titles in the high jump, 300 hurdles and as part of the 1,600 relay. She probably would have taken four golds but she false-started at the state-qualifying regional meet in the shorter hurdles.

She said the false start was weighing on her mind when she got in the blocks for the 100 hurdles, the first event of the morning Saturday.

“I made sure I had a slow start,” Darcy said, smiling.

The youngest Collins was unchallenged in both hurdle races.

“I run my hardest – like there is someone behind me. I imagine someone’s on my heels so I push harder,” she said.

Darcy was asked what she’ll be out to achieve the next two years.

“I want to get more (gold medals),” she said. “I want to beat my own records and get more (state) records.”

Amy also could have won four golds considering she was the defending champion in the 3,200. But she dropped the longest race, her least favorite of the distance events, because she didn’t want to aggravate shin splints that have nagged her most of her career.

She came down with a cold the day after regionals and was bothered all week. She wanted to break her personal bests Saturday, but fell short.

“I couldn’t breathe the last 200 (of the 800),” said Amy, who has given an oral commitment to run track and cross country at the University of Montana. She plans to sign a letter of intent next week.

Seven of Kootenai’s eight state qualifiers scored. And the Warriors earned points in nine of the 18 events, including five firsts.

“We scored in every event we brought (kids in),” Kootenai coach Shannon LaFountaine said.

Raft River captured the boys state title with 84 points, 20 ahead of runner-up Nezperce.

Other area athletes earning medals Saturday were: Anali Carrico of Mullan, who took third in the 400, fourth in the 200 and fifth in the 100; Jesse Dyer of Kootenai, who took third in the 400 and fourth in the 100; Ian Dahlke and Brice Johnson of the Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy, who were among the school’s first state qualifiers, took third and fourth, respectively, in the 800; Clark Fork took fourth in the boys 1,600 relay.

2A

Senior Gretchen Bailey of Wallace bounced back to take second in the 100 and third in the 200 after finishing a disappointing eighth in the long jump, which she won the year before.

Firth’s boys and girls repeated as state champs. The Firth boys scored what’s believed to be a state record with 150 points, tripling the points of runner-up Parma (49). The Firth girls had 120.5 and Nampa Christian was second (86.5).