Capital City Invitational ends with Saturday flourish

“They are getting rid of the funkiness now,” Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé junior thrower Meliame Tupou said. She and classmate Issy Martin had just finished their discus outing and were shagging the throws of the boys’ competitors during Saturday’s Capital City Invitational Track and Field Meet on the Thunder Mountain Middle School oval.

The shaggers — who return the discus to the throwers — had to take a quick retreat downfield as JDHS junior Richard Tupou unleashed a personal record toss of 146 feet 0.5 inches, nearly 30 feet farther than his competition.

“Yep, no funky now. He’s my cousin. I don’t know where that comes from,” M. Tupou said.

Richard Tupou’s throw came from desire, love of the sport, team bonding and sportsmanship.

“Sometimes he is just out there throwing all by himself after practice,” JDHS throwing coach Tina Martin said. “He really loves the sport.”

Over 40 throwers in the boys event exchanged high-fives and notes, and watched as seniors Erik Thynes and Angus Olsen (Petersburg), Eero Woolford and Gunner Tarver (JDHS), Zach Webb (Sitka) and juniors JC Davis (Haines) and Jack Dunn (Ketchikan) all threw past 100 feet easily. Tupou drew a collective gasp as he released his winning toss and a hearty applause as the disc landed past a shagger.

“Just consistency over the summer and offseason has been key,” R. Tupou said. “It’s kind of like a cheating code because I like throwing so it doesn’t really feel like work…I like throwing, I usually come to the field with my brothers and my family, so it’s fun…My goal for this season was 140, but now I’m hoping for 150.”

He threw for the now-defunct Thunder Mountain High School last season and said, “The change has been good. There are a lot of good throwers coming from JD, so getting to be able to throw with them and compete with them in practice is always good.”

Saturday was filled with records, personal bests and joy as the track community gathered at the site of what will be the Region V championships May 23-24.

Haines senior Emma Dohrn won the girls’ discus event with a season-best 106’6” and JDHS junior Issy Martin hit an 85’8.5” personal record for second place as she chases her 2024 PR of 90’10”.

“I’m really happy to be throwing this well straight in the beginning of the season,” Dohrn said. “I was three inches short from my PR from last season, so I’m hoping to do better at the next meet…Our track isn’t the best, but we’ve still got a throwing pad and an area to throw with some good disks. So I try and get as much time in there as I can. My advice to new throwers is keep practicing and just get as much time as you can in the disk ring.”

Petersburg’s Olsen set the PHS shot put record Friday with a 43’5” PR effort, beating the old mark by eight inches, with JDHS’ Woolford second (PR 42’1.5”) and JDHS senior Bez Zukas third (PR 41’1”).

“Last year was my first year of track in general, first year throwing, and I got into shot put and I was really excited for it, and I ended up throwing like 32 in the first meet,” Olsen said. “My all-time PR last year was just 36 feet. I was doing the spin technique and I didn’t really grasp it all that well. And so I went to the gym, I mean I was always in the gym but I guess I got maybe a little stronger. Coming back, I wanted to do the glide technique and it kind of clicked a lot more with me. It was a lot more explosive, and I kind of just had that mind-muscle connection and when I tried it out I was doing a lot better. In practices I was getting really consistent above 40s and I threw one in practice that was 44-feet-one, so I knew that I could beat it if I really tried…My goal is I really want to hit 50. I know I really have to focus on my technique and explosiveness. So I kind of just want to keep improving on my record and making sure that I solidify it a lot more.”

JDHS senior Maxie Lehauli had won the girls’ shot on Friday (PR 32’2.75”) with Sitka senior Elise Brady second (PR 31’5.25”) and Dohrn third (PR 30’0.25”).

JDHS senior Cailynn Baxter won the girls’ long jump in a PR 16’1” (2nd Haines Sr. Ashlyn Ganey 13’11.25”); Kayhi sophomore Ryan Eldering won the triple jump in a PR 31’5” (second HNS Sr. Ariel Godinez Long PR 29’11.75”); and Petersburg freshman Cadence Flint and Sitka junior Emma Heuer both hit a PR 4’4” in the high jump.

“I thought I would jump pretty good for having only a couple practices because it has been too rainy,” Baxter said. “Coming from last year I think I did better. My goal is to beat my 17-foot PR. I just need to keep with the hard workouts…I think my technique is fine. I have to work on different leg movements, I guess. It’s the leg speed so I have to work on that.”

Sitka senior Clare Mullin, who set a Wolves’ school record in the 3,200 meters Friday (10:51.6) ran a Juneau meet record time to win the 800 meters in 2:15.38, roughly 20 yards ahead of Ketchikan senior Carol Frey (PR 2:30.14). She, too, was swarmed in congratulatory salutations.

“I don’t know, I feel like I just like to keep it light on the starting line, like chat up my opponents a little bit, you know, just like let them know I’m not their enemy,” Mullin said. “You know, I like to make connections with them and stuff and then I just try and, you know, I was really trying to focus on the mile today so just give them what I had left in the end.”

Mullin’s 800 race was supposed to be a shakeout run after hitting a Juneau meet record 4:53.63 to win the girls 1,600 earlier in the day, a race she ran in the boys’ heat.

“Yeah except I have the 4×4 coming next so that was like the cool-down, cool-down but not really a cool-down,” she said.

Sitka classmate Marina Dill was the first finisher in the girls’ heat with a 5:36.03 (recorded as second place behind Mullin) with JDHS freshman Sigrid Eller third (5:52.05), JDHS senior Ida Meyer fifth (5:56.55) and JDHS junior Della Mearig seventh (6:10.03).

Juneau senior Nick Iverson did something no Southeast 800-meter athlete has done on Panhandle soil, running the event under the two-minute mark as he hit a 1:59.66 after winning the mile, an event he wasn’t considering, just two hours earlier in a PR 4:28.80.

“Speechless,” a breathless Iverson managed to say after the 800. Of the mile, he noted it was something new. “Something I am not used to,” he said. “Honestly, it was sort of a spur-of-the-moment thing. My coach had been kind of trying to get me in over the past week. And I was like, yeah, I don’t know. I think I kind of just wanted to stay fresh for the 800. But as we got closer to the meet, I was, like, ‘you know, why not?’ So for that first lap, I just thought, have fun with this. I’m nervous, but I’m not the most nervous I’ve ever been. I was mostly excited because I was running with a lot of people I knew. It was fun and after the first lap I was getting into it…and after that I just focused on the 800 and it was fun.”

Kayhi senior Jason Lorig was congratulated by his competitors and other athletes as he cruised to a 22.93 in the 200, nipping Sitka junior Calder Prussian (23.51) and JDHS senior Johnathyn Kestel (23.98).

Lorig also won the 100 earlier in the day in 10.91, with Prussian second (PR 11.34) and JDHS senior Finley Hightower third (PR 11.45). But he was more excited for his win with teammates in the 4×100 mid-day.

“I am pretty surprised we won the four-by,” he said. “We’ve always lost to JD and TM last year to them. But it’s been pretty good that we finally beat them this Capital City Invite. We’ve had two new people join our team on our four-by-one team, James Connelly (Sr.) and Henry Vale (So.). And I think they’ve really added a lot more speed to that.”

Kayhi ran a 45.33 to nip JDHS (Jr. Isaac Phelps, Sr. Gavin Gerrin, Kestel, Sr. Carter Harralston), which had 46.18.

Lorig had to pick up the pace as the anchor leg and hit a time similar to his 100 to outkick JDHS senior anchor Carter Harralston and Sitka anchor Prussian.

“I just knew I just had to beat them for my teammates,” he said. “I just ran, I ran even faster than the one I did in my 100. I felt faster than what I did.”

Lorig is targeting a 10.5 in the 100 and will be competing in the Philippines next week to qualify for the under-20 nationals. He will need to hit a 10.6 to qualify, a time he has done before and one he nearly hit in prelims Friday (10.7).

“It is kind of hard to mentally focus on the enormity of the event,” Lorig said. “But I usually try to just like stay calm and not think about it too much, just try to like, I don’t know, enjoy it.”

The Petersburg boys 4×200 (Jr. Noah Pawuk, So. Ben Kandoll, So. Nolan Lutomski, Jr. Brayden Tucker) won the event in a school record 1:39.52 over Kayhi’s 1:39.56 (Jr. Edward Dela Cruz, Jr. Jozaiah Dela Cruz, Connelly, Jr. Liam Woodward).

“I saw our third-leg runner coming off the stretch,” PHS anchor Tucker said. “I am already in front and I knew I just had to finish the race real strong. Last year our throwers ran a 1.49 and we just wanted to beat the school record and get our names up there. I saw Ketchikan’s runner, shout out to him, coming up behind me and I just ran as hard as I could. We really have to trust our teammates, make good handoffs and practice that every week.”

Also enjoying the meet with teammates, JDHS freshman Bella Connally won the girls 100 earlier in the day in a PR 12.81 – second was Sitka junior Adalyna Moore (school record 13.78), third was JDHS freshman Shandiin Frommherz (PR 13.86). She also finished the day winning the 200 in 27.19 – with Kayhi senior Clara Odden second (PR 27.45) and Sitka junior Natalie Hall (PR 28.41) third. And in between Connally anchored the girls’ 4×100 winning relay team (53.44) of sophomore Haley Gilbert, senior Cailynn Baxter and freshman Addie Hartman. Connally outleaned Kayhi anchor Odden. The Kings (So. Mariah Colbert, sr. Carol Frey, Fr. Claire Ruaro, Odden) hit 53.45.

“Just trying to run my best and pushing myself was key,” Connally said of the 100. “My goal is to run a 12.3. The school record is 12.49. So beating that and getting my name up next to my brother’s (James, JD 100 boys record) would be cool.”

Connally added, “But the relay is so much fun. It’s fun just competing with other teams and having your teammates there with you.”

JDHS’ second 100 relay team of senior Ingrid Higdon, junior Kaylee Koelsch and seniors Nevaeh Alexander and Laina Mesdag placed fifth in 1:02.81.

“I think it’s really fun to do something where you’re with your teammates,” Mesdag said. “You get to have a good team bond and all rely on each other and it is real fun to do something with your friends…You have to trust in your teammates a lot, to put a lot of faith in them, do some blind handoffs, but that’s why it takes a good connection with your teammates. I love it.”

Ketchikan senior Clara Odden won the girls’ 300 hurdles in a PR 48.56 and Sitka’s Heuer the 100 hurdles in 17.40.

“I just started running through the hurdles, like, last week,” Odden, currently ranked fifth in Division I, said. “We went to an Oregon meet a couple weeks ago and I haven’t run it since my freshman year. So key this meet really was just not stopping and stuttering before all the hurdles like I used to do. I just tried to push through them. I just wanted to drop a bunch of time because I would like to run this at state, that’s my goal…I just need to make sure I keep dropping time so that doesn’t go away. I ran a 50.2 when we were in Oregon and I ran a 49.4 yesterday in prelims and today was faster.”

Ketchikan hurdles coach Allison Londregan noted the range of the team’s hurdle experience is key to “just making sure that they know what to expect going into practice, really walking them through their races each day before we have a race. And we do a whole team yoga session where we do some mindset work, we got our legs up on the wall to drain some of that lactic acid, do self massage…really trying to have them visualize their race from start to finish so that they’ve already won the race before they’re even starting…And then just working on each phase of the race, making sure that they’re going into the race with a plan so that it doesn’t seem quite as intimidating… and then focusing on the basics so that they feel good.”

JDHS’ Hightower continued his reign in the boys’ 300 hurdles with a 44.02 PR win.

“I want to break 40 in the 300,” Hightower said. “Today I ran a 44 but I wasn’t winded at all after. I was tired, I had run the 1,600 20 minutes ago. It is all part of the training.”

JDHS’ Kestel won the long jump in a PR 20’1.5” (second Lorig 19’7”) and the triple jump in a PR 42’4.5” (second Sitka Jr. Cole McLaughlin 39’10”).

Sitka sophomore Ashton Peterson won the boys’ high jump in a PR 5’10” (second Ktn Sr. Trey Colbert 5’8”) and Sitka senior Rowan Only-Miller the 110 hurdles in 16.9 (second PHS’ Pawuk 17.9).

First-year JDHS senior track runner Hayden Aube, a football and wrestling standout, had a PR 12.1 in the 100 preliminaries and was on JDHS’ second 4×100 boys’ relay team that placed fourth in 49.13 (Sr. Denali Schijvens, Fr. Sylvion Washington, Aube, Hightower).

“You know, these guys are pretty fast,” Aube said. “I’m tired, my foot hurts really bad. I don’t know, it’s fun, I like it but I’m tired… I would really like to run in the sub-12s. I got close today. My friend (JDs Harralston 4th 11.4) was under and I was right with him… I would like to run a race without a broken foot right now. I broke my toe at nationals wrestling two weeks ago so I hope I can run faster.”

The last running event of the meet was the 4×400, and Sitka topped both genders.

The Wolves boys (Sr. Trey Demmert, Hitchcock, McLaughlin, Prussian) won in 3:42.63 with JDHS second in 3:50.74 (Sr. Finn Lamb, Schijvens, Sr. Sage Janes, So. Zacheriah Bos) and JDHS third in 3:55.74 (Sr. Owen Woodruff, Sr. Ferguson Wheeler, So. Gavin Holt, Sr. Ben Sikes).

The Wolves girls (Jr. Natalie Hall, Mullin, Sr. Marina Dill, Jr. Leilynn Swain) won in 4:21.47 with Kayhi second in 4:25.48 (Sr. Carol Frey, Odden, Fr. Claire Ruaro, Elerding).

As the last runners finished, the last throwers were putting the last discs into the air.

“The key to throwing is being coachable and listening,” JDHS assistant throwing coach Tina Martin said. “They go outside of their comfort zone a little bit in the sport. Everyone that just begins, it feels really awkward and so you just give them time to go through it a little. Those that are coachable really listen, let us run through it with them and then they figure out their own kind of how they want to throw because there’s so many different throws that you can do. So they kind of make it their own in the end. Ricky (Tupou) is wonderful, he is a great with teammates and he is enthusiastic. He’s a sweetheart and he just goes above and beyond, puts in extra time and he’ll often be out here on his own long after practice.”

As the last disc hit the turf Tupou high-fived the opponent in the midst of 30-plus throwers.

JDHS topped the boys team scoring with 187 points, Sitka 171.5, Ketchikan 107, Petersburg 80, Haines 49, Skagway 39.5, Gustavus 11 and Craig 7. Sitka topped the girls team scoring with 200 points, JDHS 157, Ketchikan 90, Haines 76, Petersburg 71 and Craig 13.

Complete meet results are available at athletic.net.