Thunder Mountain wins 4A Region V Championship

Not since a freshman named Naomi tried out for the Thunder Mountain High School track team in 2013 have Scott May’s boys team outscored the girls in the Region V Track &Field Championships.

That is, until this year.

Led by Jonah Penrose, Gabe Crawford and a cohort of sprinters, the TMHS boys team scored 107 points in the 4A Region V Championships hosted by TMHS Friday and Saturday.

“This is especially significant since the boys lost their top sprinter just two days prior to the meet,” TMHS coach Scott May said via email. “Both sprint relays needed to reconfigure and bring in alternates at the last minute.”

Senior Aidan Hildebrand scratched from the meet due to a concussion. Nevertheless, Finn Cole, Erick Whisenant and Ezekiel Keller helped the 4×100 and 4×200-meter relays to first place finishes.

On the distance side, Penroe finished first in 3200-meter run with a time of 9 minutes, 52 seconds. It’s the fifth-fastest time in all the state this year and a new school record. The next day, Penrose finished first in the 1600-meter run with a time of 4 minutes, 39 seconds.

Crawford meanwhile jumped 21 feet, 3 inches in the long jump — 7 inches farther than the second-place jump. The leap was just 3 inches shy of breaking a 45-year-old Region V record.

The Falcons girls — the third best team in the state last season — finished with 87 points. With five sub-14 second 100-meter runners (Reece Bleakley, Tzadi Hauck, Aly Heaton, Mary Landes and Mikayla May), the team swept the podium in the 100 and 200 while also winning the 4×100 and 4×200-meter relays. Bleakley finished first in the 100-meter dash, followed by Hauck and Heaton. Hauck was first in the 200-meter dash, in front of Heaton and May.

“I wasn’t sure what was going to happen in the 100 because each meet (has been different),” Hauck said. “Aly wasn’t in one of them, Reece really hasn’t been in any … and so we’re racing against each other for the first time. We really didn’t know who was going to win.”

Just two weeks after setting the school record in the 4×100, the team of Hauck-Landes-Heaton-Bleakley outdid themselves Saturday. The team covered one lap of the track in 53.77 seconds.

All told, the Falcons qualified 19 different athletes to the ASAA/First National Bank Alaska Track &Field State Championships May 26-27 in Palmer.

Sophomore Audrey Welling will be the busiest of all the athletes by qualifying for four different events: 100-meter hurdles, 300-meter hurdles, long jump and triple jump.

Audrey’s older sister and current BYU Cougar Naomi holds the state record in the 300 hurdles. Set at last year’s state meet, it’s the only state record from a Southeast school.

Other multi-event state qualifiers include: Whisenant (100, 200), Alvin Ailey (400-meter, high jump), Penrose and James Burger (3200, 1600-meter) and Garth Tupou and Ciara Kish (discus and shot put).

Ramseth and Ellefson-Carnes headed to state

The Juneau-Douglas High School track and field team showed off its stellar relay teams at the Region V meet. The Crimson Bears took home the top spots in the boys 4×800, girls 4×400 and girls 4×800-meter relays. Elizabeth Ramseth, a key cog in both girls relays, also impressed in the 800 and 1600.

The senior was within two seconds of her personal bests in both the individual races. Ramseth finished first in the 1600 with a time of 6 minutes, 3 seconds. Her 2 minute, 43 seconds in the 800 was good for second place behind Ketchikan’s Elizabeth Knight.

Ramseth said she thinks positive thoughts during the races to help her performance.

“I’ve worked really hard to eat well and drink enough water. And then all the hard workouts that we’ve done — I can just think of them and how terrible they were and that I got through those, so I can get through this.”

Sixteen other Crimson Bears qualified along with Ramseth for the state meet, including distance runner Arne Ellefson-Carnes, who set personal records for himself in both the 1600 and 3200 while battling a cold. Ellefson-Carnes was third in both races. His 10:02 in the 3200 was a fast enough time to qualify him in the event at the state meet. The sophomore will be an alternate in the 1600.

“I can run through it but it’s hard to run through a cold,” Ellefson-Carnes said. “I’m excited for what I’m running now because that means I can improve a lot for state next weekend.”

The 4×400 team of Dalton Hoy, John White, Shadrach Stitz and Tim McKenna also qualified for state. They finished in first place on Saturday with a time of 8:34.

Cody Weldon was second in the shot put behind TMHS’ Garth Tupou. His 42’10” throw was 4 inches further than teammate Lance Fenumiai’s toss. Weldon and Fenumiai both qualified for the state meet in either discus or shot put.

2017 Region V Track &Field Championships

4A boys team results

Thunder Mountain – 107

Ketchikan – 43

JDHS – 24

1A/2A/3A boys team results

Sitka – 171.5

Petersburg – 138.5

Skagway – 66

Haines – 62

Thorne Bay – 38

Gustavus – 20

Yakutat – 1

4A girls team results

Thunder Mountain – 87

JDHS – 38

Ketchikan – 36

1A/2A/3A girls team results

Sitka – 244

Petersburg – 195

Skagway – 21

Yakutat – 9

Gustavus – 7

Haines – 5

Thorne Bay – 4

 

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• Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nolin.ainsworth@juneauempire.com.

 

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