With only four athletes, the Haines girls’ track team came within a handful of points of second place at last week’s Sitka Invitational Track Meet, said coach Keri Ewing. Competitors included Thunder Mountain, Juneau-Douglas and Ketchikan.
The girls’ squad was led by seniors Destinee Cowart and Nattaphon “Ice” Wangyot, who each scored 18 points. Wangyot’s time of 28.94 in a preliminary heat in the 200-meter run Friday set a new school record, Ewing said.
“Ice is a natural runner. She’s very powerful. She did well Saturday even with high winds and she’ll only get better,” Ewing said.
Sitka won the girls’ meet, followed by Thunder Mountain, Ketchikan, Haines and Juneau-Douglas. Sitka also won the boys’ meet, followed by Juneau-Douglas, Thunder Mountain, Haines, and Ketchikan. Nine Haines boys competed.
“It’s great to be able to come back from a meet like this and say how well we did,” Ewing said. The season’s first meet was run on Sitka’s rough dirt track in stormy conditions.
Besides winning the 200-meter dash in Sitka, Wangyot was second in the 100-meter dash, .18 seconds behind winner Joei Vidad of Sitka. At this weekend’s meet in Juneau, she’ll face two of the strongest runners in the region, Petersburg’s Isobel Ilth and Thunder Mountain’s Naomi Welling, neither of whom competed last week.
Classmate Cowart won the discus with 78-6 and placed second in the shot put with a throw of 27-7, an inch behind the winning throw. Senior Bailey Stuart placed third in discus (76-2) and fifth in shot put.
“Our throwing program, when you look at the results, is really impressive,” Ewing said. The boys’ squad shot putters placed third, fourth, fifth and sixth overall.
Junior Jordan Stigen, a team rookie, placed fourth in the girls’ 300 hurdles and sixth in the long jump. In the hurdles, Stigen fared well against more experienced runners, Ewing said.
Cowart, Stigen, Stuart and Wangyot will comprise a 4 by 100 meter relay team this weekend at the Juneau Invitational, where Haines will face 10 schools, including ones from Petersburg, Wrangell, Yakutat, Thorne Bay and Wasilla.
Haines’ boys squad was led by seniors Matthew Green and Casey Bradford and by sophomore Carl Tupou. Seven members of the team participated in four events each.
Green won the discus (116 feet), placed fourth in shot (36 feet, behind first-place throw of 38-1) and tied first in high jump with a leap of 5-2. Coach Ewing said Green has shown such versatility, he’ll enter the long jump this weekend and the 300 hurdles at the Haines Invitational on May 13-14.
Bradford placed fifth in the 200-meter run (26.06), third in the 400-meter-run and fourth in the discus (102-10).
Tupou placed fifth in the 100-meter dash (12.78), fourth in long jump (16-5), and third in shot put (37-8).
Tupou, Green, and seniors Zane Durr and Kai Hays combined on a 4 by 100 relay that placed second behind Sitka. Bradford, Durr, freshman Patrick Cunningham and junior Jacob Stigen comprised a 4 by 400 relay team that finished third.
Stigen posted a time of 46.27 in the 300 hurdles, compared to a winning time of 43.94. It was his first time competing in the event at a meet.
Stigen has been working with assistant coach Greg Brittenham in the event, learning to keep a uniform number of steps between hurdles. Although he lost his steps about a third of the way into last week’s meet, he’s confident he can take several seconds off his time.
“I think I could do better and go to state. (Coach) Brittenham thinks I could beat 40 seconds at regionals,” Stigen said.
Stigen also took 24 seconds off his best time in the 1,600-meter run, posting a time of 5:36. Sitka dominated distance events at the meet.