The Haines track and field team received seven first-place medals at the regional meet in Juneau last weekend. In the field events, senior Haley Boron placed first in both discus and shot put. Boron is ranked second in state for both events. Sophomore Eric Gillham placed first in discus. Gillham’s throw also beat the bigger division schools. Gillham is ranked second in state. Senior Carson Crager placed first in the triple jump. Crager is ranked third in state.
In the running events, Crager placed first in the 110-meter hurdles. He is ranked third in state and is 0.7 seconds away from first. Senior Mark Davis placed first in the 300-meter hurdles, running under 44 seconds for the first time. Davis is ranked first in state. Junior Avery Williamson also placed first in the 300-meter hurdles. Williamson is third in state and is less than two seconds away from first.
The team set 21 personal bests at regionals. It was the first meet MacKenzy Dryden participated in, placing third in the 3,200-meter run with a time of 12:55.58. Senior Lydia Andriesen also ran the 3,200-meter and set a personal record by 15 seconds. Both Dryden and Andriesen qualified for state.
Dryden also long jumped. She qualified for state with a jump of 13 feet 4.5 inches. Sophomore Grace Long also qualified for state in the long jump. Her distance was 14 feet 1.25 inches. Long placed second at the meet. Dryden placed third.
Sophomore Avari Getchell placed second in the 200-meter dash with a time of 29.68 seconds. Getchell also qualified for state as the tenth runner.
Sophomore Jacob Weeransinge set personal bests in the long jump, triple jump, and 800-meter run. Sophomore Luke Davis placed second in the 800-meter run, less than a second behind the first place finisher with a time of 2:12.55. Junior Kaleb Jones placed third in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:14.63. Both Davis and Jones qualified for state. Davis is ranked ninth in the state. Jones is ranked twelfth.
The girls placed second in all their relays. They ran a time of 55.43 seconds in the 4×100 meter relay. This time broke their previous personal best and reset the school record. Their 4×100 is ranked fifth in state and is one second away from first. The girls 4×200 meter relay is sixth in state. It is three seconds away from placing third.
The boys ran the 4×200 meter relay and the 4×400 meter relay. Their 4×200 got disqualified because of a baton exchange outside of the exchange zone. Their 4×400 runner placed second and qualified for state with a time of 3:57.61. The foursome is ranked sixth in the state.
The girls team placed second at the meet. They beat Petersburg by 33 points. The boys team placed third at the meet. Petersburg beat the boys’ team by three points.
All but three people on the Haines team qualified for state. The qualifiers are leaving on the Fjordland Thursday for the state meet. The meet is held in Anchorage at Dimond High School. The team will fly from Juneau to Anchorage and arrive May 27. Preliminaries are on May 28. The top eight athletes from the preliminaries will compete in the finals on May 29. The top four athletes will receive medals. All relays will be on May 29.
Athletes placing first at the meet are given the honor of running 100 meters while holding the Alaska flag. Spectators are permitted to attend the meet but must wear masks.