Ten athletes qualify for state

The Haines track and field team brought home twelve gold medals from the regional track meet in Ketchikan last weekend. Ten of the 16 athletes who competed have qualified for the state meet in Anchorage, May 27-28.

Senior Caleb Holm secured two of the team’s gold medals with his outstanding performances in both the 100-meter dash and the 200-meter dash. Holm set a personal record in the preliminaries of the 100-meter dash, then broke his one-day-old record in the finals. Holm held off Sitka’s Caleb Hutton by 0.01 seconds and won the race with a time of 12.10 seconds. Holm also took home a gold medal in the 200-meter dash later that day with a time of 25.03 seconds. 

“I went into regionals with high expectations for myself in all of my events,” said Holm, “Thankfully I performed almost as well as I could have asked for. I think everyone that went to regionals, myself included, was able to walk away proud of themselves. As for state, I’m unbelievably excited to have the opportunity to run against the best division two runners Alaska has to offer, and I can’t begin to explain how nice it is to call myself one of them.” 

Holm also placed second in the discus and qualified for state. 

Junior Phoenix Jacobson gave the team two more gold medals after winning the 110-meter hurdles and the 300-meter hurdles. Jacobson had not run the 110-meter hurdles before regionals. “I didn’t really expect to perform well in the 110- meter hurdles,” said Jacobson, “but Coach Hailey had high hopes for me and was more confident than I was about the event. This is my first time ever getting first in a sporting event, so I’m pretty pumped to go to state,” Jacobson said. Senior Kaleb Jones added another medal to the team’s collection with his performance in the 400- meter dash. Jones improved his previous time in this event by over four seconds and crossed the finish line with a more than two-second lead over the next runner. 

“I’m beyond thankful to Coach Jessie for putting me in the open 400-meter dash,” said Jones. “I never viewed myself as a 400- meter runner, and I am beyond happy that he saw that I could be good at running it. I’m really happy with how regionals went. I’m keeping an open mind for state, and to set a personal record again and place well would be awesome. I’m also trying to make sure that I really enjoy the meet, too, since it’s my last one.” 

Junior Eric Gillham, 2021 state champion in the discus, added another gold medal to his collection after placing first in the discus with a distance of 123 feet 4 inches. 

Junior Avari Getchell won the 200- meter dash with a personal best time of 29.12 seconds. Getchell placed second in the 100- meter dash, losing to the first place athlete by 0.02 seconds. Getchell also placed second in the 100 meter hurdles with a personal best of 18.72 seconds. 

Junior Grace Long-Godinez placed first in both the long jump and the triple jump. Teammate MacKenzy Dryden placed second in both of these events. Both girls will compete at state. 

Junior Luke Davis placed second in the 800-meter run with a season best of 2:10.06 minutes, which qualified him for state. Davis also placed second in the 1600-meter run and qualified for state at this event. Davis crushed his previous personal record in this event by eight seconds. Davis will also be competing in the triple jump at state. 

Ari’el Godinez-Long and Avery Williamson both qualified for state in the 800- meter run. Godinez-Long will also be competing in the 1600- meter run and the 3200-meter run at state.

Williamson placed second in the 300 meter hurdles and qualified for state in this event. She was defeated by Sitka’s Adelaide Poulson by 0.16 seconds.

The girls 4 by 200 meter relay secured the team another gold medal after crossing the finish line five seconds before the second-place team. The girls placed second in the 4 by 400 meter relay, losing to Sitka by 0.86 seconds. The 4-by-4 team qualified for state, their best time only 0.23 seconds behind the school record.

The boys 4 by 400 meter added the eleventh gold medal to the team’s collection with a time of 3:44.77 minutes. The boys are a second away from the school record.

Ten Glacier Bears will be heading up to Anchorage to compete for more gold, silver, and bronze medals. Official times from the regional and state meet can be accessed through athletic.net.