Both the boys and girls Glacier Bears track and field team placed ninth overall at state.
The state championship meet was held at Palmer High School last weekend, where athletes competed against schools in the 1A, 2A and 3A division.
The girls 4×4 relay team, made up of seniors MacKenzy Dryden, Avari Getchell and Grace Godinez Long, took third overall, with a time of 4:27 seconds. Ariel Long Godinez was also on the team.
Dryden placed fourth in triple jump and earned a personal record in the event, increasing the distance of her last record by 9 inches.
“MacKenzy Dryden had a stellar meet,” said head coach Jessie Sanders.
Dryden said running the final relay race of her high school career with her fellow graduates was a good but bittersweet ending.
“I think it was a good last meet to end on. We were all really happy,” Dryden said. “It was a bittersweet moment when we ran our last race together, but it was a good meet to end on.”
The boys 4×4 relay team also placed third overall, with a time of 3:40, setting a new school record after shaving 3 seconds off the previous record. The relay team consisted of Eric Brouillette, Koa Doddridge, Phoenix Swaner and Luke Davis.
“They’ve been flirting with getting that record this season. At regionals they were .08 of a second away from it,” Sanders said. “All of them took off and they dusted their race. Luke caught a Sitka runner in the last 10 meters and overtook him to finish third. It was a lot of fun.”
Eric Brouillette took third in discus with a throw of 121 feet 7 inches.
Emma Dohrn finished fifth place in discus, earning a personal record with a throw at 105 feet 5 inches.
Gracie Stickler placed sixth in shot put with a throw of 29 feet 2 inches.
Seth McClurg placed sixth overall in the 300-meter hurdles with a personal record of 46.02 seconds. He also took seventh in the 110-meter hurdles.
Long Godinez finished fourth in the women’s mile, clocking in at 5:39. She placed fifth in the 800-meter dash with a time of 2:32.
The Glacier Bears sent 14 athletes to state after qualifying at the regional tournament, two more than the year prior.
“It was really exciting,” Sanders said of the team’s performance. “I feel like we’re moving in the right direction. We had a little bit bigger of a team and a few more kids qualify. We’re hoping to keep that moving in the right direction in the years to come and develop a program that will be hunting down that state title, and not just that top ten.”