If the recent junior high school track meet is an indication, the future looks bright for Haines High School track teams.

A team of eight girls and two boys dominated their events at the Juneau Invitational middle school track meet, held at Floyd Dryden track May 13. Floyd Dryden, Dzantik’i Heeni and Haines participated.

“There were a lot of old records they broke,” said coach Brian O’Riley.

Eighth-grader Serena Badgley ran 100 meters in 13.69 seconds, a new school record, a state junior high record for the season, and a time faster than the winning 3A girls’ time at the recent regional high school championship in Juneau.

Badgley erased a Haines junior high record of 14.2 seconds by Timmi Fotta that had stood for 33 years.

Badgley’s 31’4’’ distance in triple jump also was best in the state and ranked 30^th in the nation. It fell just two inches shy of a school record set by Mary Hertz in the mid-1980s.

The girls’ 4-by-200 team of Badgley, Celia Bower, Libby Jacobson and Gracie Jones ran in the meet’s most exciting race, O’Riley said.

Racing against boys’ and coed teams, the Haines girls took the lead in the final lap, passing a Juneau boys’ team going into the final turn before fading in the final 20 meters.

The girls set a Haines record in 2:05, passing a mark of 2:07.04 set in 1989 by Shannon Martin, Keri Edwards, Robyn Barlow and Tara Heinrich. The team’s time was fourth fastest in the state this year.

Bower set a new mark in the shot put with a heave of 26’8″, topping a mark of 23’4″ set by Sarah Lende in 1998. In addition, Bower threw the discus 76’4″, the best throw in the state and one that broke a record of 74 feet by Christine Hansen in 2003. Bower won the 100-meter dash among seventh-graders, in 14.59 seconds.

Badgley’s discus toss of 74 feet earned her second in state.

Jacobson ran 2:56.73 in the 800-meter run, breaking the previous record of 2:57.24 set in 1981 by Joanne Lemieux.

Dalton Tuohy ran a blistering 66 seconds in the first lap of the 1,600-meter run, easily distancing himself from the pack. His time of 5:08.94 ranks him second in state and was 10 seconds off a middle school record of 4:58 set by Rod Baker in 1980.

Tuohy also won the boys’ discus event with a toss of 101’8’’.

Zayla Asquith-Heinz led the girls’ 1,600-meter run from start to finish, lapping several competitors to finish in 6:07.01. Tuohy and Asquith-Heinz won their races handily.

Walker Blair (1,600-meter run, discus), Polly Bryant (800-meter run, triple jump), Alexandria Chapin (800-meter run, discus), Isobel Smith (400-meter dash), and Jones (100-meter dash, discus, shot put) also participated in the meet.