Page 63 - Flathead Beacon // 5.20.2015

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TRACK AND FIELD STATE PREVIEW
MAY 20, 2015 | 63
The 1907 Flathead County High School track team, which won the school’s first state championship. Clockwise from top left, coach C.H. Scherf, Denney, Steele, Hodgson, Davis, manager Crone and Calbick. COURTESY FLATHEAD HIGH SCHOOL
tense enthusiasm.”
Denney dominated the meet unlike
any other athlete before him. He broke state records in the 50-yard dash and 220-yard dash, clocking 5 2/5 seconds and 23.15 seconds, respectively. He also won the hammer throw and placed sec- ond in the broad jump, pole vault and 100-yard dash. All together, he tallied 24 points, the most ever by an indi- vidual athlete.
Denney was named Montana’s out- standing athlete and he propelled the Flathead County team to its first state championship, an honor delivered in the form of the coveted “Big Cup.”
Flathead remained a respected pow- erhouse in track and field as the sport — and number of participating schools — expanded through the decades.
Kalispell became a trailblazer for women’s competition, too.
For the first half century of orga- nized competition, only boys partici- pated in Montana’s championship track meets. By the 1950s, schools in Missou- la, Butte and Fairfield had individual girls participating in offshoot competi- tions, but significant progress
wasn’t made until 1961, when
Neil Eliason formed a girls track
and field club in Kalispell. They
were called the Timberettes.
The program started with 40
girls under the guidance of
Eliason and assistant coach
Neil Hart. The team traveled thestateandregiontocompete, including regular appearances
at the Junior Olympics. The Ka-
lispell girls dominated from the
start, and by 1967, there were
nearly 500 participants, ages 7 through high school.
Kalispell became a role model for Montana, and in 1969, girls competition was officially added as a school- sanctioned sport.
Not surprisingly, Flathead captured the first-ever girls state championship. Twenty- one Timberettes competed at the state meet in Billings and earned six first-place ti- tles, three of which were won by Mary Lalum.
The Timberettes did not
lose a single track meet until 1972, when Billings West edged Flathead 49-44 at the state meet to unseat the three-time defending champs.
In the last century, Flathead has produced some of the best track and field athletes in Montana history, from Denney and Lalum to Mike Huggins, Jamison Banna, David Vidal, Zoe Nel- son, Lexie Miller, Kwyn Johnson, Tess Brenneman and Zach Perrin.
The Flathead girls have won more state championships than any other team, 18 — 1969, ‘70, ‘71, ‘73, ‘77, ‘78, ‘79, ‘88, ‘89, ‘91, ‘92, ‘93, ‘94, ‘95, ‘98, ‘99, ‘02 and ‘05. The team’s 142 points at the state meet in 2003 ranks as the second most.
The Flathead boys have etched their names on seven state championships, 1907, ‘95, ‘96, ‘00, ‘01, ‘02 and ‘03. The 2001 Braves hold the record for most points scored at the state meet, 163. The 1996 Braves tallied the second best to- tal, 149.5, and the 2000 Braves notched 148, third most.
And it all started with three young men 111 years ago.
— Dillon Tabish
TRACK TRADITION RUNS DEEP IN KALISPELL
to MI
today and sparked a newfound enthusi- asm for athletics.
True to today’s local tradition, the Flathead Valley was well represented from the beginning. Christenson won the hammer throw, an event that would be replaced by the javelin in 1913. Ja- queth won the half-mile race, clocking 2:17, and placed second in the quarter. Wilbur won his heats in the preliminar- ies of the 50- and 100-yard dashes but was forced to drop out of the finals after being diagnosed with measles.
When the meet concluded amid much fanfare, Flathead’s boys tied for fourth place with 13 points alongside the Gallatin County team. Missoula County won the meet with 23 points.
By 1907, the Interscholastic Meet was a beloved phenomenon that attract- ed over 4,500 spectators to watch the best young athletes in Montana. Among them was Lloyd Denney, a junior from Kalispell noted by reporters for his “in-
N THE SPRING OF 1904, THREE
young men departed Ka- lispell, surrounded by a crowd of cheering stu- dents, and journeyed south
issoula. The boys rode a horse and buggy at 4 a.m. to the docks at Demers- ville and boarded a steamboat that glided across Flathead Lake to Polson. From there, they enjoyed the luxury of a stagecoach before being dropped off at the campus of the modern Univer- sity of Montana.
In front of hundreds of spectators, the boys — Carlo Christenson, Glen Ja- queth and Wilbur Zimmerman — com- peted against fellow athletes from Mon- tana’s 20 accredited high schools in an historic event unlike anything ever seen in Big Sky Country.
The inaugural Interscholastic Meet on May 19-20, 1904, marked the first statewide track and field competition. It launched a rich tradition that still shines
Mary Lalum, a standout track athlete for the upstart Flathead Timberettes track team in the ‘60s.
COURTESY FLATHEAD HIGH SCHOOL
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