Page 62 - Flathead Beacon // 5.27.2015

62 | MAY 27, 2015
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eading up to her final cham- pionship race in high school, Makena Morley ditched her regular warm-up routine. In- stead she wore a soaking-wet,
cold sweatshirt while her father poured ice down her back, trying to drop her core temperature and solve the plasma and iron issues that had plagued her all spring.
The grimace on her face as she raced around the track was unfamiliar for a runner who had breezed to multiple state titles over the past four years.
“I was hurting. I thought I might have to stop and hop off the track, but I told myself, ‘No Makena, you can’t. You have to finish,’” she said.
She certainly didn’t need another championship to cement her legacy as one of the greatest distance runners in Montana history.
But she won one anyways.
The star distance runner blazed through the finish line of the 3,200-me- ter run at Saturday’s state champion- ship track meet in near-record fashion, 10:37.76, only two seconds off the Class B state record set by Chiara Warner in 2013.
It would have marked a storybook ending to an amazing prep career, except Makena followed up with yet another as- tonishing performance in the final race of the meet. The Bigfork girls long relay team — Makena and Bryn Morley, Matti- son McAnally and Haile Norred — broke the Class B state record with a winning time of 4:01.71, a whopping two seconds better than Plentywood’s 1999 time.
The relay victory helped the Bigfork girls earn second place as a team just be- hind Plains, which won its third consec- utive Class B team championship with 115 points behind three-time winner Hailey Phillips. Bigfork, with three indi- vidual champs, scored 110 and claimed second place for the second year in a row.
“All those girls, I’m so proud of them,” Makena said. “The season has been tough and to have them believe in me has meant so much.”
CLASS AA
The state championship track meet in Kalispell was defined by gutsy, awe- inspiring performances like Morley’s.
The Flathead Braves achieved home- town glory and tied for the Class AA state championship with Helena. The two teams scored 83 points apiece. Gla- cier earned a third-place trophy with 49.
The Braves won a share of their first state track championship since 2003 and eighth overall.
No doubt this was a special one as Flathead won on its home track for the first time in history.
“I honestly didn’t think we could pull it off,” longtime head coach Dan Hodge said. “I told the kids Thursday, if we scored 60 points we would get a trophy. We scored 83. We had some kids who really performed well today. Yesterday we had some downers but they turned it around. That’s what it’s about — per-
SPORTS
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Glacier’s Annie Hill leads Christina Aragon through the first lap of the 1600-meter run. Aragon beat Hill to win the Class AA title. Hill won the 3200-meter run ahead of Aragon and helped the Glacier girls earn a second-place team trophy. GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
forming when you need the points. They did a great job.”
Senior Jess Beaman bounced back after placing fifth in the long jump on Friday to win the triple jump, leaping 43-10.5.
“It was a bummer in the long jump but it fueled me more to push it today,” Beaman said.
Beaman placed fifth in the long jump on Friday and also placed third in the discus. Teammate Keaton Krantz earned third in the long jump and Josh McCracken earned fourth in the discus.
Junior Jake Perrin, in his first full year of track, listened to the strategy of his older brother Zach — a former state champion distance runner at Flathead — and claimed his own gold medal in the 1,600-meter run. Perrin outkicked Isaac Petsch of Billings West in the final stretch to win in 4:21.17. Flathead senior Sylas Schutt earned third, 4:24.62.
“It was painful but I knew it would have been a lot more painful to try less hard on the last lap and get second or third,” Perrin said.
Perrin finished second in the 3,200 and Schutt was third.
Bram Booth contributed solid points for Flathead in the javelin, placing sec- ond with a throw of 181-3. Chade Gonter earned fifth in the 110 hurdles a day after winning the high jump with a leap of 6-3.
The Glacier boys earned a third- place team trophy in front of the home- town crowd due to several standout per- formances.
The short relay team — Scout Will- cut, Riley Connell, Cain Boschee, Aar- on Robinson — started Saturday with a
bang, winning the state title in 42.57, a personal best for the second day in a row after a solid preliminary race.
“Helena beat us at divisionals but we knew we could throw down against them,” Willcut said.
Boschee placed in both sprint events, earning fourth in the 200 and sixth in the 100. Robinson added a third-place medal in the 110 hurdles.
On Friday, Austin Cook took gold in the long jump, hitting 22-1.75 and Brock Sandry contributed with a fifth-place
finish in the 3,200.
The Glacier girls earned second
place, the team’s best finish since the school opened in 2007.
“It’s bittersweet but the best finish in Glacier history — I’ll take second place,” girls head coach Jerry Boschee said. “We have a lot of kids back and something to build on.”
It came down to the final race for the Glacier girls. The Wolfpack trailed Bill- ings Senior by 0.5 points entering the long relay, but Christina Aragon and the
Bigfork’s Makena Morley added one more championship to her peerless resume by winning the 3200-meter run in a time of 10:37.76. GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON