Porcupines Play Host In Wolf Point

As Nashua hosted their meet in Wolf Point, it was a Lady Raider who stole the show.

Staying true to Hinsdale’s moniker, Bethany Lacock raided the Porcupine Invitational for 40 individual points, the meet high, carrying the Lady Raiders to a sixth-place finish on Saturday, the best of any Valley County girls’ squad. Lacock scored four golds, taking the top spot in the 300-meter hurdles, pole vault, high jump and triple jump. Lacock finished in 52.7 seconds in the hurdles, vaulted 7- 0 in the pole vault, leaped 4- 10 in the high jump and bounded 33- 0 in the triple jump.

Courtney Capdeville and Whitney Molina backed Lacock with nine points between the two of them to give the Lady Raiders 49 points on the day. Capdeville took fifth in the 300 hurdles, with a time of 59.5, and was third in the pole vault, with a mark of 6- 6. Molina, competing in her first high-school track meet, grabbed fifth in the 800 with a time of 3:10.7. Molina also just missed placing in the javelin and discus.

On the boys’ side, Nashua put on the best performance of Valley County schools, taking fifth with 56 points. 

“I had a couple of pretty good individual performances with kids PRing,” said Head Coach Mark Kloker. 

Lane Nickels was the big scorer for the Porcupines, tallying 20 points on the day by taking the top spot in the 800 and the 1,600. Nickels set a personal record (PR) in the mile by over ten seconds, finishing in 5:01. Nick Skyberg, though not placing, also set a PR for the ‘Pines in the mile, scratching 20 seconds off his time. Skyberg followed that performance with a sixth in the 3,200, finishing in 13:29.

Jordan Keys rounded out the PRs for the Porcupines, knocking 1.5 seconds off his time in the 110 hurdles, finishing in 21.5 seconds, good enough for fifth and two points.

Ryan Padden was the second-highest scorer for the Porcupines, scoring eight points by grabbing fourth in the 200 and the 400. Finally, coming off a performance last week in Malta that left Sean Bengochea only seven inches short of a school record in the discus, Bengochea was once again impressive in the event, taking second with a toss of 125- 0. 

The relays finished off the scoring for the Porcupines. The 4X100 team took fifth and the 4X400 squad was fourth.

The Hinsdale boys were the next best for Valley County schools with 27 points. Dallas Capdeville headed that effort with a pair of golds.

Capdeville was tops in the 300 hurdles with a time of 46.4 and in the pole vault with a leap of 12- 0, easily outdistancing Fairview’s Alex Taylor’s mark of 10- 6. Finishing in 12:01, Brett Johnson backed Capdeville with a first in the 3,200. 

The Lady Porcupines were the second-best Valley County girls’ squad, tallying 16 points and finishing in 10th.

As expected, the throwing events were the Lady Porcupines’ strength. They placed in all three, and took two spots in both the javelin and discus. Faith Keys took sixth in both the shot put (28- 9) and the discus (77- 10). Keys was at her best in the javelin, though, taking bronze with a toss of 97- 5, inching out Natasha Chamberlain, who threw 91- 8 for fifth. Madison Sibley was able to best Keys in the discus for fifth with a heave of 29- 8. Sibley was also the lone placer for the Lady Porcupines outside of the throwing events. She was fourth in the 300 hurdles with a time of 58.8.

The Lady Lions of Lustre Christian were represented by Gabby Pierre, who took sixth in the 200 with a time of 30.9. The boys had a pair of placers for Lustre, TIm Lenihan’s fifth-place leap of 5- 4 in the high jump and their sixth-place time of 51.0 in the 4X100 relay.