Glasgow Girls Take Third in Baker

The Glasgow girls track team took nine spots in the top six at the Baker Invitational meet to amass 52 points and a third place finish. Baker took first with 74 and Colstrip claimed second with 60. The boys side took 10 spots on the podium for 38 points and a seventh place finish. The Scottie boys came in behind Sidney, 86; Dawson County, 85; Wolf Point, 64; Custer County, 64; Richey-Lambert, 58 and Fairview, 49.

"We had a pretty good day in Baker. It was a day where we did some experimenting with different events with a lot of our kids, but we still saw a lot of them set some personal best marks," said head coach Tim Phillips. He lauded his distance runners on the girls side, saying the distance crew performed strongly after a hard week of practice.

Iris McKean again claimed top spot in the 1600 meter run, while Emily See notched a third-place finish. McKean set a season record with her time of 5:44.43 while See set a personal record, finishing in 5:55.40. See ran the 3200 in 12:47.05 to take second place in the distance event. Phillips noted that McKean and See also experimented in a couple of shorter races, while Kat Malnaa set a PR in the 1600, knocking about 10 seconds off her time.

"See and McKean teamed up with Samantha Tryan and Ava Lloyd in the 4x400 relay event, claiming sixth place with a time of 4:44.55. "We're also changing things around in the relays, trying to get different girls some experience," Phillips explained. Tryan also ran on the 4x100 relay team, with Blaire Westby, Kira Beck and Tyann Graham. They claimed second place with a season record time of 54.69.

He'lena Stulc finished the 400 meter race in 1:08.81 to finish in sixth place. Westby took third in both the 100 meter and 200 meter events, with times of 13.61 (PR) and 28.77 (SR). "In the sprints, we've been working a lot on form, and that is starting to pay off a bit. Blaire is closing the gap on the girls in front of her, and He'lena took a half second off her 100m time with a little extra work we did in the blocks this week," Phillips told the Courier.

In the field events, Kira Beck was the only Scottie to place in the top six – setting a PR of 8' in the pole vault for third place – but Phillips is not discouraged, noting a number of his athletes improved notably. "Raelee Dowden had a personal best in everything she did on Saturday, so that was fun to see in the throws. Emma [Whitmer] and Ava also had some of their best throws of the year," he enthused. "Both Eve [Stone] and Kira had really good pole vault days, and Eve had a PR in the long jump too. Tyann, who is a work horse for us in so many events, set a triple jump PR and scratched a couple that were a LOT farther."

Phillips concluded about the team, "To get third in Baker while doing a lot of experimenting, I was very happy with the girls' efforts!"

On the boys' side, Stephen Bailey claimed the only first-place finish for Glasgow, clearing 11'6 in the pole vault. Ted Tryan was second at 11' and Colter Cumber took fourth after clearing 10'. Jared Barlow cleared his first height of the season in Baker.

"The javelin boys continue to throw well – Tatum [Hansen] set a new personal best and Beau [Malnaa] had a great debut at 113 feet," Phillips said. Mason Donaldson placed sixth in the event with a throw of 125'5. Dalton Sand set a PR in the shot put while Sam Rodriguez turned in a nice discus PR according to Phillips. Bergen Miller placed sixth in the discus with his throw of 121'10.

The boys' 4x400 relay team of Blake Lloyd, Reed Larsen, Hansen and Sand placed fourth with a time of 3:55.31. Sand also placed fourth in the 800 meter run (2:09.87) and sixth in the 400 meter run (55.73). "On the track, Fynn [Sukut] is starting to get stronger in the hurdles. He's got great form – now we are just working on strength and speed. And things are starting to come together," Phillips said of the junior who took fourth in the 110 hurdles with a time of 18.79.

"As a whole, we still have a ways to go for the sprints. It's usually an upperclassman's game and very hard to do well as a freshman or sophomore," Phillips explained about his team's growth. "But both the boys and girls are really starting to get faster. We've purposely started our progression very carefully and are hoping to work the peak by post season. All the sprinters in the 100, 200 and 400m set personal bests on Saturday. Part of that was that it was a really nice day. But they are also becoming more cognizant of form."

In the boys distance events, Carl Zabrocki was Scottie who made the top six. He earned a point for Glasgow by finishing the 3200 meter run in 11:17.71. Though he did not earn any points for Glasgow, a sophomore Scottie earned high praise from his coach. "The breakout performance of the day had to be from Reed Larsen. We've known he would be pretty good in the 400/800 range. But he really showed us something in both the 100 and 200m, and had a great kick in the last 100m of the 1600," raved Phillips. "He put in a lot of work this winter, both in the weight room and out on the roads, so it's good to see that paying off!"

The Scotties are nursing some nagging injuries, but have avoided any season-ending incidents thus far. Despite the weather, Phillips is predicting some quality days of practice this week in anticipation of Glasgow's next meet, with the intent of hitting their first peak of the season on Saturday, April 24, in Sidney. "If we have a nice day there, I'm looking forward to some really good performances from both the boys and girls."