Whitewater shows numbers and promise

Kourtney Simonson fared well in her 2014 debut, winning her flight of the 800 meter run and placing second overall with a time of 2:35.84 at the 2014 Glasgow Invitational last Saturday. The meet featured 13 class B and C schools.

“I was really not looking forward to it, because I know how hard of a race it is to run,” said Ky. Simonson. “It was my first one of the year, but I’m glad I came out and got the time that I did. It’s a good starting point of the season.”

Through she did well in the event, she knows that there is a major part of the event she needs to improve.

“My first lap, I needed it a little bit faster,” she said. “Usually you want your first lap to be faster than your second lap because it gets your started.”

She scored all 20 of the girls points, which was good enough to lift the team to seventh place of 13 schools.

Simonson also placed third in the 400 dash with a time of 1:05.72. She also placed fourth in long jump with a 13’11” effort and fifth in the triple jump with a length of 29’1”.

The boys team was led by Jeret Warren who scored all six of the boys points in the meet.

Warren started off in high gear in the 1600 placing third in the event with a time of 5:14.8.

“For my first meet I think I did fairly good and exceeded my expectations,” said Jeret Warren.

Last year Warren finished at 5:42 in his first meet and ended the year with a 4:55, a 47 second difference. This year he finished at 5:14 in his first meet. If he could chop 47 seconds off that time as he did last year, he would be looking at a 4:27 time.

One thing that is slowing Warren is a turf toe injury, which is a hyper-extension of the big toe. Warren typically would participate in the 3200 as well, but he may need some time before he tackles that event.

Whitewater has added quite a few athletes in their crew, including two foreign exchange students, including Anastaysia Ivanchenko who shared her thoughts on her first track meet with the PCN.

“I am nervous, but I saw guys jumping long jumps and I am confident now because it looked so fun,” Ivanchenko said. “They were falling on their butt and it was funny.”

Ivanchenko has never participated in track events in her native county Ukraine, but she looked like a regular, placing twelfth out of 21 students in the 100 meter dash with a time of 15.33.

Junior Keira Simonson saw her first track and field action after tearing her meniscus and ACL in a seventh grade track meet. She feels she fared well considering.

“It was alright, but I was really nervous,” Keira told the PCN.

She is hoping that her best event will be the 100 meter dash an event that she placed eight, meaning she wasn’t far from placing in the top rankings. Her time of 15.03 was a decent time and was fourth among C school athletes in the event.

The next meet Whitewater will attend will be the Cal Wearley event in Havre, hosted by Norstar today. Over 30 C schools will be in attendance. Saturday the team will go back to Havre to attend the Havre Invitational, the meet will feature A, B, and C schools and will start around 9.

Whitewater will show nothing but improvement as athletes will be added to their rankings over the next couple of meets.

One key contributor may be junior Larimie Scheffelmear, who at nearly 6 feet has shown a great amount of athleticism in every sport she has played including basketball and volleyball.