Smith places in three events for Malta

The track season came to an end last Saturday, May 26, at the 2018 State B Track & Field meet in Laurel.

The M-ettes scored a total of 8.33 points which gave them seventeenth place amongst the Women's teams. The Mustangs failed to reach the boards in this year's State meet, however, Coach Tad Schye is proud of the effort shown by his team.

"I thought we competed well," Coach Schye said. "We are very young, so I thought we had a very good state track meet. Things are going to get better for these guys."

Malta's Erica Smith was Malta's lone placer, reaching the podium in three events. Smith took third in triple jump with a personal best of 34-09.75, only falling .25 out of a possible first-place finish. Kendall Lynn of Three Forks and Kamille Reynolds of Huntley Project both tied in terms of distance for first place, both leaving a mark at 34-10.

"She had a great state meet," Coach Schye said.

Smith took fifth place in long jump having left a mark at 16-3, a new personal best. Smith also took sixth place in high jump after clearing 4-10.

The M-ettes have had plenty of success in jumping events in recent history, something that Coach Schye credits to the athletes past and present who have competed.

"It's the kids," Coach Schye said. "We are fortunate that we have very competitive kids and kids that are athletic and they are also coachable, but its a tribute to the kids themselves."

The complete totals for the Class B State Track Meet were unavailable on the Montana High School Association website as well as athletic.net. The PCN will report on the finals for each athlete for Malta if and when the full totals are made available in next week's PCN.

Though the final placings past sixth place were unavailable, Coach Schye knew several distances, and one thing remained true, many of those times and distances were personal bests.

"The level of competition and at state they are on a faster running surface but Malta kids tend to compete better at state, whereas sometimes people don't because they are intimidated and our kids tend to rise to the occasion."