Lady Panthers fourth at State C Meet

The Saco and Whitewater Track and Field teams competed at the 2022 State B and C Track Meet at Great Falls High School's Memorial Stadium last Friday, May 27, through Saturday, May 28.

The Saco Lady Panthers was the top-scoring team amongst all Phillips County Schools. The Lady Panthers were fourth overall with a total of 52 points. Plentywood won the meet with 74 points, Manhattan Christian was second with 65.5 points, Seeley Swan was third with 52 points, Belt was fifth with 32 points, Savage was sixth with 27 points, Scobey was seventh with 23 points, and Fairview was eighth with 21 points.

The Whitewater Lady Penguins were fourteenth with 11 points and the lone Phillips County boy, Saco's Blaine Downing scored eight points and tied for nineteenth place in the boys' meet.

SACO

Downing took home second place in the boys' pole vault after clearing a new personal best of 13-6. His previous best was 12-6, a height he cleared at the 2022 3C District meet earlier this month.

The Panther girls were led by sophomore Teagan Erickson who scored 24 points individually and won high jump for the second year in a row, after clearing 5-4.

"It is pretty unreal," T. Erickson told the PCN after the event. "There are a lot of good jumpers this year, so just to be there at the top again is a lot of fun."

After winning the event, T. Erickson went for the Class C State Meet record. She attempted to clear 5-7.75, a height that would've eclipsed Michele Candyke's (of Chester) 5-7.50 set in 2000.

"It was a little scary, I am not going to lie," T. Erickson said. "I have never jumped 5-7 before or anything higher than 5-6, so almost being at 5-8 was a little nerve-racking."

T. Erickson was also second in triple jump by clearing 35-5.50, third in long jump with a leap of 16-11.75, and ninth in javelin with a throw of 114-2.

"It was pretty good," T. Erickson said of long jump. "I started off a little slow, but in finals, I had my best jump. I had one jump and all it takes is one jump."

Senior Jaycee Erickson scored 12 points for Saco and was second in javelin with a throw of 127-0.

"I am really happy," J. Erickson said. "I am just having fun because it is my last year, so I am just trying to enjoy every moment with my sister, with our track team, and family."

J. Erickson led the event until Superior's Sorren Reese threw a best of 128-4 in the second to last throw.

Jaycee's last throw looked as if it would go past Reese's throw but fell short after the measure confirmed her throw of 127-0.

"That last throw was really fun and exciting because all of my family was really excited and cheering," J. Erickson said. "They were giving me claps and hugs. It was awesome. I feel really good about it. It was a good way to end the season."

J. Erickson also took fourth in pole vault by tying her season's best of 9-6.

The short relay team, consisting of J. Erickson, eighth-grader Ireland Mears, T. Erickson, and sophomore Josie Brown, took fourth place with a team-best of 52.67 seconds. The four improved on the school record for the third time this year.

"I feel fantastic, I am not going to lie," Brown said. "That was a really good way to end the season. I think we really pulled together at the end. All of our handoffs were great, we adjusted a couple of things and our placing really shows how much work we put in this season and it turned out great."

Brown was seventh in the 200-meter dash final with a personal best of 27.02 seconds. She was sixth in the preliminary races with a time of 27.14.

Brown was also eighth in the 100 with a time of 13.16 in the final race. She qualified by posting a personal best of 13.08 in the preliminary race.

WHITEWATER

The Lady Penguins were led by freshman Shelbi LaBrie who was third in the 1600 (one mile) with a personal best of 5:22.37.

"It feels really good," LaBrie said. "It feels like all of that hard work in practice really paid off."

LaBrie stayed behind Belt's Lindsey Paulson and Seeley Swan's Sariah Maughan (both seniors) throughout most of the race.

"They are very good," LaBrie said. "I just came in thinking I would come behind (Paulson) and catch her at the end but I didn't. It was fun. They are fun to look up to. And it was fun to come in and try to beat them as a freshman."

In improving her time, she also improved upon the record that she set for Whitewater school.

"That feels good," LaBrie said.

Sophomore Paige Wasson was fourth in javelin with a throw of 120-6 in the finals.

Junior Samantha Wisher was sixth in the 3200 (two-mile) with a new personal best of 12:43.02.

Wisher was also ninth in the 1600 with a time of 5:49.65.

The long relay team consisting of Junior Kora LaBrie, sophomore Kendall Scheffelmear, S. LaBrie, and Wasson. was seventh with a time of 4:19.29. The time was a new best for the Whitewater long relay team this year by almost five seconds.

"I am really proud of us because we PR'd and I think we ran really good, but man, those 400s are killer," K. LaBrie said pointing. "They are painful, as you can see all of them (competitors laying on the ground) over there."

LaBrie said that the long relay team really wanted to come to state and set a new best by a few seconds.

"I am so glad that we were able to do that," LaBrie said.

Being that the team was the very last Phillips County team to compete at State, K. LaBrie was asked to describe the atmosphere at Memorial Stadium.

"It was really fun, really loud," Kora said. "There aren't as many people here now as there were earlier, but it was really fun being here and cheering on the other teams and athletes."

She said that she really appreciated that people weren't just cheering for their own children but for others as well.

Scheffelmear was fifteenth in triple jump with a mark set at 31-11.

The short relay team with a lineup of S. LaBrie, Wasson, Labrie, and Scheffelmear was twenty-third with a time of 59.69 seconds.