Salsbery, Tuss place at State B

The Malta Mustangs Track and Field team 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.

As a team, the Mustangs were thirteenth out of 26 teams. Jefferson won the meet with 92 points. Loyola-Sacred Heart was second with 69 points, Bigfork was third with 66 points, Broadwater was fourth with 42 points, Red Lodge was fifth with 37 points, Columbus was sixth with 26.5 points, and Glasgow tied with Manhattan for seventh with 20 points.

The Mustangs were led by senior Cash Salsbery who took second in shot put with a personal best of 52-7. He reached the podium for the second year in a row. He was third in the event last year.

"I am proud of myself," Salsbery said. "I have done a lot to get here. It's been a long road and I am excited for this next one."

Salsbery will be attending the University of Montana Western to play football this fall.

His mark of 52-7 was achieved on the first throw of the event. Though his mark held up through the preliminaries but it was overtaken by Jefferson senior Wade Rykal who posted a pair of throws over 53 feet and a best of 53-11.75.

Salsbery was unable to reach the finals in discus after taking thirteenth in the preliminaries with a throw of 114-6.

"I was really sick yesterday," Salsbery said. "I always get too pumped up for discus and I don't do as well because discus is one of those events that you have to be calm, but I'm just one of those high adrenaline guys."

Senior Connor Tuss had been a First Team All-Conference quarterback for Malta's football team, but his last throw in his high school career was a personal best 163-4 in the finals of boys javelin. The mark earned Tuss a fourth-place medal.

"It feels pretty good," Tuss said. "The last time ever getting to throw the jav and I had nothing else to lose. So, I just knew to come out and give it my all."

He had a throw of 156-0 in the preliminary round. His previous best was 154-3.

"I knew it came down to whether I wanted to place or not," Tuss said. "I just had to grip and rip."

Tuss was also sixteenth in long jump with a leap of 18-8.50. He was eighteenth in triple jump after posting a mark of 37-6.25. He did not clear any height in high jump.

Senior David Pitman was close to reaching the podium after a seventh-place finish in discus. He had a throw of 132-5.

Pitman was eleventh in shot put with a put of 41-10, just missing out on the finals. He was also twenty-first in javelin with a throw of 128-2.

The short relay team consisting of Salsbery, sophomore Kyle Darrington, freshman Ivan Lefdahl, and sophomore Gavin Slade was seventh with a season's best of 45.32 in the finals. The team qualified for the finals by taking seventh in the prelims with a time of 45.40.

Darrington was ninth in the 400 with a personal best of 52.45 seconds. He was also seventeenth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 24.25 seconds and twenty-second in the 100 with a time of 12.07.

The long relay consisting of Slade, Jon Siewing, Seth Siewing, and Darrington was eighteenth with a time of 3:45.86.

Slade was nineteenth in the 100 after posting a time of 11.91 seconds. Slade was twentieth in javelin with a throw of 129-4.