Contributed photo
At the end of a long day full of near misses, the Kamiah 4x400 crew left no room for doubt, beating out Nampa Christian’s relay unit by nearly four seconds.
Andrew Ottoson - sports/outdoors reporter
May 24, 2011
Grangeville results
BOISE -- On the strength of senior hurler Megan DeFord's twin titles, the Grangeville girls team took third place in the 2A state track and field championships May 20-21 in Boise. DeFord dominated both the shot put and the discus in the last event of her high school career. She will take her talents to Cornell this fall.
"We kind of expected her to win both, but it's the state meet and sometimes luck enters into it," head coach Larson Anderson said. "She hasn't had too much luck the last few years, but we're very proud of her."
As a team, Grangeville scored 69.5 points and, Anderson said, "We were battling for second until Gooding's 800 girls gave them enough that we wouldn't be able to catch them."
Gooding finished with 85 and Nampa Christian won the team title with 127.
GHS junior Megan Sullivan took the 200-meter dash title after placing third in the 400. She placed second in the 100.
"She was probably fifth out of the blocks in the 100 and started passing people and probably could have won it with a better start," Anderson said. "Her dad [Pat Sullivan], Les Loeber and I were all thinking after the 400 she might not run the 200. But there ended up being almost an hour between, and that was enough, obviously."
He pointed out that the 2010 3A 200 state champion ended up fourth in this year's hypercompetitive 2A 200.
"If you look at the kids in that race, those are four of the top runners in the state," he said.
Fellow junior Sheyenne Stewart placed fourth in the 300-meter hurdles and fifth in the 100-meter hurdles.
"Sheyenne is a very good hurdler who works very hard in practice and has become a very good sprinter," Anderson said. "She's a very talented track athlete."
Senior Lexie Adams tied for fifth in the pole vault.
"One word describes Lexie Adams: competitor. The pole vault didn't turn out as well as she'd hoped, but she did very well in the relays," Anderson said.
Three Grangeville relays also scored team points: the 4x100 crew (Stewart, Adams, Hannah Didier and Sullivan) placed third, the 4x400 group (Kylie Brown, Adams, Didier and Nicole Solberg) placed fifth and the 4x200 group (Stewart, Solberg, Adams and Brown) placed sixth.
The Grangeville boys placed seventh, with sophomore Juston Lindsley's first-place throw in the discus providing nearly a quarter of the team's points. Lindsley also placed fourth in the 200.
"For a sophomore, he showed a lot of maturity," Anderson said. "The discus was a back-and-forth thing, each guy upping the other, and Juston competed very well."
Junior Seth Dreadfulwater placed third in the triple jump.
"He injured an ankle playing basketball and didn't jump much throughout the season," Anderson said. "He was seeded ninth going in, and we think he may be capable of going 44-46 feet in the triple jump, which would be enough to win easily."
Senior Kade Roach placed third in the shot put, and fellow seniors Joe Anderson and Stuart Rau placed fifth in the 400 and sixth in the 800, respectively.
"Kade was kind of a surprise, PRing by a foot and a half this late in the season," Larson Anderson said. "We're all very happy for him."
He said Joe Anderson also set a personal best in his last race. "He finally broke 52 seconds, and getting to the 51s is something he's been working for...an excellent finish to his season, for sure."
Larson Anderson said Rau's heart, determination and hard work helps him carry a full back's frame alongside guys half his size.
Grangeville's relays placed third in the 4x100 (Anderson, Quaid Blankenship, Dreadfulwater and Lindsley) and seventh in the 4x400 (Anderson, Silas Connolley, Brian Gilmore and Lindsley).
"We thought, girls and boys both, in the 4x1 relay, we could get championships," he said. "Both PR'd, but it was just not quite fast enough."
Kamiah results
BOISE -- Jack Nygaard had a brilliant day at the 2A boys track and field championships, but missed out on a state title in the 300 hurdles by a hundredth of a second and suffered a similar fate in the 110 hurdles, in which he placed fourth. He was stung again by a disqualification in the 4x200 relay, but ascended to the top spot with the boys 4x400, along with Eric Hill, Danny Millward and Kevin Hill.
Eric Hill also placed third in the 800-meter run.
Sophomore pole vaulter Tucker Medel placed first in Kamiah's signature event. He was joined on the podium by Justin Lloyd, who placed third. Jacob Lloyd tied for 10th.
Spencer Crane placed fourth in the discus.
Kamiah's sprint medley placed second.
For the girls team, sophomore Brianna Ballantyne scored the only point with a 96-foot throw in the discus.
1A girls results
BOISE -- Junior Makayla Schaeffer placed second in both the long jump and the triple jump, returned to the podium with Prairie's second-place 4x200 team and had more than enough left to kick out the anchor leg of the winning 4x400 relay. It was enough to lift the Pirates into a tie for eighth place among the 39 teams that scored.
Clearwater Valley senior Felicia Kolb placed second in the pole vault and fourth in the high jump, while fellow senior Tisha Reuben took second in the shot put.
1A boys results
BOISE -- Prairie senior Brock Heath placed second in the 1,600-meter run, third in the 3,200 and helped his squad to seventh in the sprint medley.
Clearwater Valley senior Eugene Heavy Runner placed second in the triple jump and fifth in the 800-meter run.
Salmon River senior Eric Klobetanz placed sixth in the 3,200 and eighth in the 800.
