State track: Peninsula athletes take 7 individual titles, 5 relays

The Kenai Peninsula won seven individual crowns and five relay races Friday and Saturday at the state track and field meet at Dimond High School in Anchorage.

Kenai Central led the way with five individual titles in the Division II meet. Greg Fallon won the 800 meters, Hayden Hughes won the high jump, James Wright won the shot put, William Roberts won the discus and Emma Beck won the discus.

Homer’s Gracie Miotke won the 300 hurdles at Division II and also ran on the winning 400 and 1,600 relays. The Mariners girls also rose to the top of the podium in the 3,200 relay.

Seward’s Ronan Bickling stepped to the top of the Division II podium twice, winning the 100 meters and running on the winning 400 relay.

The Soldotna boys picked up a Division I victory in the boys 800 relay.

The Homer girls were second to Sitka in the girls Division II team race, while Seward was sixth, Kenai was 12th and Ninilchik tied for 18th.

Sitka also won the Division II boys title, with Kenai fourth, Seward fifth, Nikiski 12th and Homer 17th.

At Division I, the Bartlett boys notched the title, with Soldotna coming in fourth. The Chugiak girls were dominant in winning by 56 points, with Soldotna taking sixth.

Kenai Central

The Kardinals were powered by a story of redemption, a dominant throws team and a peaking leaper.

Fallon, a graduated senior, won the state 800 as a sophomore before falling to seventh in the event at state last season.

“Sophomore year, I did not expect to win,” Fallon said. “I was trying to get top three. It felt amazing.

“Junior year, I was like, ‘I gotta run it back.’ I just did not get it done at state. This feels like redemption. I’m back.”

Grace Christian’s Robbie Annett, named the Division II boys outstanding competitor, did not make it easy for Fallon.

Annett beat Fallon in every cross-country meet in the fall. When Fallon set a torrid pace in Saturday’s 800, Annett marked his every move and the two battled down the stretch — with Fallon finishing at 1 minute, 55.59 seconds, and Annett at 1:55.83.

“Robbie cooked me in cross-country,” Fallon said. “I had to get him back.

“He was right there. He’s crazy.”

Fallon said he also wanted to do the 1,600 at state, but a messed up knee kept him from entering that event at boroughs.

Annett won the 1,600 on Saturday and also the 3,200 on Friday, so the extra gas in Fallon’s tank turned out to be fortunate as he set the school record.

Graduated senior Emma Beck won the discus to take her third state title for Kenai.

The first two were in volleyball, a team sport, but Beck’s title Saturday also sounded like a team win.

Beck won the discus at 124 feet, 5 inches, while graduated senior James Wright won the shot put at 45—0 and graduated senior William Roberts won the discus at 133—9.

In the one throwing event Kenai did not win, Beck was second in the shot put with a PR of 36-6. Roberts also was sixth in the shot put at 40—1.75.

The three champs credited throws coaches Sierra Carlson, Kendall Taplin and Shawn Taplin.

“He’s really got me into throwing and he’s always been super supportive,” Beck said of Shawn Taplin. “He’s showed me the love of the sport and everyone’s really into it.”

Emma also said she’s been inspired by chasing the school record of her sister, Abby. That record is 126—5. Emma threw 126—9 at last year’s Bryan Young Invitational, but Emma’s father, Kenai principal Dan Beck, has not yet decided if he will accept that mark.

“Ellsi Miller and Willow Graham are sophomores that stayed with track to help me my senior year,” Beck said. “Just the whole throwing team is really good.”

Wright also said the throwing team helped him upset defending shot put champ Truit McCaughey of Nikiski by a half inch.

“I think it’s the school spirit that keeps us together,” he said. “Our huddle that we did gave me lots of energy and excitement.”

Wright came into this season with a PR of 35—4 before winning with a PR of 45—0.

“I got a great coach,” Wright said of Carlson.

Roberts also said being part of the team helped him. Roberts moved up to Alaska this season from Texas.

“I already knew James from my classes,” Roberts said. “He’s a pretty cool guy. It was cool to come in and hang out with the fellas.”

Like Wright, Roberts had no designs on winning state when the season started.

As a junior, Roberts never threw past 115 feet. At the region meet, he popped a massive PR of 148—7 and was able to win state with less than that.

He gave credit to the Taplins for his improvement.

“Very beginning of the season, I was not at it to win state,” Roberts said. “Halfway through the season, it all started to click.”

Kenai’s Hayden Hughes, an incoming senior, also had a big meet by winning the high jump at 5—10 on Friday, then taking second in the long jump with a new PR of 19—7.

Hughes did track for the first time this season.

“The No. 1 thing that got me into it is definitely the coaches,” Hughes said. “And my friends. My friends dragged me to the practices every day.

“They told me to just be consistent at it, and once you get to your first meet, it will start paying off. I never thought I would win state.”

Hughes took the high jump title in a jump-off with Susitna Valley’s Austin Barnard. Both missed three times at 5—10, but had taken the same number of attempts to get to that point.

Hughes went first in the jump-off and cleared 5—10, then Barnard missed.

“I knew I had to make it right there,” Hughes said. “I had a good season, but I wanted to cap it off with a victory at state.”

Kenai also got a fifth from Gage Ivy in the triple jump at 38—5, a sixth in the 110 hurdles from Matthew Krol at 18.47, a fifth from the 800 relay at 1:38.48, and a sixth from the 1,600 relay at 3:43.39.

Homer

Gracie Miotke, an incoming senior, said she was having trouble with her hip flexors all season. She managed the injury well enough for a big day a state.

Miotke scratched from her first event of the day, the 100 hurdles.

She then teamed with incoming sophomore Jaelynn Kennon, incoming senior Cassidy Carroll and incoming junior Immi Im to win the 400 relay at 52.39, just ahead of the 52.56 of Tri-Valley.

“We knew with a combined team effort that we could achieve it,” said Miotke, who ran the anchor leg.

“We were like, ‘We’ve got to run our hardest, this is state,’” Im said.

Kennon provided a big boost to the team by coming on in her freshman year. She credited the coaches for that.

Carroll, who has asthma, also came through while doing her third event in the first six events in the meet.

“It was painful,” she said.

Next, Miotke won the 300 hurdles in a new PR and school record of 45.78. The old record was by Lauren Evarts in 2016 at 46.67.

Evarts actually coached Miotke last season and Miotke told Evarts on Saturday the record had fallen.

“She was very excited,” Miotke said.

Miotke got the record from Lane 8.

“I kind of jogged prelims, because my hip was really hurting,” she said.

Miotke then finished her day by helping the Mariners defend their state title in the 1,600 relay with a time of 4:14.71.

Miotke was on the team last year, as were fellow incoming seniors Brightly Thoning and McDonough. Incoming sophomore Maddy Miotke joined the squad. Last year, 4:18.69 was the winning time.

The school record is three seconds faster than this year’s winning team, but the four are all returning and are confident they can get the school record next season.

The plan Saturday was to get a big lead because Clare Mullin, the girls Division II competitor of the year, was running the anchor leg for Sitka.

“We were like, ‘OK, we’re all gonna run really fast and get that gap for B,’” Thoning said. “But it turns out we made a really big gap.”

McDonough, who ran the anchor leg, said no gap is big enough against Mullin.

“I was terrified,” McDonough said.

The team had run a 4:24.84 at regions the week before due to a terrible handoff. They all said they are glad it happened in that meet so the team could make sure it did not happen again at state.

The Mariners also won the first event of the running finals — the 3,200 relay. The winning time was 10:32.29.

The team members were Carroll, incoming junior Claira Booz, McDonough and incoming senior Jaela Marchbanks.

Homer did not have the top seed time coming in to the meet.

“We knew we had a chance, and we just went out there and tried our best,” Booz said.

“The coaches told us we had a chance if we just believed in ourselves,” Marchbanks said.

Carroll subbed in for Natalie Keintz because Keintz had shinsplints. Carroll got Homer a lead on the first leg, then Booz expanded it.

Seward’s Juniper Ingalls caught Marchbanks on the third leg, with both Hailey Ingalls and McDonough getting the baton at the same time.

“I’ve been in that exact position before with Hailey chasing me,” McDonough said. “I just run for my life, because I know she’s fast.”

Also for Homer, Thoning was second in the high jump at 4—10 and fourth in the 400 at 1:03.69, Auden Cress was third in the discus at 106—6 and sixth in the shot put at 30—6.25, McDonough was fourth in the 800 at 2:29.03 and sixth in the 400 at 1:04.81, Booz was sixth in the 3,200 at 12:36.64, the girls 800 relay was second at 1:53.15, the boys 3,200 relay was third at 8:43.28, and the boys 800 relay was sixth at 1:39.99.

Seward

Bickling, an incoming senior, won the 100 at 11.54 seconds.

“I really wasn’t expecting that coming into the season,” Bickling said of the victory. “I made it to prelims last year at state and didn’t even make the finals.”

Seward’s school record is 11.40 and Bickling said that’s his goal next season.

“I’ve really been working on my block start,” he said. “I’ve got that figured out pretty well. It’s really just staying smooth through the transitions, with the acceleration, the top end, then staying smooth through the decel.”

Bickling, who also was second in the 200 at 23.56, joined with graduating senior Jerick Senecal, graduating senior Gideon Schrock and incoming junior Emerson Cross to win the 400 relay in a school record 45.79.

“The relays were the best part for me,” Bickling said. “Getting to win the state title on the 4-by-1 was the coolest part.”

The squad has been chasing the state title since last season, when the Seahawks were second. Schrock said all four battled injuries to get the win. All four were on the Seward football team that won the nine-man state title this season.

After Senecal ran the first leg, Bickling blasted Seward to a nice lead on the second leg. But when he yelled “Boom” to get Schrock to stick his hand back for the handoff, Schrock did not hear Bickling.

“I missed it for three strides,” Schrock said. “He kept at it and thank the Lord I got it again.”

Senecal said the handoffs were ultimately the difference.

“We have the best-looking handoffs,” he said.

The Seahawks got Cross a nice lead for the anchor leg.

“There’s always some pressure,” Cross said. “The last leg has the fastest kids most of the time.”

Also for the Seward boys, Nickolas Ambrosiani was third in the high jump at 5—8, Olin Liljemark was fourth in the high jump at 5—6, Schrock was fourth in the 400 at 52.92, the 800 relay was third in 1:35.84, the 1,600 relay was third in 3:38.65, and the 3,200 relay was sixth in 9:27.55.

For the Seward girls, Robin Cronin was fourth in the high jump at 4—8 and fourth in the triple jump at 31—11.25; Hailey Ingalls was fourth in the 3,200 at 12:20.37, sixth in the 1,600 at 5:40.55 and sixth in the 800 at 2:31.93; Regan Seibert was fifth in the 400 at 1:04.40; Maddie Haas was fifth in the 300 hurdles at 50.32; the 3,200 relay was second at 10:34.51; the 400 relay was third at 53.34; and the 1,600 relay was fifth at 4:34.35.

Soldotna

The Stars are the only spring sports team on the Kenai Peninsula that competes with the big schools at state events.

That means it can take something extra to win a state title, and the boys 800 relay came up with exactly that, breaking a school record that goes all the way back to the time of Joel Knight, who in 1995 set the still-standing state meet record in the 200 at 21.90.

“The competition is real, and this is the best state track meet I’ve seen in the last 10 years,” Soldotna head coach Phil Leck said.

Incoming senior Wyatt Faircloth, graduating senior Jeren Nash, incoming junior Tyce Escott and graduating senior Leigh Tacey II ran 1:31.09 to all win their first state titles.

The big news was Tacey II returning to the track. He said he was out of the region meet due to injuries sustained in a dirt-bike accident.

Soldotna went on to win the region titles for girls and boys anyway.

“The Soldotna team’s definitely the strongest out here,” Faircloth said. “We all love each other, man. We’re family.”

Added Nash: “We’re not the most talented, but we definitely work hard.”

Tacey II could not run any individual events at state track because he missed the region meet. But he was an alternate on relays at regions, meaning he could run relays at state.

“I wasn’t going to let anything stop me from it,” Tacey II said. “They said I likely wouldn’t injure myself anymore. It would just hurt really bad.

“I said, ‘I’m ready to run.’”

SoHi head coach Phil Leck started working Tacey II into the relays this week. Leck decided to run Tacey II in the 400, 800 and 1,600 relays the day of the meet, and said it was as risky of a choice as he’s made in his career.

“He knows he’s not 100%,” Leck said of Tacey II. “But he wanted to be out here and he deserved the right to be out here.”

The team gave Escott credit for opening up most of the lead that a confident Tacey II took to the final 200 meters.

“We were going to win,” he said. “There’s no way we would have lost.”

Tacey II and Nash teamed with fellow graduating senior Gabriel Almeida and incoming senior James Innes to take third in the 1,600 relay at 3:30.29 and take down a school record set last season.

Innes, graduating senior Elijah Jedlicki, incoming junior Ethan Anding and graduating senior Finnley Loop finished second in the 3,200 relay in 8:12.46 to break a 2015 school record.

The group went back and forth with Dimond all race before losing by less than a second.

“They were gunners today,” Leck said. “They didn’t run scared and that was awesome.”

There were several other measures of the competition Soldotna was facing.

Incoming senior Anaulie Sedivy ran a 47.91 last season to take the state title in the 300 hurdles, then ran 47.70 on Saturday to PR and take third.

The girls 400 relay team ran the fifth fastest time in school history and placed sixth in the race.

“Any of our kids that make the state finals, in all honesty, is a big accomplishment,” Leck said.

The SoHi boys also got a second in shot put from Kevin Steger at 47—8.25, a third in the 300 hurdles at 41.61 from Faircloth, a fourth in the 300 hurdles at 42.30 from Almeida, a fifth in the 110 hurdles at 16.22 from William Klein and a sixth in the 100 at 11.53 from Andon Wolverton.

Sarah Brown finished fourth in the 100 at 13.06 and sixth in the 200 at 27.51 for the SoHi girls.

The Stars also got a third in the shot put from Meg Roberts at 34—.5, a fifth in the discus from Juliet Innes at 106—3, a fifth in the 100 hurdles from Angelina Chavarria at 17.44, a second in the 1,600 relay, a fourth in the 800 relay and a fourth in the 3,200 relay.

Nikiski

The Bulldogs were led by a second in the shot put at 44—11.5 and a sixth in the discus at 109—7 from graduating senior Truit McCaughey.

In his second last throw in his attempt to defend his state shot put title, McCaughey uncorked a toss that went nearly 50 feet, but was just out-of-bounds.

Incoming sophomore Ryder Maguire finished sixth in the 800 at 2:04.38.

Ninilchik

Graduating senior Adelyn McCorison got the Wolverines on the board with a seventh in 1:04.81 in the 400.

Soldotna

Division II state track and field meet

Friday, Saturday at Dimond High School

GIRLS

Team scores: 1. Chugiak, 133; 2. South, 77; 3. Dimond, 76; 4. Colony, 48; 5 (tie). West, Soldotna, 42; 7. Juneau-Douglas: Yadaa.at Kale, 39; 8. Palmer, 26; 9 (tie). Lathrop, Eagle River, 24; 11. East, 12; 12. West Valley, 11; 13 (tie). Wasilla, Service, 7; 15. Ketchikan, 5; 16. Kodiak, 4; 17. North Pole, 1.

Sportsmanship award — Seward.

Academic award — Seward.

Outstanding competitor — Clare Mullin, Sitka.

BOYS

Team scores: 1. Bartlett, 75; 2. Chugiak, 61; 3. South, 52; 4. Soldotna, 48; 5. Juneau, 43; 6. Ketchikan, 39; 7 (tie). Kodiak, West Valley, 37; 9. Colony, 35; 10. West, 34; 11. East, 31; 12. Eagle River, 26; 13. Dimond, 23; 14. North Pole, 11; 15. Service, 10; 16. Lathrop, 8; 17. Wasilla, 3; 18. Thunder Mountain, 2.

Sportsmanship award — Sitka.

Academic award — Tri-Valley.

Outstanding competitor — Robbie Annett, Grace Christian.

Division II state track and field meet

Friday, Saturday at Dimond High School

GIRLS

Team scores: 1. Sitka, 94.5; 2. Homer, 76; 3. Grace Christian, 63; 4. Tri-Valley, 63; 5. Mountain City Christian Academy, 56; 6. Seward, 40; 7. Redington, 39; 8. Monroe Catholic, 28; 9. Unalakleet, 27; 10 (tie). Valdez, Delta Junction, 20; 12. Kenai Central, 19; 13. Su Valley, 13; 14 (tie). Gustavus, Haines, 6; 16. Eielson, 4; 17. Lumen Christi, 2; 18 (tie). Ninilchik, Houston, 1; 20. Hutchison, .5.

Sportsmanship award — West.

Academic award — Soldotna.

Outstanding competitor — Alliyah Fields, Chugiak.

BOYS

Team scores: 1. Sitka, 127.5; 2. Grace, 66; 3. MCCA, 63; 4. Kenai, 60; 5. Seward, 54.5; 6. Valdez, 33; 7. Monroe, 30; 8. Petersburg, 23; 9. Su Valley, 20; 10. Tri-Valley, 19; 11. Delta Junction, 17; 12. Nikiski, 12; 13. Redington, 10.5; 14. Nome, 10; 15. Hutchison, 9.5; 16 (tie). Haines, Homer, 9; 18. Bethel, 4; 19. Holy Rosary Academy, 1.

Sportsmanship award — Juneau.

Academic award — Wasilla.

Outstanding competitor — A’Lante Owens-Player, Bartlett.