Daily Sitka Sentinel

Track Runners Shatter School Relay Record

By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor

Sitka High runners cracked a relay record and many notched personal records in the last regular season track and field meet of the season last weekend in Juneau.

Overall, Sitka’s girls took first place against other Southeast teams and the boys squad took second place. The girls edged out Juneau-Douglas by a single point in the team score, 112 to 111. The third place team, Thunder Mountain, was far behind at 63 points. Juneau-Douglas won the boys meet by a handy margin, 121 points to Sitka’s 71. Haines took third with 68 points.

In recent years, the Lady Wolves’ runners have emerged as a powerhouse. In the 4x800 meter relay on Saturday, they reaffirmed that status. Working in tight coordination, Tawny Smith, Anna Prussian, Maitlin Young, and Emma Gassman took first place in the longest relay and shattered Sitka High’s 17-year-old record by 12 seconds with a new time of 10:24.42.

While Smith and Prussian are seasoned runners, 2021 is the first ever track season for Young and Gassman.

“That was my first meet ever, too,” Gassman told the Sentinel before practice on Monday. “It’s just really cool because I was running with Tawny, Anna, and Maitlin, who are all really good and experienced in running. So they all gave me what I could expect and how it will feel, so I was more prepared but I wasn’t prepared enough. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be… The second lap especially was really what just kind of killed me.”

Runners compete in the 1600 meter race, Saturday in Juneau. On the inside from the left, Wolves Tawny Smith, Anna Prussian, Emma Gassman, and Alyssa Henshaw race. (Photo provided by Klas Stolpe/KINY)

A sophomore, Gassman is already a noteworthy swimmer on the Wolves team, but she didn’t have a chance to run track in 2020 as the burgeoning pandemic canceled the season.

In Juneau, Gassman also took fifth place in the two-mile event. It was her first time ever running that event.

Looking back on the remarkable relay, junior Tawny Smith said that the runners went in with a positive mindset.

“It was super exciting. Well prior to the race we had been talking… Everyone was definitely in the right mindset, super amped up to get it,” Smith recalled.

While this season is shorter than a typical track season, Smith added that the team has trained hard, and the results are showing.

“Even just looking at times in the state… looking at them from two years ago, everyone is so much faster because everyone has had so much more time to train, a couple more weeks to get faster. So it’s definitely promising and exciting to see we can run that fast with that little time, and there were no seniors on that (relay) team,” she said.

In individual events, Smith took first place in the half mile, at 2:24, and in the mile, at 5:32. In the mile, Anna Prussian finished in second at 5:37, a personal best.

In the two-mile event, Prussian took second at 12:19, also a PR.

The girls 4x400 relay took second place at 4:40, with Smith, Young, Mia Skultka, and Lindsey Bartolaba running.

Bartolaba said she wants to improve her block work before regions.

“Last weekend went well, but it also didn’t. In the 400 I really didn’t have a good run, but if I were to have had a good run, it wouldn’t have changed my place… I can do better at Regions,” the senior said. “I really want to have my block work be as good as it was two years ago, because I really haven’t been able to have it click in my head.”

She took first place in the 100 meter dash at 13.39, and third in the 400 at 1:06. Also in the 400, Maitlin Young took fourth at 1:11, with Mia Skultka right behind, running a PR in 1:13.

In the 4x100 meter relay, Bartolaba and her teammates Santanna Sumauang, Deszerei Chong, and Makayla Moore took third in 56.06.

Looking back on the track season lost to the coronavirus, Bartolaba wondered what could have been with one more year of training.

“I just always wonder where I would be this year if I’d had last year. Because this year I’ve had one college that was interested. And if I had last year, I wonder if I might have had more options,” she said. That one offer came from Eastern Oregon University, and she said that she’s unlikely to accept.

“It doesn’t really go with my other plans, and I don’t want to go somewhere just for track,” she said.

Across the board, Sitka’s girls ran personal records in a number of events. In the 200 meter sprint Santanna Sumauang took fourth at 29.74, a PR, followed by Maitlin Young at 30.67, also a PR.

In the 300 meter hurdles, Addie Poulson took second place in 52.67. Jocelyn Brady claimed first place in both shot put and discus. Santanna Sumauang took second place in both the long jump and triple jump.

While the girls dominated the competition, Sitka’s boys left a mark as well.

Silas Demmert took first place in the two-mile with a personal best time of 10:36, and claimed second in the one-mile at 4:50, also a PR.

Demmert was pleased with the results from Juneau.

“It’s kind of what I was hoping for, it feels really good. In the mile I shaved off a lot more than I expected, same thing with the two-mile,” Demmert said. “Definitely passing my expectations with myself.”

In the distance events, Demmert was joined by Dylan Crenna, who took sixth place in the mile at 5:15. Crenna finished fourth. In the two-mile, Hank Maxwell took fourth in 11:32, yet another PR for Sitka. James Helem also marked a personal best in that race at 11:38.

The meet was only the second of the season, and Demmert said he was happy to run against “new competition. Racing as many people as possible is really nice. And seeing J-D and Thunder Mountain at this meet was just great.”

While teams from across Southeast participated, Ketchikan was conspicuously absent due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak there linked to a recent wrestling tournament. While one virus case linked to that event hit Sitka’s wrestling team, Sitka School District Learning Support Director Chris Voron said Monday that contact tracing revealed no further spread within Sitka schools.

In the boys sprints, Carson Grant took third in the 200 meter race at 25.33, while Annan Weiland finished fifth in the 400 at 1:00.37, followed by Sergio Carlos in seventh.

In the relays, the boys 4x100 meter team took second place, with Carson Grant, Caleb Hutton, Noah Blackmon, and Tyler Adres finishing in 49.32. Sitka also claimed second in the 4x200, with Adres, Sergio Carlos, Asa Dow, and Dalton Voron finishing in 1:47.

In the longer 4x800 race, the Wolves took second and third.

Dylan Crenna, James Helem, Hank Maxwell, and Silas Demmert ran the event in 9:26 for second place, with Asa Dow, Felix Myers, Annan Weiland, and Ethan White right behind at 9:36.

For Weiland, it was the first time running in a relay.

“It went pretty well… I consistently kept getting the same times, or not slower. So, pretty well. It was my first time doing relays, because in Ketchikan I was a sub. And I didn’t get to do the ones here, because the Ketchikan Invitational got canceled. So the relays were a fun new experience,” Weiland said.

In the 300 meter hurdles, Noah Blackmon took first place at 44.90, followed by David Davis in third. He ran the course in 48.99, another PR. Dalton Voron took third in shot put, and Caleb Hutton took fifth. Hutton claimed fifth again in discus, with Voron in sixth. Asa Dow notched third place in the high jump.

The Wolves track and field have two weeks to train and taper before the Region V meet in Juneau, May 21 and 22.

Hurtling toward the end of the season, Tawny Smith hoped that times would keep dropping.

“Hopefully, just for everyone to drop their times even more and hit their goals and get some good times up at state,” she said.