Competing in the final home meet of the season, Sitka High’s track and field athletes scored a series of top finishes Friday and Saturday, the Lady Wolves placing first in team scores and the boys second, only three points behind Juneau-Douglas.
The weather was cold, windy and rainy on Friday, and while conditions improved for the final events on Saturday, the wet dirt track at lower Moller field was still a handicap for all runners.
Sitka coach Jeremy Strong said the team is looking good heading into the late season.
“Our kids who have been here a while continue to get better, and we're looking forward to getting some more races on a rubber track this weekend. Just wish the weather was a little bit better,” Strong said.
"It's hard to go fast sometimes in the rain… Saturday wasn't horrible, but it's still kind of cold, so anytime you have kind of marginal weather, it's going to keep kids kind of colder and not feeling as warmed up,” he said.
Sitka junior Calder Prussian took first place in both the 100 and 200 meter dash, crossing the finish line in 11.6 and 24.2 seconds respectively. Andrew Mullin, a freshman, took third in the 100 in 12.3 seconds and was sixth in the 200.
“Through the preliminary rounds, I just kind of jogged them out, just because it was raining, I wasn't feeling super great,” Prussian said at practice Tuesday. "And then Saturday came around. I wasn't ranked first – I was only ranked first in the 200 but I was like, ‘I've got to lock in. I've got to do good.’”
He also ran a leg of the four-by-400 meter relay alongside Connor Hitchcock, Trey Demmert and Cole McLaughlin; the group took first in 3:51, over 10 seconds ahead of second place Juneau.
“Our four-by-four is looking really strong this year," Prussian said. "I'm excited for the four-by-four to see how it plays out, hopefully by reaching state, we get there, nice, and then we're going for the school record this year.”
He thinks his wintertime training has paid off. He was sick for part of the season, but he has recovered and kept on a competitive pace.
“A lot of the winter training has been paying off... and just putting in a lot of work at the beginning of the season, getting fit, and then just I've got to continue that through the rest of the season – not get injured, stay healthy,” he said.
The team runs in Ketchikan this coming weekend, and the regional meet will be held the following week in Juneau. The state championship is scheduled for the last weekend of May in Anchorage.
“I think it would be great for the team to get another state title, both the girls and boys… We have a really good shot at it,” Prussian said.
After taking second in the 800 meter run less than one second behind Wrangell's Boomchain Loucks, Sitka senior Connor Hitchcock won the 1,600 meter race in 4:44, with Loucks a split second behind.
Hitchcock, who will run for St. Olaf College next year, likewise won the 3,200 meter event in 9:58, though that race was not as close – he won by 10 seconds.
Sitka senior Trey Demmert took third place in both the 800 and 1,600 meter races, finishing in 2:13 and 4:50 respectively, while also placing third in the high jump with a leap of 5 feet 4 inches.
“A big part of it was just going in is having fun, because it's my last year.," Demmert said. "I just want to enjoy it and going in and having fun takes away, definitely, a lot of anxiety and nerves, and allows you just to go run hard and not think about anything else,”
He said his goal for the season is to drop his time in several running events.
For myself, just cutting down as much as I can from the mile, if I can get into the 4:30s… and for the 800, if I can cut two to three seconds off by state, and then for the four-by-four, if I could cut a second or two off I'd be really happy with that,” he said.
Demmert has signed to attend Peninsula College, a two-year school in Port Angeles, Washington next year, where he will play basketball.
In the 110 meter hurdles, Rowan Olney-Miller, also a senior, won the event and set a new personal record in 20.1 seconds. Shane Tincher took fifth in the shot put, throwing the 12 pound ball 32 feet 11 inches, and Zach Webb got third in discus with his throw landing at 114 feet 5 inches. Olney-Miller also won the high jump with a 5 foot 10 inch leap; Cole McLaughlin took second in the long jump and in the triple jump.
On the girls’ side, Sitka senior Clare Mullin swept the top finishes in the 400, 800 and 1,600 meter races, finishing in 1:03, 2:23 and 5:23 respectively.
“I've been pretty happy with the times I've been hitting in the early season, not the ones on dirt, those are never going to be really good times, but definitely on the rubber track, I've been happy with that,” Mullin said.
She has the Alaska state record for the 800 meter race in her sights, and is presently just 0.3 seconds shy of it. She hopes to hit that mark at either the regional or state tournament.
“Probably state, I might try to go for our best time at regions if the weather's nice and the conditions are good,” she said.
Mullin also competed in the four-by-400 relay on a team with Natalie Hall, Jade Kubik, and Adalyna Moore, winning in 4:37 and 10 seconds ahead of second place Ketchikan.
The weather posed a problem for runners, she said.
“Friday was pretty bad, but Saturday got a little bit better, it didn't rain on us that much, but I’m kind of a fair weather runner, so it's just a matter of like, ‘OK, this is not good, but I can deal with that,’ and I can still put in in my best effort,” she said.
Mullin has signed to run with Gonzaga, an NCAA Division I school in Spokane starting in the fall, but unlike most high school athletes will have a chance to compete one more time after the season ends. In late June, she will race at the Nike Outdoor National meet in Eugene, Oregon for the second time. She said the time spent with her teammates has been a highlight of her time with Sitka High track and field.
"As a team, I think it's a really good crew, and I think it's been a lot of fun spending time with them,” she said. “And I think just if everyone does their part, works hard, it's a good group to be around.”
In the 100 meter sprint, Natalie Hall took third in 14.1 seconds with Adalyna Moore a tenth of a second behind her. Moore won the 200 in 30.2 seconds. Marina Dill took third in the 800 in 2:41, followed 14 seconds later by Aliyah Merculief in fourth. Following Mullin in the 1,600, Dill took second in 5:44 and Merculief completed Sitka’s sweep with a third place finish in 6:16.
Marina Dill won the 3,200 in 12:04, followed by Merculief in 13:27. Emma Heuer took first in the 100 meter hurdles, setting a new PR in 18.1 seconds; Natalie Hall won the 300 meter hurdles, also setting a PR at 54.4 seconds; Sitka won the four-by-400 relay, with Hall, Kubik, Moore and Mullin crossing the line in 4:37.
Madison Dill took first place in shot put, throwing the 4 kilo ball 32 feet 4 inches, followed by Elise Brady in second, one foot shy on the throw; Brady then won the discus event, hurling the disc 96 feet 6 inches. Emma Heuer got first in the high jump, leaping 4 feet 6 inches, and she took second in the long jump. Melody Peacock got first in the triple jump, setting a new personal record at 28 feet 11.5 inches.
The Wolves compete again Friday and Saturday in Ketchikan, with the Region V meet a week later in Juneau.
