BONNERS FERRY — Bonners Ferry High School track athletes posted several personal bests at the 2017 District 1 3A Championships last Thursday and Friday. The Lady Badgers placed second as a team. Boys placed fifth. Jordan Young, Haley Wenk, Abigail Gorton, and Zack Egge were individual district champions. In all, 12 Badgers advance to the State Championships, held in Middleton on May 19 and 20.

In the men’s 200-meter dash, junior Nik Bertling moved from a 24.25 in the prelims to a 24.11 in finals, finishing in third place and advancing to State. Bertling was also fourth in pole vault, with a height of 11-00. Joe Swanson took second place in long jump with a jump of 18-06, qualifying for State. He was also fifth in triple jump with 36-09. Senior Isaac Lavala was second in pole vault with a height of 14-06. He advances to State. Senior Zack Egge scored sixth in the 1.6 Kg discus and was a State qualifier and District champion in the 12 lb shot with a personal record throw of 44-10.

Although their marks were not high enough for State Championship qualification, several Badger men logged personal bests, such as junior Izaic Vandercoevering (seventh with 38-05 in shot and 7th with 104-02 in disc), Austin Donn, Bobby Hart, Hunter Smith, Thomas Rivkin, Mitch Falck, Caleb Petersen, Aeden Carpenter, Karl Beckle, Owen Vandercoevering, Nathan Olson, Michael Cardinal, Pedro Cardoso, Justin Mendenhall, and Sam Gorton. Freshman Jake Jelinek was sixth in high jump with 5-06. The BFHS coaching staff looks forward to future seasons with these athletes and encourages their continued success.

In women’s competition, freshman Abigail Gorton opened the running events with a 3200M win, qualifying for State and posting a time of 12:20.0, a personal best. Scoring for the Badgers, freshman Serenity Fahey was fifth in the 100M hurdles and fourth in the 300M hurdles. Sophomore Lauren Stidham ran personal bests in both 1600M (seventh place) and 3200M (sixth place). Senior Jill Alexander was second in the pole vault with a height of 8-00. She qualifies for State. The girls 4x200M relay of Edie Callison, Fahey, Stidham, and Alexander was third. Junior Emmi Müllerschön was third in the triple jump with 28-01.75. She qualifies for State. In the 1 kg discus, Haley Wenk was sixth and Victoria Rae was fourth. Wenk and Rae went 1-2 in 4 Kg shot competition; they both advance to State. Junior Jordan Young took first in the 800M, racing a solid 2:25.14. Nicole Donn scored fifth in the 800M. Young and Gorton went 2-3 in the 1600M, both qualifying for State in the event.

Head coach Travis Hinthorn frequently admonishes track team members to meet and exceed their goals. In what was arguably one of the most exciting and memorable moments of the two-day championships, the girls’ sprint medley team (Alexander, Donn, Natasha Webster, and Young) ran down Kellogg for second place and a State berth. Going into the race, Hinthorn said, “Charter stacked a team, Kellogg stacked a team, Timberlake stacked a team, and we stacked a team. There will be two happy teams and some heartbreak.” Anchoring the 400M leg, Young battled Timberlake’s Kassidy Hammond and moved into third. With 100 meters to go, the Badgers were still a distant third, but Young gritted out the final 75 meters, besting Kellogg’s Taeya Sheppard just before the line. Said Hinthorn, “The effort emphasizes what we’re building—tenacity and teamwork.”

Full meet results are available at: https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/MeetResults.aspx?Meet=291533#2056