Columbia Falls track and field stayed close to home with both of their meets taking place in Whitefish last week.

Tuesday the Wildcat boys team led the triangular between Whitefish, Columbia Falls and Libby with a top score of 72 while the Kats came in second behind the Lady Bulldogs with a score of 71. The solid showing occurred despite it being an intentional rest day for the Wildcats who’d had back-to-back competitions the week prior.

“That many competitions in a row can be hard on the kids,” said head coach Jamie Heinz. “So the goal was to have them focus on one event and then have fun for the rest of the day by trying events they don’t normally do.”

The strategy seemed to have paid off, resulting in “lots of smiling faces” at the end of the triangular, as well as eight first place finishes for individual girls and seven first place finishes for the boys. On Tuesday the girls team boasted titleholders in the 1,600 meters with Courtney Hoerner’s 6:03.95, the 3,200 meters with Siri Erickson’s 12:09.98, the 300 meter hurdles with Rebekah Walker’s 55.57, the shot put with Madeline Stutsman’s 31-04, the javelin with Madysen Hoerner’s 105-08, the high jump with Hannah Sempf’s 4-08, the pole vault with Rebekah Walker’s 8-06, and the triple jump with Cheyanne Johnston-Heinz’s 29-02.

The boys team’s champions from the triangular were Richard Role in the 400 meters with a 55.97, Bailey Sjostrom in the 1,600

meters with 5:07.25, Cooper Babcock in the 110 meter hurdles with 19.22, Isaiah Roth in the 300 meter hurdles with a 46.93, and Brock Fisher in the shot put with a 41-05 and the discus with a 121-02.

On Saturday Columbia Falls took third overall for the girls team and fourth for the boys at Whitefish’s annual ARM Meet that featured the Wildcats, Whitefish, Bigfork, Polson and Frenchtown.

Wildcat athletes saw yet another round of personal records at the Saturday meet and were led in the girls team with first place finishes by Lara Erickson in the 1,600 meters with 5:22.39, Madysen Hoerner in the javelin with 10707, Hannah Sempf and Cheyanne Johnston-Heinz in the pole vault with 9, and Maddie Robison in the long jump with a 15-10.5.