It’s the 2024 Montana track and field season in the opening throes, but an interesting trend is potentially developing for Sanders and Mineral county fans of the sport.

In what was the first major track meet of the year for athletes in this area, Superior and Noxon have to be turning some heads.

Superior’s girls finished eighth and the boys took 13th in a 21 team field of area high schools who participated this past weekend in the Frenchtown Invitational.

Hamilton’s boys and girls won both the team titles up for grabs by comfortable margins.

But for local track and field fans, Superior and Noxon had some “who are these guys” moments among the B-C schools in Frenchtown.

Hamilton took the girls' team crown with 120 points, while the Bronc boys ran away with their part of the meet, easily outdistancing runner-up Corvallis. It was the second boys/girls sweep for Hamilton’s tracksters, having taken both team categories the week before at the Blue Devil Invitational in Corvallis.

Superior’s girls collected 20.5 points, tops among B-C schools at the meet, while the Superior boys finished 13th with 23.5 points as their mix of experience and youth produced some positive moments spotlighting the depth of coach Logan Labbe’s Bobcats.

Noxon’s boys placed 15th with 14 team points, many of them due to the outstanding meet displayed by junior Ricky Williams.

Thompson Falls’ girls finished 12th in the team competition, while the Blue Hawks boys were 16th.

Sophomore MaKenzie Reum got the Lady Bobcats on the scoreboard in the 100-meter dash with a 17th-place showing in 14.35. Teammate Alysha Ryan was 19th for the Lady Cats with a time of 14.44. Havre’s Kaydance Reiter won the event with a sparkling time of 12.91.

Noxon’s girls also had two 100-meter finishers, Emma Swanson in 36th place and Seanna Richter crossing the tape at the 17.22 mark.

Junior Braelynn Mangold placed in four events for the Lady Bobcats, finishing fifth in the 400-meter run with a time of 1:07.06, and sixth in the triple jump with a hop, skip and jump of 32-4. Mangold was also a member of the Superior fourth-place 4X100 meter relay team and ran a leg on the fifth-place 4X400 meter relay contingent.

Thompson Falls freshman Addyson Deal took fourth in the triple jump (32-6), while teammate and fellow freshman Aubry Baxter was 11th with a jump of 30-1.5.

St. Regis got on the board in the 400-meter event when junior Kyla Bush placed eighth with a time of 1:09.22, just ahead of T Falls senior Trinity Riffle, who ran a 1:09.87, good for ninth. Riffle also placed third in the women’s high jump event, clearing the bar at 4-10, the same height cleared by the first and second-place finishers with fewer misses.

Lady Hawks teammate Deal was fifth in the javelin with a throw of 98-11.

Superior’s Maryisa Swope brought home third place in the pole vault event with a vault of 7-6. Swope was also 16th in the long jump, leaping 13-11.5.

Alberton’s girls got a 19th-place finish from junior Georgia Fredette, who tossed the discus 68-2.

Thompson Falls’ girls got a 12th-place finish from senior Faith Palmer, in the 1600, while St. Regis sophomore Lilly Sansom was 12th in the women’s 800-meter run.

And Noxon’s Natasha Fisher came in tenth in the women’s 300-meter hurdles.

In the boys competition, senior Lucas Kovalsky was 13th in the 100-meter sprint with a time of 11.90. Hamilton’s Tyson Bauder won the event with a time of 11.43. Superior also got a 19th-place showing from junior Trizten Avila in the 100-meter run.

In the boys' 200-meter run, Braedon Ferris finished 12th with a time of 25.25, while T Falls teammate Braxton Dorscher was 13th at 25.38.

In the boys 400-meter run, Noxon’s Chance McDaid came in 10th with a time of 58.94, while Alberton’s Baylar Baughman, a sophomore, was 21st.

Thompson Falls’ Ian Myers finished 21st in the men’s 800-meter run, just ahead of St. Regis’ Tucker Donaldson. Donaldson also placed sixth in the 300-meter hurdles event.

The Blue Hawks also got an 18th place showing from senior Cael Thilmony in the 1600 meters. Thilmony also placed 11th in the grueling 3200 meter run for the Blue Hawks.

Superior’s boys had a good meet in the relay events, placing fourth in the 4X4 and eighth in the 4X100 relay. Thompson Falls was fifth in the 4X400 event. Blue Hawks senior shot putter Jason Merrill finished 16th in the event, while Noxon’s Shane Murray was 30th.

Top local finisher in the boys discus was T Falls junior Braedon Ferris with a throw of 134-4.5, while teammate Zack Ames was 30th with a throw of 95-2. Merrill placed 27th for Superior in the discus event.

Noxon’s Murray was 20th in the javelin with a throw of 113, while Alberton junior Colton Baughman was 19th with a throw of 114 feet. T Falls’ Ian Myers placed 26th in the javelin with a toss of 106-7, while a pair of St. Regis javelin throwers, Conner Lulis and Hunter Stolla, came in 28th and 29th respectively. Alberton sophomore Tater Herman placed 31st in the event.

Noxon junior Ricky Williams placed second in the high jump, clearing 5-10, two inches behind Corvallis jumper Derek Criddle, who won the event with a jump of 6-0.

The top local finisher of the meet was Superior’s Kovalsky, who cleared 12-6 to win his second straight pole vault title in this young season. Freshman teammate Gannon Quinlan finished fifth in the vault event.

Williams made it two top-three finishes with his third-place showing in the long jump. Williams jumped 20-3, just one inch short of second place. The event was won by Caiden Skeuterski of Cascade with a jump of 22-3. Dorscher of T Falls was tenth in the long jump, while Superior freshman Landon Richards placed eleventh. Lulis was 23rd in the long jump for St. Regis, while Superior freshman Turner Milender was 27th.

St. Regis junior Ayden Rael placed 17th in the triple jump.

Several local teams are scheduled to take part in the Bigfork Invitational this weekend.

    Freshman Landon Turner clears the high jump bar at 5-10 during this past weekend's Frenchtown Invitational track and field meet. (Photo by Kami Milender)