Blue Hawk track and field teams knew they had work to do going into the Dave Tripp Meet in Polson Friday. Now, after taking the Tripp in, they better know what they need to do.

With some strong building blocks in place in the form of quality athletes, that work is in progress coach Trenna Ferris says. “We came away from our first track and field meet understanding that we have a lot of work to do,” she said. “We are excited because there is a lot of room for growth, even from our top performers.”

Ferris said her athletes and other coaches now have a baseline of data to work with. “Getting our first meet under our belts allows us to have a starting time/distance,” she said. “Now the kids know what they have to work on and it gives us something to go off of.”

The Hawks’ next chance to measure and improve their performances will be at the Libby Invitational Saturday. Ferris says her team members will first help run the Thompson Falls junior high invitational track meet at Previs Field Friday. That meet is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.

In Polson last week, junior Addy Deal, the defending State B champion in the javelin, pre-qualified for this year’s State B by throwing the spear 116 feet, 9 inches, to lead the Hawk girls to 33 team points.

In addition to her second-place win in the javelin, Deal also won the pole vault, being the only competitor to clear eight feet, placed fifth in the discus and sixth in the triple jump.

Junior teammate Aubrey Baxter, who is also a leader on the Thompson Falls golf team in her spare time, returned to form nicely on the track after sitting out the 2025 season with an injury, winning second place in the 400 meter run (1:05.18) and sixth in the 200 (29.72).

Lexi Franck and Matea Keefe also earned scoring points in the Tripp meet, Franck by running down fifth in the 100 meter dash in 14.85 seconds, and Keefe by winning sixth in the 800 meters in 3:20.25.

The Blue Hawk boys scored 31 team points in Polson.

Brylon VanElswyk led the Hawks by spearing second place in the javelin with a best effort of 153-9, Weston Block ran to fourth place in the 1,600 meters in 5:14.45, Thomas Pate won fourth in the shot put with a best mark of 36-8, Chase Helvey placed fourth in the 400 meters in 57.72 seconds, Ethan Lofthus leapt to fifth place in the triple jump with an effort of 32-9, and Nathan Baxter, another two-sport Baxter who also plays golf, was sixth in the triple jump (32-2).

Freshman Alex Newman earned points in two individual events, placing fourth in the 100 meters (12.39) and fifth in the long jump (19-1).

The boys 4 x 100 meter relay team of Brogan Anderson, Teagan Dorscher, Carson Kenney and Newman placed fifth in 48.28, and the 4 x 400 meter relay team of Lofthus, Block, Easton Deal and Anderson took sixth in that race.

Ferris said that in a nice twist of generosity by meet organizers, athletes that placed first, second or third received a Dave Tripp Memorial track meet T-shirt in Polson.