Glacier sweeps Western AA Divisional track

HELENA — Glacier zoomed and threw its way to the girls Western AA Divisional track and field title Friday. The Wolfpack boys made it a sweep with depth and field event supremacy. 

Rylee Bigelow hit a personal record while winning the girls discus and teammate Allie Krueger won the shot put at the meet, which packed all 17 events into one day at Vigilante Stadium.  

Glacier also had a 1-2 finish from Dacia Benkelman and Ada Thiel in the 800, a 400 win from Thiel and a 1,600 victory from Lauren Bissen on the way to 125 points. Helena Capital was a close second at 121; Helena High had 102.5. Big Sky (99) and Flathead (78) were fourth and fifth. 

The Wolfpack boys struck a blow for depth: Owen Thiel, for example, was second in the 1,600 (to Missoula Hellgate’s Miles Miller) and the third in the 800 to score 14 points. The Pack finished with 127.83; Helena was next at 112.83 and Missoula Big Sky came in at 93. Flathead, with William Hollensteiner competing only in the triple jump — he won with a mark of 45 feet, 3.75 inches — was eighth with 44.33 points. 

Back to Glacier: junior Daniel Pederson won the javelin with a throw of 187-7; Will Astle took the shot put at 53-6 and was second on criteria to Hellgate’s Evan Pyron in the discus, where both athletes threw 146-7. 

Over at the long jump, juniors Cooper Pelc (20-6.75) and Chase Sliter (20-6, a PR) finished second and third, barely, behind Missoula Sentinel’s Bridger Devlin (20-7.75). 

Spencer Hodge (fourth in the pole vault), Pelc, Liam Palmer and Kyle West teamed up to finish second in the short relay to Sentinel, which clocked 42.11 seconds to Glacier’s 42.31.  

Pelc was also third in the 110-meter hurdles. Palmer (a PR of 39.46) and Kruz Robinson finished 2-4 in the 300 hurdles; winner Jameson Canney of Capital (39.12) and Palmer now own the top two marks in AA. 

West was also third in the 100 meters, behind Sentinel’s Hunter Cadena (10.82) and Reed Joseph Finneman.  

Flathead’s boys saw freshman Colt Gress take second in the 3,200 to Helena’s Joel Melton; the Braves also finished third in the long relay. 

Bigelow marked 127-3 (third in the AA rankings) on her second throw to win the discus by over six feet, and fellow junior Krueger won the shot put at 38-2.5. Bigelow was also fifth in the shot and second in the javelin, hitting another PR of 128-8 (fourth in AA) in the latter. 

The Wolfpack girls piled up big points in the timed events, including a second place in the short relay from Bailee Dahlman, Addison Brisendine, Rachel Brannan and Zeila Wagner. 

Dahlman was fourth in both the 100 and 200; Brisendine, like Dahlman a sophomore, finished second in the 200 (26.37) behind Helena freshman Presley Swenson (25.79). 

Ada Thiel (60.02) and fellow Glacier freshman Clara Ahner (60.58) went 1-3 in the 400; in second was Flathead’s Julia Kay (60.36).  

Benkelman hit a PR in the 800: 2:17.27, and that sits second in Class AA. Thiel (2:20.54) and Bissen (2:22.29) were second and fourth and earlier in the day Bissen claimed the 1,600 in 5:05.40 — the No. 3 time in AA. 

The Flathead Bravettes picked up a majority of their points in the field events. Freshman Brynn Kossman was second in the shot put; senior Naomi Miller was second in the long jump, hitting a PR of 17-3.5. 

Hellgate’s Elly Reed cleared 5-8, the best mark in Montana, to win the high jump. 

Full results can be found at athletic.net.