West Valley sweeps Revion VI

By Danny Martin

Faibanks Daily Miner

Published Sunday, May 18, 2008

Photos by Eric Engman

Four straight years of high school track and field for Aurora Bowers meant four straight Region VI-Class 4A girls team championships for the West Valley Wolfpack.

“We’re all really close and we have a lot of fun working together, and that’s a big part of being a Wolfpack since I’ve been on (the team),” the West Valley senior said.

Bowers was the first leg Saturday afternoon in a victorious 4x400-meter relay, the meet’s final event and the Wolfpack girls’ 11th win of the two-day competition at Lathrop, giving West Valley 87 points for the trophy.

“It’s just a feeling of accomplishment that what we’ve done over the last couple of months is worth something,” Bowers said, alluding to a season that was cut short by two weeks because of cold and snow.

The Lathrop Malemutes, with a sweep Saturday of the sprint relays and Catherine Burch winning the 100 and 200, had 58 points for second place and the North Pole Patriots finished third with 30, aided by 400 winner Janan Hunt.

The 11 wins for the West Valley girls also were 11 automatic berths to the 4A state meet on Friday and Saturday at Lathrop.

The Wolfpack girls weren’t alone in trophy-raising on Saturday, because the West Valley boys earned their first team title since 2005 after recording 71 points and seven first-place finishes over the two days of the meet.

“We’ve got a group of guys on the distance (each) that drive real well together, working hard in practice, and our sprinters work hard just as well,” Wolfpack junior Ealum Howe said.

West Valley head coach Milo Griffin was guiding Lathrop the last time the Wolfpack swept region team titles.

“I just think they believe in themselves from top to bottom,” said Griffin, who coached Lathrop for 25 years before moving over to West Valley this season. “The coaches have convinced the kids to believe in themselves, and that makes a big difference when it gets close.”

Lathrop, last year’s boys region champions, came in second with 57 points, 10 more than the third-place North Pole Patriots. North Pole got five of six region individual titles on Saturday and three of Lathrop’s four wins occurred on the final day.

Among the Wolfpack’s gold-medal girls were three double-winning seniors. Crystal Pitney added a victory of 5 minutes, 25.89 seconds in the 1,600 on Saturday to her first-place run Friday in the 3,200. Lorraine Knoxson outpaced the field in the 100 hurdles (17.60 seconds) and 300 hurdles (50.23), and Whitne’ Blackburn reached 15 feet, 1 3/4 inches in the long jump after taking the triple jump title Friday.

“It feels so good,” Pitney, a Colorado State University recruit, said of being a double titlist in her final region meet. “I trained hard and I enjoyed just being out here, being at the track with all these girls that are also very good athletes.”

Pitney also anchored the 4x400 relay that eked out a 4:24.55 triumph, just .5 seconds ahead of Lathrop.

That relay was among West Valley’s domination of the distance events. The Wolfpack won the 4x800 relay in 10:21.03, and junior Kayla Teslow, who anchored the 800 relay, took the individual 800 honor in 2:24.74.

Griffin attributed West Valley’s success in the longer races to distance coach Dan Callahan.

“He’s done a really great job of bringing those kids along,” Griffin said.

Shelby Solomon claimed the girls shot put title with an effort of 29 feet, 1 1/2 inches, assuring West Valley of sweeping the throwing honors after Kayla Weber won the discus Friday.

Burch held off her surging Lathrop teammate Amy Ross by .17 seconds to win the 100 in 13.42 seconds and she won the 200 in 27.96, outkicking West Valley’s Knoxson by .33 seconds.

“It feels really good. ... I’m usually stuck in third,” Burch said of the 100 title. “Now that it’s (region meet) split up from 4A and 3A, I got first.”

Burch had strong opening legs to set up a 4x200 win of 1:50.91 and the 4x100 victory of 52.54.

“Catherine had a great start; Amy had a great lead, too, and Britt (Glaeser) always kicks it up,” anchor Shelby McIntyre said of Lathrop’s progress in the 4x200.

Hunt won the 400 in 1:04.86 despite limited practice because of a recent knee injury in a Patriots girls soccer game.

“I haven’t practiced in almost two weeks, and I also have shin splints,” she said. “I wasn’t sure how far (runner-up Rosemary Hanson of Lathrop) was behind me, and I just wanted to win.”

After 900 meters of pressure, Wolfpack boys junior Werner Hoefler pulled away from eventual runner-up Zachariah Ginn of Lathrop to take the 1,600 in 4:45.23 and earn his second distance title after winning Friday’s 3,200.

“It was good that he was pushing me to keep on pace,” Hoefler said.

His junior teammate Jacob Remington was pushed by Lathrop’s Anthony Davis in the 800 before Remington won in 2:03.39, more than two seconds ahead of the Malemutes’ senior.

“I knew I had speed in me, and I made sure I kept it until I needed it,” he said. “I needed it with 200 meters left.”

Stephen Fink contributed to West Valley’s title cache with a 43.56 finish in the 300 hurdles. West Valley also won Saturday in the 4x800 relay in 9:05.81 and the boys discus with Alex Katkin’s launch of 133-10.

Jared Lindsey collected a triple jump title for West Valley on Friday. Ben Gallegos, a home school student with Interior Distance Education of Alaska, recorded the event’s longest attempt, but he wasn’t eligible to win a region title.

Lathrop finished the meet with four individual winners, three on Saturday.

Davis, before Remington held him off in the 800, surged off the first turn in the 400 to win the race in 53.24.

“I just tried to go hard for the first couple of meters and on the back stretch, I was just picking up my stride and I kept turning it over,” Davis said.

Lathrop won the 4x400 relay in 3:37.92 and Ian Jensen was declared the winner of the 110 hurdles in 17.41, though the nonscoring Gallegos had clocked the fastest time of 15.95.

Malemutes senior Charles Scott had won the high jump on Friday and North Pole’s Josh Erikson denied his bid to add a long jump gold on Saturday. Erikson, a junior, soared 20-1 on his final attempt before Scott went 19-11 3/4 on his last attempt in a region meet.

“(North Pole jumps coach Gillian Henert) told me I had to get my feet out,” Erikson said. “So I just got out and tried to stretch as much as I could, and I just got more than a foot over my best one.”

Erikson and senior teammate Todd McCormick were involved in the closest finish of the day in the 200, which McCormick won by leaning his neck across the finish line.

“I saw him out of the corner of my eye and I wanted to make sure I had a good time going into state because there’s some people (in other region meets) that I’m looking at,” said McCormick, who finished in 24.08, .4 seconds ahead of Erikson.

McCormick and Erikson also aided North Pole’s sprint relays — the 4x100 win in 45.65 and 4x200 title in 1:35.24. Junior Dane Ebanez anchored both relays and won the individual 100 in 11.71 despite racing with a sore back.

“I’ve been out of practice for the last week because my back was really bothering (me),” Ebanez said. “I hadn’t been able to work on blocks; so I was just going on what I had practiced before.”