Scottie Boys' Track Still Experimenting

With the district tournament coming quickly, the Scotties are still searching for the right mixture.

The Scotties were able to place fourth in Glendive on Friday and Saturday, beating out Class A’s Sidney and Hardin and seven other schools, but falling short of Glendive, Miles City and Culbertson. That’s the second-straight meet the Scotties have finished in the top four. And it’s also the second-straight meet that personal records fell in bunches – 16 PRs were broken by the Scotties in Glendive. It’s not that they are performing poorly, it’s the potential that hasn’t quite been realized.

“We’re just kind of struggling getting them in the right events,” said Head Coach John LaBonty.

The Scotties tallied 49 points in the two-day meet, in large part due to the dashes. The Scotties combined to score 23 of those points in the 100-meter dash, the 200 and the 400. Bryan Larson scored a silver in the 200 with a time of 24.20 seconds. Bridger Sanders was second in the 400 at 54.53. Chase Fossum took third in the 200 at 24.24 and Ryan Grandchamp was sixth in the 100 at 12.19. Add in Austin Green’s eight points with a silver in the 800 at 2:04.71, and only 18 points were scored in the remaining 13 events.

“We’ve got a lot of boys throwing right now and that’s going to become an issue when we get to districts,” said LaBonty.

LaBonty noted that the Scotties will have to get down to five throwers by the time districts comes around and redistribute in other events for a more complete team.

In Glendive, only Jason Thibault was able to place in a throw, finishing in fourth in the javelin with a heave of 148- 0.

Though, several other throwers had good days, as well, according to throwing coach Wade Nelson.

“All of the kids moved up,” said Nelson, mentioning that every discus competitor broke a PR. “They’re all very young but they’re getting the hang of things.”

The relays are another area that the Scotties are looking to improve soon.

“We just haven’t quite jelled with the relays,” said LaBonty. “We still feel like we’re in that experimental phase.”

Grandchamp, Larson, Sanders and Tanner Roness finished in sixth at Glendive in the 4X100 relay with a time of 47.04. The Scotties were unable to place in the mile relay.

Grandchamp also placed in the long jump, taking third with a leap of 20- 2.75. Placing in the other two jumping events were Chase Fossum and Lachlan Vaira. Vaira was third in the triple jump at 40- 3.5 and Fossum rounded out the Scotties’ day with a 5- 8.25 and a sixth in the high jump.

The Scotties’ next chance comes in Wolf Point on Saturday during a make-up meet that was originally scheduled for April 6.