As the second day of the Class B track and field championship meet opened on May 25 in Laurel, things looked a little…dicey for Jefferson High’s boys’ team.
Yes, the Panthers were in first place after six of 17 events. But their lead was just one point, with Columbus, Red Lodge and Glasgow all close. Jefferson had lost to Red Lodge the week before at the Southern Divisional meet. And two of its top athletes were injured.
“We were a little nervous,” Coach Sarah Layng conceded later. “Some things [on day one] hadn’t gone as planned. We knew most of our points were going to come on Saturday, but it’s always hard to tell. You hope for the best.”
The best is pretty much what happened: Lifted by its distance runners and throwers, Jefferson surged on the second afternoon to its fourth consecutive state title. And in the end, it wasn’t that close: The Panthers’ 90 total points left them far ahead of second-place Loyola-Sacred Heart, with 68, and Red Lodge, at 67.
The meet turned in the span of just 30 minutes on Saturday. It started with the shot put, where athletes push-throw a 12-pound ball as far as possible. Jefferson had dominated this event at divisionals, taking the top five places — and the result this time wasn’t much different. Dalton Noble won with a school-record throw of 58’ 2”; Tavan McMaster was 2nd, Luke Oxarart 3rd, Kaynen Martin 4th, and Dylan Stevens 9th.
The same crew had shone in the previous day’s discus throw, with Noble, McMaster, and Braedon Ferris of Thompson Falls locked in an epic battle that saw the Jefferson school record fall multiple times. McMaster, whose results earlier in the season hadn’t put him among the top throwers, bested his personal record by 20 feet, winning with 166’ 4”. “Just brute mental toughness,” said Layng. Noble placed 3rd, and Tavin Charlton 9th.
After its shot put slam, Jefferson turned its attention to the high jump. Junior Hunter Stevens had won the state title in this event last year — but now he was hobbled by patellar tendonitis, a painful knee injury. He had finished 5th in the triple jump earlier in the day, and “he toughed it out” in the high jump, Layng said — but the toll on his knee was showing, and his best he could manage was 5’ 10”, leaving him out of the top six.
But freshman Colton Thornock provided a surprise. He had been close to clearing six feet all season, and Assistant Coach Mike Ottman told him he could place in the state finals if he stayed consistent. Sure enough, Thornock made six feet on his first attempt, capturing 3rd place.
Then came the 3200 meter race. The day before, senior Luke Mest had dueled with Wolf Point’s Peyton Summers in the 1600. Summers had won that battle by less than a second; Panthers Dominic Hurlbert and Aaron French placed 5th and 6th, respectively, and Logan Hornung was 15th.
The 3200 proved another tight match, this time at a very fast pace. Mest and Summers stayed with each other for the entire race, with Summers finally winning in 9:37.39. Mest was 2nd, and Hurlbert 3rd.
And just like that, over the course of three events, the Panthers had added 47 points to their total. At that point, “I knew they had won,” Layng said.
It didn’t matter that Jefferson had been shut out of the sprint finals. Oxarart, who had some of the best times in the state early in the season in both the 100 and 200, pulled a hamstring at the Small Schools Meet in Helena on April 25. He ran in a 100-meter heat in Laurel, but his time was well off the pace. (He made the podium with his shot put performance and a 4th-place finish in the javelin throw.)
The Panthers also didn’t make the 4×100 relay final, though the 4×400 team of French, Jack Johnson, McKenon Boyd and Hurlbert placed 5th. Parker Wagner finished 20th in the 300 hurdles at 44.74, and Luke Strizich was 16th in the long jump at 18’ 3.25”. French took 2nd in the 800, at 1.59.09, with Boyd 12th in 2:08.18.
The girls’ team placed in two events. The team of Maddy Averill, Clare Ronayne, MacKenzie Layng and Arena Faler placed 5th in the 4×100 relay, in 50.87. And Layng took 3rd in the javelin, besting her own school record with a throw of 120’ 1”. In the process, Layng became the first Jefferson High girl to make all-state in three sports (volleyball and basketball were the other two) in the same year.
Joselyn Buckley was 10th in the javelin, at 111’ 11”, and finished 17th in the discus at 83’ 4”. Freshman Allison Zawacki was 21st in the high jump, at 4’ 8”. Clare Ronayne placed 7th in the 200 at 26.37, and Peyton Stearns was 8th in the 1600 at 5:32.28.
TENNIS
Bailee Silvonen made a strong run in the girls’ singles bracket, leading the Panthers at the state Class B/C tennis championship May 23-25 in Missoula.
Silvonen, the Panthers’ number-one player, opened play with a 6-0, 6-0 over a Missoula Loyola player in the first round. She narrowly dropped her second match to a Baker player, 4-6, 4-6, sending her into the consolation bracket. There, in her third match of the day, she topped another Baker player, 6-0, 6-1, advancing to the second day.
On Friday, Silvonen dispatched a Forsyth player, 7-5, 6-3, putting her in a match with Valley Christian. There, in a three-hour-long duel, she finally fell, 6-3, 4-6, 5-7, ending her tournament. “She fought to the very end and never gave up,” said Coach Eliza McLaughlin.
In girls’ doubles, the senior team of Clara Genger and Addie Leary lost in the first round to a Conrad pair, then fell to a team from Superior in the consolation bracket.
The boys’ doubles team of Izaak Luhrsen and Cole Christoferson lost its first round match to a duo from Chester-Joplin-Inverness, then bowed out of the tournament with a loss to Conrad in the first consolation round.
