In a perfect world, Jefferson High School’s track and field team would have a better track and field. Its gravel track, circling the football pitch, doesn’t perform like the synthetic surfaces that most meets are held on. The relay teams have to travel to Helena once a week to practice on an oval with marked lanes. The jumpers have pits, but with concrete runways that are tough on the joints.
In that way, the Panthers might be considered underdogs as they head into the 2024 season.
But in most other ways, not so much.
Jefferson’s boys’ squad opens its campaign as the three-peat Class B state champions. That’s bordering on dynastic. And its last two titles haven’t even been that close; the Panthers scored 72 points at the 2023 state meet, besting runner-up Florence-Carlton by 15.
The girls’ teams have done well in that time — including a fourth-place State finish in 2022 — but have been compromised by low numbers of participants. The 2024 version fixes that: this year’s roster includes 24 athletes, double the number last year, including 14 ninth-graders. The boys’ senior-heavy squad numbers 47.
The upshot: The prospect of more post-season hardware is very real.
“It’s cool, for sure,” Tavan McMaster, a senior specializing in the discus and shot put, says of the Panthers’ run of success. “All our hard work pays off.” His throwing event teammate Tavin Charlton adds: “People have expectations of us, but the pressure is a privilege.”
Head Coach Sarah Layng says she’s trying to manage those expectations. She knows she’s working with a ton of upside, and her returning students “are focused, and they know where they want to be.” The high turn-outs for both boys and girls will allow the Panthers to enter more kids in more events, which usually means more points.
But Layng is encouraging her athletes not to look too far ahead: The season is two months long, and you don’t win a state championship in March. “We focus on individual progress, meet to meet,” she says. “It doesn’t matter how you do at any one meet; what matters is how you improve. Every day, look for a little improvement.”
That said, the boys made a promising start in its first meet of the year: Missing several key contributors, they still finished second in Corvallis on Mar. 23 amid a field of mostly Class A schools. (Florence-Carlton, the closest Class B rival, placed 7th.)
McMaster took the occasion to best his shot put at last year’s State meet by nearly a foot and half, his throw of 47’8” good for third place. He also finished fourth in the discus. (His teammate Dalton Noble, last year’s shot put state champion, hasn’t accumulated enough practices yet to compete.)
Somewhat to their own surprise, Luke Mest and Dominick Hurlbert finished 1-2 in the 1600-meter run in Corvallis, and 1-4 in the 3200. “We’ve got big plans,” Mest said afterward.
He and Hurlbert were part of the Panther team that won the cross country state title in the fall. Now, he said, “we want to dominate the distance events, and score a lot of points for the team.”
Luke Oxarart won the 100-meter dash in 11.33 seconds, a time that would have been among the fastest at State last year. Hunter Stevens beat his State-best high jump by two inches; he’ll also compete in the triple-jump.
Layng says that Aaron French, a transfer from Helena High, will bring speed and experience in the middle-distance races. And Colton Thorneck, a freshman, is a strong sprinter and jumper; in his debut in Corvallis, he long-jumped 18’4”, placing 9th.
Among the Panther girls, Arena Faler will return as a sprinter and in relays – her favorite event, she says, for “the adrenaline rush you get in the last event of the day.” Clare Ronayne will look to improve on her 6th and 5th-place finishes, respectively, in the State 100 and 200 meters. And MacKenzie Layng will return both as a sprinter and in the javelin, where she placed 6th at State last year.
Then there are the younger athletes. “We have a lot of freshman girls with talent,” Sarah Layng says. “They’re not going to win right away, but there’s huge potential.” In Corvallis, 9th-grader Alison Zawacki placed 6th in the high jump. Allie Muffick finished 8th in the javelin and 13th in the shot put. Sophomore Joslyn Buckley was 6th in the discus and 10th in javelin.
Layng has holes to fill. The boys’ strong relay teams lost two runners to graduation; Oxarart and Luke Strizich will return. Several girls will compete for the relay spot left by Emma McCauley. And McCauley and graduate Dylan Root were both top hurdlerslast year.
But “it seems like what we’ve done has been pretty successful,” she says, with notable understatement. “We tell the kids, trust the process.”
