Both the boys and girls of M-P track won the four-team meet in Shoreline March 13 by taking victories in seven and nine events, respectively.
Hurdles proved a particular strength of the Tomahawk squad as junior Alex McDonald won both the 100 and 300 hurdles for the girls, while teammates Mark Pangilinan won the shorter hurdles and Travis Sanderson the longer.
Young M-P squads also won the 4×100 relays on both the boys and girls sides. Senior Nicolette Runyan led freshman Dacia Heckendorf and sophomores Alisha Oden and Cali Cull to a time of 52.13, while the boys quartet of junior Andy Abadam, freshman Chris Dockendorf and sophomores Pangilinan and Jacob Cartas took their event in 45.13.
Cull won the long jump while relay teammate and long jump rival Oden won the 200.
With a workhorse ethic, Runyan, fellow senior Haley Nemra a victor in the 800 and Oden brought the competitiveness that carried them to state-caliber seasons last year.
You do, you take them for granted. Runyans in her fourth year and plugging away. Alisha is so ready to go. The danger with those two girls is doing too much too soon, said head coach Randy Davis, adding of his state vets, Theyve had three great years of success. Hopefully theyll build over the season and finish as high as they did before.
On the boys side, senior Brandon Greene won the high jump with a 6-0 mark, wowing Davis.
And in shades of last season, Blake Lovell came out for track as a senior and picked up the javelin after his junior year off, throwing an impressive 152-9 for second place. It reminded Davis of last years rookie Kenny York who took a strong season all the way to a second-place finish in the state meet.
He has the same great start that Kenny did last year. Hes got two really pretty technical events, triple jump and javelin, and came out doing a good job. Hes got a lot to learn in a short time.
Other first-place finishes were the girls 4×200 relay, senior Kelli Fessenden in the shot put, senior Robin Mueller in the pole vault, junior Ryan Lanphere in the 1,600, Pangilinan in the 200 and Abadam in the long jump.