IDAHO 3A/2A/1A TRACK: Deary's Anderson caps four-title sweep

MIDDLETON, Idaho - Don't bother asking Tona Anderson how close her races were on Saturday. How would she know?

Leading early and keeping her eyes straight ahead, the Deary High sophomore swept the 1A girls' dashes to finish with four first-place medals and a school record in the Idaho state small-school track meet at Middleton High.

Nic Griffin of Troy won the 1A boys' 100- and 200-meter races, Keidi Anderson of Logos repeated as 1A girls' 800 champion and Cooper Hewett of Kendrick ruled the 1A boys' long jump as the meet concluded in nearly 80-degree weather in the Treasure Valley.

Taking relay titles were a girls' squad from Prairie and boys' quartets from Kamiah and Deary.

The Kamiah boys finished second in the 1A boys' team scoring, with Griffin's Trojans fourth, while Anderson paced the Deary girls to third.

Anderson has been proving all season that multiple state-champion sprinter Maisie McManus didn't leave the Deary cupboard bare when she graduated last spring. And the much-improved soph underscored that fact when she broke McManus' school record in winning the state 400 in 59.02 seconds.

She also took the 100 in 12.78 and the 200 in 26.30. Those races were close by Anderson's standards -the margins were 17 hundredths of a second and 35 hundredths, respectively - but she wouldn't necessarily know that.

The medley relay the previous day had been a different story. Anderson took the baton in seventh place and ran a 58.5-second anchor leg to pull out a win.

"Four golds - it feels pretty amazing," she said.

Emmy Parkins of Genesee scored medals in all three girls' dashes.

Griffin, who plans to compete next year for Eastern Oregon, had been locked in a Nic vs. Nic rivalry all season with Nic Minudri of Logos, who typically takes the 100 while the Troy senior wins the 200. This time Griffin won them both, clocking 11.18 and 22.48.

"Before the (100) race, I reminded myself to relax, take it one step at a time, don't get tight," Griffin said. "Just run. And I did it. It was awesome."

In the prelims the previous day he had set school records at 11.12 and 22.32.

Minudri, a junior, wound up second in the 100 and 400 and third in the 200.

Hewett scratched his first two attempts in the 1A boys' long jump, meaning he needed a legal jump on his third try in order to make the finals.

Primarily a sprinter and relay runner early in the season, the long-limbed Kendrick sophomore didn't adopt the long jump in earnest until a few weeks ago. So his approach is still inconsistent, and he needs to move back his starting point throughout the competition as he get the kinks out.

For that critical third try, Kendrick coach Jennifer Ingalls told him to scoot back a full 2 feet and let it fly. He complied, uncorking a 21-31/2 leap that held up for the win, relegating 2017 champion Josh Nichols of North Star Charter to second place.

"I was really nervous," said Hewett, who also placed fourth in the 100. "I almost gave up, thinking it wasn't really worth it - I was almost done. But then somehow it happened."

Ingalls said she plans to put Hewett primarily in individual events next season, "because his strength is so dominant, really. We're working."

Hewett's win gave Kendrick a sweep of the 1A long jump. Another inexperienced Tigers soph mounting a late-season surge, Cassidy Lustig, had ruled the girls' competition Friday.

Keidi Anderson won the 1A girls' 800 for the second straight year in a personal-record 2:20.35. The Logos senior settled for 10th in the 1,600.

The Prairie girls, lacking the individual punch that had helped them to a state team title last year, placed even more emphasis than usual on their relays and scored a first and two seconds Saturday after also finishing second in the medley Friday.

The foursome of Theresa Wemhoff, Jordyn Higgins, Sierra McWilliams and Laney Uhlenkott won the 800 relay in 1:49.49.

Also putting a premium on relays were the Kamiah boys, who won the 400 version in 44.91 with a lineup of Jesse Knox, Cristian Lopez-Armstrong and Kaleb Oatman.

"We worked every day on our handoffs, which helped a lot," Lopez-Armstrong said.

The Deary boys' 800 relay team of Zane Kinzer, Jalen Kirk, Jayce Weinmann and Ben Scott prevailed in 1:32.88, missing the 1A state-meet record by 86 hundredths.

In 2A, Braison Norman and Baeli Kinsley nabbed two places apiece for Grangeville while Princess Shriver did the same for Orofino. Two Grangeville girls' relay squads placed second and two Orofino boys' quartets took third.

IDAHO 3A/2A/1A STATE TRACK MEET

Final Day

TOP TEAMS

2A girls - Melba 104, West Jefferson 79, McCall-Donnelly 761/2, Salmon 75, Cole Valley Christian 56 (Also: Orofino 9th with 30, Grangeville 10th with 29).

2A boys - Nampa Christian 93, Aberdeen 83, Salmon 75, Cole Valley Christian 65, West Side 601/2 (Also: Orofino 7th with 43).

1A girls - Raft River 69, Rockland 66, Deary 42, Butte County 42, Liberty Charter 24. (Also: Nezperce 11th with 22, Kendrick 12th with 21, Genesee 17th with 15, Logos 20th with 14).

1A boys - Valley 95, Kamiah 56, Challis 38, Troy 36, Liberty Charter 35 (Also: Logos 7th with 28, Deary 8th with 26, Kendrick 10th with 21).

PLACERS FROM DISTRICT II

CLASS 2A

Girls

100 - 4, Princess Shriver, Oro, 13.18. 5, JaKaili Norman, Gra, 13.30.

200 - 7, Princess Shriver, Oro, 27.78.

1600 - 6, Sydnie Zywina, Oro, 5:38.98.

100 hurdles - 7, Baeli Kinsley, Gra, 17.24.

300 hurdles - 8, Baeli Kinsley, Gra, 50.49.

400 relay - 2, Grangeville 51.82. 4, Orofino 53.10.

800 relay - 2, Grangeville 1:49.62.

1600 relay - 7, Grangeville 4:27.14.

Boys

100 - 4, Braison Norman, Gra, 11.66. 5, Luke Peterson, Oro, 11.76.

200 - 6, Braison Norman, Gra, 23.65.

400 relay - 3, Orofino 44.39.

800 relay - 3, Orofino 1:33.13.

Pole vault - 3, Eric Perry, Oro, 13-0.

CLASS 1A

Girls

100 - 1, Tona Anderson, Dea, 12.78. 6, Loreal Ellenwood, Lap, 13.48. 7, Emmy Parkins, Gen, 13.49.

200 - 1, Tona Anderson, Dea, 26.30. 4, Emmy Parkins, Gen, 27.37. 8, Skyler Beck, High, 28.55.

400 - 1, Tona Anderson, Dea, 59.02 (school record; old record 59.91, Maisie McManus, 2017). 4, Emmy Parkins, Gen, 1:00.79. 6, Skyler Beck, High, 1:01.36.

800 - 1, Keidi Anderson, Log, 2:20.35. 8, Molly Hanson, Gen, 2:29.86.

100 hurdles - 7, Gabrielle Seubert, Dea, 17.79.

300 hurdles - 8, Kourtne Carpenter, Nez, 53.12.

400 relay - 2, Prairie 52.64. 3, Kendrick 53.01.

800 relay - 1, Prairie (Wemhoff, McWilliams, Higgins, L. Uhlenkott) 1:49.49. 5, Potlatch 1:52.64.

1600 relay - 2, Prairie 4:14.83. 6, Nezperce 4:29.95. 7, Genesee 4:45.43.

Boys

100 - 1, Nic Griffin, Troy, 11.18. 2, Nic Minudri, Log, 11.26. 4, Cooper Hewett, Ken, 11.35.

200 - 1, Nic Griffin, Troy, 22.48. 3, Nic Minudri, Log, 22.93. 4, Cristian Lopez-Armstrong, Kam, 23.09.

400 - 2, Nic Minudri, Log, 51.12. 4, Ben Scott, Dea, 51.76. 7, Julian Schreiber, Gen, 52.39. 8, Sam Taff, Gen, 52.56.

800 - 5, Josh Lay, Troy, 2:01.81.

1600 - 7, Michael MacMenamin, Kam, 4;43.93. 8, Josh Lay, Troy, 4;46.32.

110 hurdles - 4, Sean Spencer, Pra, 15.37. 6, Bryan Carter, Ken, 16.54.

300 hurdles - 2, Jalen Kirk, Dea, 41.07. 5, Sean Spencer, Pra, 41.98.

400 relay - 1, Kamiah (Knox, Lopez-Armstrong, Henry, Oatman) 44.91. 3, Logos 45.46.

800 relay - 1, Deary 1:32.88. 2, Kamiah 1:34.03. 6, Troy 1:37.05.

1600 relay - 2, Kamiah 3:34.52. 3, Troy 3:34.91. 5, Deary 3:36.69.

Long jump - 1, Cooper Hewett, Ken, 21-31/2. 4, Kendall Leighton, Lap, 20-61/2. 8, Jayce Weinmann, Dea, 19-61/2.

Discus - 4, Kaleb Oatman, Kam, 134-8. 6, Kolton Krasselt, Pot, 130-1. 6, Carson Schmidt, Pra, 124-8.

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Grummert may be contacted at daleg@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2290.