Indoor thinclads compete well at Bozeman meet

Good competition and a different venue provided the backdrop for the Lovell indoor track and field teams as they showed improvement in their second meet of the season at the BTC All-Comers meet in Bozeman, Montana, last Saturday.

The Lovell Bulldogs and Lady Bulldogs opted for the Montana meet to see some different competition rather than attend the meet held in Gillette on Friday. Ten teams competed at the BTC All-Comers meet including Billings West, Helena Capital, Butte and Laurel. 

Senior Halen Strom had a solid meet, improving on his shot put performance in Gillette two weeks ago by a foot with a toss of 47-2 to place fourth. He then had a very good throw of 65-11 in the weight throw for a second-place finish. Tazz McArthur also showed improvement in the shot put, bettering his Gillette performance by four feet with a toss of 40-2 to place ninth and then followed that up with a good mark of 38-0.5 in the weight throw, which placed him eighth. Jett Hessenthaler placed 13th in the shot put with a mark of 34-9, and Sam Cordova finished right behind him in 14th place with a toss of 34-6.

In the girls division Celeste Lindsay continued her strong indoor season with a toss of 36-3 in the shot put for a second-place finish. Then in the weight throw she had a throw of 28-6, which placed her fourth. Christina Zollman had a strong performance in the weight throw, finishing just ahead of Lindsay with a throw of 29-2 for third place, and she also placed seventh in the shot put with a mark of 28-5. 

The long jump event had several Bulldogs and Lady Bulldogs competing with Nate Cornia leading the way with a solid jump of 18-4.25 to place 16th, and he was followed by teammates Robert Capers, who placed 25th with a jump of 16-9.75, and Connor Grant, who was 34th with a mark of 13-9.75. For the Lady Bulldogs Claire Shumway and Sofia Khan finished right together with Shumway placing 20th with a jump of 11-8.25 and Khan 21st with a mark of 11-7.5. 

On the track the Bulldogs performed well in the 60-meter sprint with Cornia posting the best time of 7.61, which placed him 46th, Hessenthaler 8.13 for 76th place, Capers 8.19 for 79th place and Grady Henley hitting the tape in 10.63 for 81st place. Daisy Carpenter was the top Lady Bulldog in the sprints with a time of 9.21 to place 32nd, and Khan finished in 36th place with a time of 10.44. 

In the longer sprints Toree Herman ran well again with a 20th-place finish in the 400 meters with a time of 1:12.20 and followed that up by running the 200 meters in 32.80 to place 33rd. Carpenter had the fastest time for Lovell in the 200 meters, finishing in 31.77, and Shumway also competed in the 200 meters, placing 35th in a time of 33.71. 

For the Bulldogs, Cornia had a good time of 24.73 to place 40th, Capers finished in 60th place in 27.21 and Henley’s time of 38.51 placed him 62nd. Cutler Wilkerson was the lone distance runner for Lovell, running the 1,600 meters and placing 65th in 6:41.43.

The indoor track and field teams will take a week off to continue practicing for their next competition at the Cody/Powell Indoor Track and Field meet to be held on Thursday, Feb. 26, in Gillette.