MISSOULA — Early during the Class B state track and field meet Friday at Missoula County Public Schools Stadium, all eyes were on Red Lodge pole vaulter Nolan Evenson.
Just the way he likes it.
"I like using the crowd to get me hyped up and keep me on rhythm, so that's really who I'm doing it for. I like having all the eyes on me, and I like the pressure," he said.
WATCH HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE CLASS B STATE TRACK AND FIELD MEET:
Evenson is used to delivering in big situations, and he did again Friday. He entered the state meet with the top pole vault mark in Class B, a 14-foot, 6-inch vault at the Southern B divisional meet last week.
But Fairview freshman Jake Schlothauer kept pace with Evenson, and both cleared 14 feet. Schlothauer bowed out at 14-6, and Evenson kept raising the bar — increasing his energy and amping up the crowd with each vault. With the bar at 15 feet, Evenson said to himself, "Yeah, that's not high enough."
"I had never done it in practice before, so I was a little nervous, but I've said that to myself for a long time — when the bar got high, it's not high enough to get me out," Evenson said.
Evenson cleared the 15-foot bar, eliciting an emphatic celebration that included hugs with parents, grandparents and coaches. The vault broke the Class B state record of 14-9¼ set by Andrew Castle of Cascade in 2002.
Photos: 2025 Class B/C state track and field meet - Day 1
It capped off an impressive senior season for Evenson, who in February became the first Red Lodge wrestler to win an individual state championship.
"It means everything," he said, "and I hope some little kid has watched me do it and wants to do it, too."
In addition to Evenson's record-breaking performance, Auston Schellig of Joliet set the the Class B record in a blazing boys 800-meter run. The junior crossed the finish line in 1:53.79, breaking his previous personal-best time by more than six seconds.
The top six runners in the event all broke the 2-minute barrier, and seven of the top eight ran their personal-best times.
Other boys winners on the track included Superior's Trizten Avila in the 400 (50.05 seconds) and Florence's Kyler Harris in the 3,200 (9:34.08). In the field, Chinook's Carson Nissen won the long jump (21-05¼) and Ryan Sharbono of St. Ignatius won the discus (165-06).
Missoula Loyola leads the boys team race with 22 points after the first day, and Red Lodge and Florence are tied for second with 16. Four-time reigning champion Jefferson has six points.
The defending-champion Huntley Project girls, meanwhile, are out front once again, though it's a tight team race. The Red Devils have 26 points, just ahead of second-place Jefferson with 25 and third-place Townsend with 20.
"I think we're really hoping to repeat, but we lost a lot of talent last year," Huntley Project standout Avery Gerdes said. "But we still have a lot of talent on the team, and so we're just hoping we can pull something together."
Gerdes did her part Friday, defending her titles in both the 400- and 800-meter runs, though neither win came easy.
She first won the 800 by overcoming Choteau's Natalie Hodgskiss. Gerdes finished in 2:13.78, and Hodgskiss was second at 2:15.43.
The 400 was even tighter. Gerdes was neck-and-neck with Shelby's Regan Torgerson on the back stretch, but the long-striding Red Devil won on the lean, crossing the finish line in 56.52 seconds, just seven one-hundredths of a second ahead of Torgerson.
"I saw her coming, and I was obviously very nervous because, you know, I was the defending champion," Gerdes said. "I saw it coming, and I was trying to go faster, and I started stumbling, so I was worried about it, but I just got it on the lean."
Townsend's Kyla Meissner had a dominant showing in the girls 3,200-meter run, cruising to a gold-medal finish in 11:19.17, 12 seconds better than the next-closest finisher.
The Bulldogs got an expected win in the long jump, too, with Kaitlyn Noyes marking a 17-10¾ to win the event. Noyes, a junior, set the Class B long jump record last year with a jump of 18-0½.
Plains' Alexis Deming won the discus for the third consecutive year, this time marking a throw of 128-09, and Thompson Falls' Addyson Deal won the javelin with a heave of 125-10.
Ava Krings of Conrad won the pole vault with a winning height of 10-3.
The Class B state track and field meet concludes Saturday.
