MISSOULA — Two of the marquee track and field meets of the high school season were canceled last week when the Swede Dahlberg Invitational and Great Falls Optimist Club meets were called.
The Dahlberg, held in Butte, pits the top Class AA boys from across the state against each other, while the Optimist does the same for Class AA's girls in Great Falls. The meets give athletes from the East and West the opportunity to compete head to head when they might not otherwise see each other until state, so missing out on these events, which will not be rescheduled, is a bummer.
That's the nature of spring sports, but there were still enough meets last week for athletes to continue to raise the bar.
Class C athletes chipping away at the qualifying standards
Montana's smallest classification typically has the hardest-to-reach standards for its athletes, and this season is no different — it's the only class still with events with zero state qualifiers.
Cascade's Trent Lane broke the seal in the 1,600-meter run, posting a time of 4 minutes, 39.64 seconds at the SSHS Invitational. Lane, who also ran Class C's best 3,200 in 10:23.18 at the SSHS Invitational, is the first Class C runner to break the 4:40.40 qualifying standard in the 1,600 this season.
Braden Tuning of Gardiner also became Class C's first state qualifier in the 110-meter hurdles. He clocked a time of 15.05 seconds at last week's Gallatin Valley Invitational, which is the fastest time in Class C by more than a second.
On the girls side, Sierra Wilcox of Shields Valley and Jolee Klempel of Richey-Lambert ran Class C's first sub-13-second times in the 100-meter dash. Wilcox leads the class with a 12.78, and Klempel is second at 12.91. Wilcox also owns Class C's best 200 time at 26.59 seconds.
Klempel also qualified for state in the 100-meter hurdles last week, running a personal-best time of 15.37 seconds at the Fairview HS Invite. A junior, Klempel is one of those rare Class C athletes who is now state-qualified in the 100, 100 hurdles, shot put, long jump and triple jump.
Philipsburg senior Addi Lilyquist is now state-qualified in the 1,600 after posting a time of 5:18.36 at the Gallatin Valley Invitational. She's the only Class C girl under the 5:33.19 standard in the event, and she also leads the classification in the 800 with a time of 2:18.74.
Class C is still awaiting its first state qualifiers in the boys 800 and 3,200-meter runs, the boys 1,600-meter relay and the girls 400-meter run.
Glacier's Owen Thiel shining at out-of-state showcases
Perhaps the most eye-popping result of last week belongs to Owen Thiel of Kalispell Glacier. The senior ran a personal-best time of 4:08.85 in the 1,600 at the Nike/Jesuit Twilight Relays in Oregon. That's the fastest time by a Montanan not named Nathan Neil in athletic.net's database, which goes back to 2006. (Neil, the former Bozeman standout now at the University of Washington, ran the 1,600 in the low 4s during his senior season with the Hawks before clocking a 3:59.26 at the Hoka Festival of Miles after his senior state meet.)
Thiel placed 10th overall in the 1,600 at the Nike/Jesuit Twilight Relays. He was also eighth in the 1,500 (3:52.74) and 10th in the mile (4:10.38). Thiel currently has Montana's fastest times in the 1,600 and 3,200 (8:50.57 at the Arcadia Invitational in California), though neither time was clocked on Treasure State soil.
Throwers putting records on watch
In our opinion, Dennis Black's 1991 shot put of 68-0½ is the most untouchable record in Montana high school track and field, but we're getting closer to putting that mark on watch. Gallatin junior Riley McGrath uncorked a personal-best shot put of 63-0 at the Raptors' crosstown meet last week. For whatever reason, that throw doesn't appear on the deep list for the event, which still list's McGrath's 61-3½ as the top mark in the state.
McGrath does seem poised to threaten the discus record after marking a 194-5 at the Billings Invite 10 days ago. That leads the state this season and is just off the record of 198-1 set by Gallatin's Jack Murray in 2024.
Henry Griffin of Frenchtown leads the Class A throwers after marking 58-11 in the shot put and 186-2 in the discus last week, Glasgow's Cade Hudyma broke a 27-year-old school record and set Class B's top shot put mark with a 54-foot throw, and Choteau's Kesston Thomas has vaulted to the top of the javelin leaderboard, regardless of class, with a 194-4.
Sidney's Morgan Kindopp raises the bar ... again
It's time for our regular check-in of Sidney's Morgan Kindopp. The senior pole vaulter cleared 12-9 at the Gold Strike Invitational, putting the all-class state record of 13-0 set by Helena's Shannon Agee in 1998 within reach at next month's state meet.
Allison Gama hitting her stride for Missoula Loyola
And finally, there's a new leader atop the girls 100-meter hurdles. Missoula Loyola's Allison Gama blazed to a 14.9 last week, overtaking Kalispell Flathead's Bristol Lenz for the state's fastest time. Gama won the event at last year's Class B state meet in helping the Breakers to the team trophy.
