BILLINGS — What got into the athletes at the Helena crosstown dual last week?
If you had your sights on a top mark, you wanted to be at Vigilante Stadium last Friday where four new statewide bests were established on the boys side and another was achieved for the girls.
In fact, three of the top four boys 100-meter times that were set on Friday came from the Helena dual, as did the top two boys 200 times. Perhaps most amazingly, 16 new top-10 marks were established at that meet, 14 on the boys side alone.
Entering this week, the new top-four times in the boys 100 are as follows:
- Cooper Nelson, Helena Capital, 10.68 - May 8 at the Helena crosstown dual
- Jaxon Allery, Missoula Sentinel, 10.76 - May 8 at the Greg Rice City Meet
- Pacer Lybbert, Helena, 10.76 - May 8 at the Helena crosstown dual
- Luke Ruch, Helena, 10.85 - May 8 at the Helena crosstown dual
Seven of the top-10 times that now make up the boys 100-meters list were achieved on Friday at meets ranging from Missoula to Helena to Billings.
That's not all. Ruch and Nelson also took over the state's top two positions in the 200 meters, with respective times of 21.82 and 21.92 in Helena. Kalispell Flathead's Ben Bliven previously held best 100- and 200-meter times but on Friday was supplanted by other speed merchants.
Four of the top-10 times now in the 200 meters were clocked on Friday, also.
The boys sprints at the Class AA state meet later this month in Kalispell promise to be highly competitive races. And that will hold true even as it appears Billings Skyview's Ryan Dierenfield, who has been out all season with an injury, won't be unable to run.
Other state bests achieved at the Helena crosstown dual on Friday included:
- Boys 400 relay: Helena High, 41.91
- Boys long jump: Aayden Simmons, Helena, 22-11
- Girls high jump: Madilyn Todorovich, Helena, 5-8
Seeley-Swan's Boyd goes deep in discus
The weekend also saw a new state best in the girls discus, as Seeley-Swan's Lillian Boyd uncorked a throw of 149 feet, 6 inches Saturday at the District 13C meet in Missoula.
Boyd's throw was a new personal record, and supplanted the state's previous best — by Billings Skyview standout Rae Smart — by more than 15 feet.
A junior for the Class C Blackhawks, Boyd is in search of her first state discus title. She placed second at state in each of the past two seasons.
Divisionals on tap for this week
With district meets taking place last week, athletes statewide will have one more chance to improve their marks ahead of the state meets with divisionals coming up this week.
Following is a list of sites and dates for Class AA, A, B and C divisional meets. Six of those meets will either overlap or run concurrently at the same venue:
- Eastern AA — at Belgrade, May 16
- Western AA — at Butte, May 16-17
- Eastern A — at Glendive, May 16-17
- Western A — at Polson, May 16-17
- Southern B — at Laurel, May 15
- Northern B — at Great Falls, May 16-17
- Western B — at Missoula, May 16-17
- Eastern C — at Sidney, May 13
- Southern C — at Laurel, May 15
- Northern C — at Great Falls, May 15-16
- Western C — at Missoula, May 16-17
The 2025 Class AA and Class A state track and field meets are May 23-24 at Kalispell. The Class B and Class C state meets are the same days at Missoula.
Note: All marks are compiled from Athletic.net, the official database of Montana High School Association track and field results.
