MILES CITY — Huntley Project’s boys and girls track and field teams had strong performances to sweep the team titles at the John Polich Invitational in Miles City on Saturday, but no Red Devil was more impressive than Noah Bouchard.
Bouchard won the high jump with a leap of 6 feet, 8 inches, jumping right into contention with Avery Stiles for the Class B high jump title. Stiles cleared 6-09.25 earlier this year and won the State B title last year at 6-06. Bouchard’s jump also has him eyeing down Darby Jones’ State B record of 6-08, which the Whitehall standout set in 1986.
Bouchard added a second-place finish in the long jump and Chris Kistler tied for second in the pole vault to add scoring for the Red Devils in the field events. It was on the track, though, that Huntley Project picked up its most points.
Austin Hernandez won both the 100- and 200-meter dashes on Saturday, defeating defending Class A state champion Keith Vanderlaan in both. Hernandez cross in 11.40 seconds and 22.67. Mitchell Burns added a win for Project in the 400-meter dash in 50.38, and Bradley Graves swept the 110- and 300-meter hurdles. The Red Devils also won both relay races.
Huntley Project cruised 137.5 points. The Huntley Project girls had to fend off a pair of Class A teams to win the team title. The Red Devils scored 85 points, while second-place Lewistown scored 74 and Laurel finished with 72.
Macee Murphy swept the 100 and 300 hurdles for Huntley Project and ran the anchor leg on Project’s winning 400-meter relay team. Emily Poole added two wins in the field events, winning the discus with a throw of 132-00 and the javelin with a throw of 130-06.
Several impressive marks were also hit throughout the course of the meet. Laurel’s Levi Taylor ran the state’s fastest time in the 800-meter run, clocking in at 1 minute, 57.25 and edging Lewistown’s Tanner Trafton down the stretch. Sidney’s Carter Hughes unleashed the state’s farthest throw in both the shot put and discus. His toss of 59-06 in the shot put leads the state by three feet. His throw of 168-03 leads the state by two feet.
Lewistown sophomore Kylie Zimmer, who recently set the Midland Roundtable Top 10 record in the shot put, had another huge throw in the shot put on Saturday. Her throw of 43-07 leads her sister, Anna, by three feet for the state’s farthest mark.
Full results of the John Polich Invitational can be found here.
