George Ferguson Havre Daily News sports editor gferguson@havredailynews.com
The weather finally got good enough in Havre for area Class B and C schools to gather in Havre on Wednesday for one of the seasons premier track meets at the Havre Middle School track. Actually, Wednesday's meet was two events combined as Rocky Boy and North Star combined their annual meets, the Rocky Boy Invitational and the Cal Wearley Invitational. The Cal Wearley was cancelled two weeks ago due to poor weather. But on Wednesday, most of the Hi- Line's best arrived in Havre for a meet that turned in to a coming out party for the Cascade Badgers. The Badgers captured both the boys and girls team titles on Wednesday behind plenty of individual firepower. On the boys side Cascade scored 94 points to behind a phenomenal day from Bo McGurran, who won the 100, 200 and 400 meters, as well as the long jump and the triple jump. McGurran's efforts helped Cascade finish 20 points ahead of second-place Fort Benton, which scored 74 points. North Star finished third with 58 points, while Chester/J-I was fifth with 56 points and Big Sandy was sixth with 51 points. North Star finished third behind its relay teams, which came in first in both the 400-meter and 1600-meter event. Kellan Warren also gave the Knights a win in the 3200-meter run, as well as a second place finish in the 1600 meters, while Cody Jurenka captured the 300-meter hurdles. North Star also got a second-place finish from Josh Beaudry in the pole vault. Meanwhile, C/J-I, which is perhaps one of the deepest teams on the Hi-Line, had no individual winners on Wednesday, but the Hawks got strong all-around efforts from John Fauerbach, who placed in all three distance events, as well as Tyler Han, who placed in both hurdle events, as well as the javelin, and Chase Pimley, who was strong in the jumps. Big Sandy got points from Pat Louvar, who placed third in the 100 and second in the 200, as well as Darin Ray, who won the 1600 meters and finished second in the 800 meters. In the throws, the Pioneers got points from Casten Heppner in the discus and shot put, as well as Blake Brumwell in the discus and Taylor Ophus in the shot put. Turner, which scored 15 points in the boys event, got fourth-place finishes by Taylor Fouts in both the shot put and the discus, as well as a third-place finish form Wade Hofer in the javelin. The girls meet, which saw Cascade dominate with 121 points, was without Big Sandy star Kourtney Danreuther, but the meet was exciting none-theless. The Badgers depth carried them to the easy team title, as Chester/J-I finished a distant second with 64 points, while North Star was third with 56 points and Big Sandy was fourth 55 points. Rocky Boy finished a solid 10th with 16 points. Individually, the Hawks got two victories from Hannah Schweitzer, who won the 1600 and 3200 meters. Veteran Daina Kolstad also gave the Hawks a boost with a win in the 300-meter hurdles, as well as a second-place finish in the 100 hurdles and third-place finishes in the 100 and 200 meters. North Star also won multiple events on Wednesday as did Big Sandy. The Knights got a huge effort from Sarah Helmbrecht, who swept the long jump and the triple jump, as well as finishing second in the 100 meters. Britt Kapperud also placed fifth in the 100. The Knights also got big points from veteran Natasha Dyrland, who won the shot put and finished third in the javelin. Meanwhile, Big Sandy, the two-time defending Class C champions, looked strong, even without Danreuther in the lineup. The Pioneers were paced by Amber Amsbaugh, who won both the high jump and the 100-meter hurdles. Amsbaugh also finished fourth in the 400 meters. Big Sandy also got a win form junior Laci Keller in the discus and a second-place finish from Desirae O'Neil in the high jump. Rocky Boy's points came from standout distance runner Jasmine Dumas, who placed second in the 800 and 1600 meters.
