George Ferguson Havre Daily News sports editor gferguson@havredailynews.com
It wasn't a perfect day weatherwise, but it was more than perfect for the North Star Knights. On Wednesday at the Havre Middle School track, North Star swept the team titles at the rain-soaked District 9C track meet and the Knights did so in convincing fashion. On the girls side, North Star racked up 197 points, knocking off the two-time defending Class C state champion Big Sandy Pioneers by 47 points. The Pioneers scored 150 points, while a strong Chinook team finished third with 111. Individually, the day belonged to Big Sandy junior Kourtney Danreuther, as expected. Danreuther, who has had bad luck in the 100 meters over the last two years, did not compete in the event, and instead moved to the long jump where jumped 17-4 and set a new 9C record. She also successfully defended her 9C titles in 200 meters, the 400 meters and the 300 hurdles. Danreuther also added the 800 to her list of events, and of course, she won the event, setting a meet record of 2:12.0 in the process. Danreuther also broke her own meet record by almost two seconds in the 400. However, as great a day as Danreuther and the Pioneers had individually, as Amber Amsbaugh won two events, the high jump and the 100 hurdles, and Laci Keller set a new meet record in the discus by throwing 111-1, they couldn't do enough to overcome North Star's depth. The Knights had four three individual championships on Wednesday as senior Natasha Dyrland captured both the javelin and shot put titles, and Sarah Helmbrecht earned the triple jump title. Jordan Spicher also went the pole vault and the Knights went one, two and three in that event. Dyrland set a meet record in the shot put with a final throw of 38-2. North Star's depth proved to be too much for the rest of the field as the Knights placed second or better 29 times throughout the day. Helmbrecht and Dyrland were phenomenal, but they got help from the likes of Britt Kapperud, Jenna Kapperud, Justine Beaudry, Tara Jurenka and others. Other event winners on the girls side, included Tia Bower and Danyel Hader of Chinook. Bower blew the field away in the 100 meters while Hader captured the grueling 3,200 meters. Rocky Boy's Jasmin Dumas won the 1,600 meters. As expected, Chinook's powerful sprinters captured the 400-meter relay, while Big Sandy won the 1,600 meter relay. Meanwhile, North Star's depth on the boys side was more than enough for the Knights to capture another 9C team title. The Knights scored a whopping 195 points while Big Sandy scored 112 points and Chinook was third with 101. Turner, which has one of its strongest teams in years, scored a solid 95 points to finish fourth. The Knights paced the meet with six individual champions on the day, led by senior Cody Jurenka, who won titles in the 300 hurdles and the 400 meters. Kellan Warren also had a big day for the Knights, capturing titles in both the 1,600 and 3,200 meters, and Zack Halter was also spectacular, winning the 110 hurdles with Jurenka finishing second, and coming in second behind Jurenka in the 300 hurdles. North Star also scored big in the pole vault with a title from Josh Beaudry, and his teammates finishing two through five. In all, the Knights placed 23 times throughout the day, and they swept the 400-meter and 1,600-meter relay titles to easily blow away the rest of the field in the team competition. Big Sandy tried to keep pace behind Pat Louvar, who captured district championships in the 100 and 200 meters. Louvar finished the 100 in 11.8 and the 200 in 24.0. Casten Heppner also gave the Pioneers a boost by winning the discus with a final throw of 132-2, almost 10 feet better than second-place finisher and teammate Blake Brumwell. Meanwhile, Turner might have been the surprise of the day. Wade Hofer captured three individual titles, the javelin, long jump and triple jump, and the Tornadoes also got wins from Travis Hofer in the high jump and Taylor Fouts in the shot put. Wade Hofer's day included a throw of 149-4 in the javelin, 10-feet better than second-place finisher Carlin Toner of North Star. He also jumped 19-1 in the long jump to edge Travis Hofer and he lept 37-6 in the triple jump. Travis Hofer, Justin Hofer and North Star's Dylan Crittenden all jumped 5-2 in the high jump, but Travis Hofer earned the district title by setting that mark first. The top six finishers in each event on Wednesday will now move on to the Northern C Divisional meet on May 15 at Memorial Stadium in Great Falls.
