North Star boys are kings of the 9C again

The North Stars Knights have dominated the District 9C boys track meet over the years and behind the stellar performances of Dylan Miller, Devon Miller and Caden Rettig, the Knights brought home the team title for a fifth consecutive season Wednesday at the Havre Middle School track.

Yet, just like last season, when the Knights edged out Chinook for the crown, nothing came easy. In fact, with just a few events to go, North Star was trailing Fort Benton. However, strong showings in the shot put from Devon Miller and Thomas Nerat, as well as Dylan Miller and Rettig in triple jump wrapped up the win. North Star finished with 137 points, 20 points ahead of Fort Benton, which ended up with 117. Turner took home third-place trophy after scoring 88 points.

Of course, without Devon Miller, Dylan Miller and Caden Rettig, who scored 88 of the Knights 137 points, the Knights likely would not have kept their streak of 9C championships alive.

“It is our fifth straight,” Devon Miller said. “We wanted to try to win in each year of high school, so that is something pretty special to do. The streak started before we got here and we wanted to keep it going.”

Another key part of the competition came in the 200-meter dash, an event North Star entered down by six. But after Devon Miller got second, Dylan Miller got third and Caden Retting got fourth, North Star grabbed a lead it would not relinquish.

“We knew that it was going to be close,” Devon Miller said. “So we wanted to try and spread ourselves out with individual events to try and get more points.”

Devon Miller was also excited about the fact that he bested his brother Dylan in both the 200 and 100, winning the short sprint with a time of 11.89, just ahead of Dylan who was second with a time 12.03. While Eddie Harmon of Turner took home the title in the 200, Devon beat Dylan for second place with a time of 24.52, edging out his brother by three tenths of a second.

“That felt pretty good to get him,” Devon Miller said. “He has beaten me in the sprints all year, so it was good to get him once.”

Even though Dylan Miller was second and third in the 100 and the 200, he was far from finished. He won the triple jump (38-08.25), an event where his teammate, Rettig, took third. Miller also won the pole vault, finishing with a height of 11-06.

“It is really cool,” Dylan Miller said. “We have always been trying to get better at other things, but we have always done pretty well in track. It’s also cool that we are one of the smaller teams and are still able to score a bunch of points.”

Rettig also had a stellar day for the Knights, which was highlighted by his victory in the long jump, taking home first place after a jump of 18-08.75. Rettig was also fifth in the 100, second in the pole vault and third in the triple jump.

“You do always feel that pressure when it’s close and you want to score points,” Rettig said. “But I am really happy that we won. I wanted to get another one for our seniors, especially the Miller boys.”

For his part, Devon Miller also won the javelin with a throw of 160-08, while also finishing second in the discus (128-10) and second in the shot put with a throw of 39-02. Cord Schneider of Chinook won the shot put (40-05) and Nerat was third. Eddie Harmon of Turner also had an outstanding day and was essential in the Tornadoes getting a third-place trophy. Harmon won the 200 with a time of 24.45, as well as the 800 with a time of 2:00.5 and the 400 with a time of 52.34. He also finished third in the 100.

Harmon’s teammate Cody Welsh also had a big day for the Tornadoes, winning the 110 hurdles (16.59) and the 300 hurdles (42.44). He also captured the high jump title with a jump of 5-08. Other individual district champions crowned Wednesday were Cameron Davis of Chester-Joplin-Inverness in the discus (132-01), Logan Giles of Fort Benton in the 3,200 (11:10) and Trajan Hannum of Chinook, who won the other distance event, the 1,600 with a time of 5:03. Fort Benton won both the long and short relays.

All top five finishers in each event at the 9C District meet automatically qualify for the Northern C Divisional. That meet will be next Thursday at Memorial Stadium in Great Falls.

BOYS

Team Scores

North Star 137, Fort Benton 117, Turner 88, Chinook 77, Big Sandy 51, Chester-Joplin-Inverness 42, Box Elder 9, Hays-Lodge Pole 1.

100 - Devon Miller, NS, 11.89; 2. Dylan Miller, NS, 12:03; 3. Eddie Harmon, TUR, 12:04; 4. Landon Taylor, FB, 12:19; 5. Caden Rettig, NS. 12.25.

200 - 1. Eddie Harmon, TUR, 24.45; 2. Devon Miller, NS, 24.52; 3. Dylan Miller, NS. 24.55; 4. Caden Rettig, NS, 24.91; 5. Spencer, Richter, CJI, 55.55.

400 - 1. Eddie Harmon. TUR, 52.34; 2. Dylan Miller, NS, 53.38; 3. Spencer Richter, CJI, 55.55; 4. Dominic Pullin, BE, 56.54; 5. Peyton Gardipee, BE. 57.68.

800 - 1. Eddie Harmon, TUR, 2:00.5; 2. Trajan Hannum, CHI, 2:05; 3. Jack Harmon, TUR, 2:17; 4. Cam Schwarzbach, BS. 2:27; 5. Damon Hannum, 2:28.

1,600 - 1. Trajan Hannum, CHI, 5:03.4; 2. Logan Giles, FB, 5:14.3; 3. Jack Harmon, TUR, 5:16.6; 4. Jeremiah Genereux, BS, 5:18.6; 5. Jase Pursley, CHI, 5:20.4.

3,200 - 1. Logan Giles, FB, 11:10.6; 2. Ryan Roth, BS, 11:13.6; 3. Jeremiah Genereaux, BS, 11:36; 4. Jase Pursley, CHI, 12:07; 5. Favion Couturier, CHI, 12:18.

110 H - 1. Cody Welsh TUR, 16.69; 2. Garrett Diekhans, FB, 17.09; 3. Connor Schnabel, FB, 18.15; 4. Kobe Tran, CJI, 19.45; 5. Hayden Massar, NS, 19.69.

300 H - 1. Cody Welsh, TUR, 42.44; 2. Garrett Diekhans, FB 45.11; 3. J.J. Colby, CHI, 46.34; 4. Kobe Tran, CJI, 19.45; 5. Hayden Massar, NS, 19.69.

Pole Vault - 1. Dylan Miller, NS, 11-06; 2. Caden Rettig, NS, 11-00; 3. Connor Schnabel, FB, 11-00; 4. Jace Thompson, FB, 10-00; 5. Kobe Tran, CJI, 10-00.

Discus - 1. Cameron Davis, CJI, 132-01; 2. Devon Miller, NS, 128-10; 3. Kade Strutz, BS, 119-02; 4. Cord Schneider, CHI, 103-66; 5. Brock Proulx, BS, 98-11.

High Jump - 1. Cody Welsh, TUR, 5-08; 2. Nick Marais, FB, 5-08; 3. Cord Schneider, CHI, 5-06; 4. Seth Jones, FB, 5-02; 5. Evan Dahinden, CJI, 5-02.

Long Jump - 1. Caden Rettig, NS, 19-00.25; 2. Nick Marais, FB 19-00.25; 3. Landon Taylor, FB, 18-03; 4. Jace Thompson, FB 10-00; 5. Kobe Tran, CJI, 10-00.

Triple Jump - 1. Dylan Miller, NS, 38-08; 2. Spencer Richter, CJI, 37-08; 3. Caden Rettig, NS, 36-03; 4. Clint Darlington, BS, 36-01; 5. Garrett Diekhans, FB, 36-00.

Shot Put - 1. Cord Schneider, CHI, 41-11; 2. Devon Miller, BS, 39-02; 3. Thomas Nerat 36-05; 4. Cameron Davis, CJI, 35-07; 5. Brendan Edwards, CHI, 35-01.

Javelin - 1. Devon Miller, NS, 160-08; 2. Stephen Gannon, FB, 135-05; 3. Parker Proulx, BS, 131-02; 4. Cord Schneider, CHI, 128-03; 5. Cody Welsh, TUR, 123-07.

400-meter relay - 1. Fort Benton. 47.43; 2. Turner, 47.89; 3. Chinook, 50.29; 4. Big Sandy, 51.36; 5. North Star, 59.84.

1,600-meter relay - 1. Fort Benton ,4:00.9; 2. Chinook, 4:08.4; 3. Big Sandy. 4.17.2; 4. North Star, 4:43.1.