Juneau-Douglas High School and Thunder Mountain High School’s track and field teams met at TMHS on Saturday to work out the early-season kinks and test their mettle against Juneau’s prep track contenders.
The teams competed in a full battery of running and throwing events, leaving out only a few relays on the day. The event was considered an informal, all comers event, meaning any Southeast prep team that could make it was invited; community members were also invited to compete in the 1600-meter run. One little sister even helped fill out the girls 4X400-meter relay team.
Both teams felt they had some great results on the day, with personal bests and competitive times logged in several different events for the Crimson Bears and the Falcons.
Thunder Mountain senior Luke Paden ran the men’s 400-meter dash in 53.78 seconds, good enough for a personal best. Paden’s time would have been seventh-best at the Big C meet in early April. (All times in the informal meet are unofficial, and have .24 seconds added as a standard measure to compensate for stopwatches.)
TMHS juniors Gabe Crawford and John Morris both logged personal bests in the men’s 110-meter hurdles, with Crawford’s 17.55 second time and Morris’ 17.71 leading the pack.
TMHS senior John Somerlot won the 100-meter dash at 11.50 seconds, beating his time in the early-season Big C meet by .37 seconds. Somerlot couldn’t be stopped for comment, as he ran clear down the field on a victory lap after hearing his time.
JDHS had its own share of good showings, with a majority of the team meeting or exceeding personal goals, according to coach Jesse Stringer. Stringer says the Crimson Bears’ distance running team is “tough as nails,” and put down good times in the mile and the 800 meter, with Ethan Goebel logging a 4:53 mile.
Wind blew across the Thunder Mountain track on Saturday, holding both teams back a bit from producing their fastest times.
Thunder Mountain and Juneau-Douglas compete next in Ketchikan on April 22 and 23.
Naomi Welling leads in the 100M Hurdle during their meet against JDHS on Saturday at Thunder Mountain’s field.
