Cardinals Earn 6th Men’s District Title

CLARKSTON -- The Waitsburg-Prescott track and field teams will see 13 athletes moving on to the state meet after an impressive performance at Clarkston High School on Friday. The men's team took first overall with a score of 159, and the women's team took third with a score of 83, advancing team members to the next phase of competition.

"This was our sixth title in a row on the boys side and seven out of the last eight championships," head coach Jeff Bartlow said.

Five members of the women's team qualified for the state track meet: Kristin Potter, Ronnie Hulce, Emily Skay, Stacia Deal and Maddy Witt. Seniors Hulce and Potter were major contributors to the final numbers putting up 26 and 30 points respectively.

Eight members of the men's team qualified for state: Eshom Estes, Ben Shafer, Jacob Cantuna, Seth Deal, James Thompkins, Billy Brown and Alex Dill.

"The kids were excited and hung out around each other, holding up the trophy and singing our fight song," Bartlow said. "It was a most excellent feeling and that feeling of winning never gets old. The kids performed at a very high level and there are lots of highlights and new marks the kids achieved."

Hulce took third in the high jump finals with a height of 4-04.00 and second in the 100 meter hurdles with a time of 17.82.

Skay took third in the 400-meter race with a time of 1:07.43.

Deal took eighth in the 100-meter race with a time of 17.08 and sixth in the 200 meter with a time of 30.54.

Potter took first in the 200-meter race with a time of 27.45, beating her 200-meter preliminary time of 27.93, first in the 400-meter race with a time of 1:02.99, beating her preliminary time of 1:04.18. She also took second in the 100-meter final with a time of 13.55. Potter ran with Skay, Hulce and Deal in the 4x100 relay and the team took second in finals with a time of 53.89.

Witt took fifth in the long jump finals with a distance of 14-04.23 and second in the triple jump with a distance of 30-02.50.

Estes took first in shot put with a distance of 50-10.00, second in the javelin throw with a distance of 198-08 and third in the discus throw with a distance of 135-02.

Shafer took second in the shot put finals with a distance of 46-10.75 and sixth in the discus throw with a distance of 46-09.00.

Cantuna took first in the javelin throw with a distance of 140-03 and eighth in the shot put with a distance of 39-01.50.

Seth Deal took second in the 1600-meter race with a time of 4:32.61 and second in the 3200-meter race with a time of 9:54.64.

Thompkins dominated the meet taking first in the 100-, 200- and 400-meter races with times of 11.41, 23.58 and 50.91 respectively. Thompkins ran with Brown, Dill and Logan Wanous in the 4X100 relay and the team took first with a time of 45.05.

"Overall I really felt good about the title and the kids are excited and cannot wait to compete at State," Bartlow said. "They have put their time in and this is the reward they get. They earned it."

The Dayton track and field team will be sending one student to state after the men's team took eighth with a score of 22 and the women's team took seventh with a score of nine. The advancing runner is Brandon Clark, who took second in the high jump with a height of 5-08.00, seventh in the long jump with a score of 17-06.00 and twelfth in the shot put with a distance of 34-09.00.

Dayton senior Adam Strohbehn took third in the high jump with a score of 5-08.00, fourth in the long jump with a distance of 19- 07.25, fifth in the 200 meter with a time of 24.69 and tenth in the 100 meter with a time of 12.73.

Justin Clark took fifth in the high jump with a height of 5-06.00 and eleventh in the javelin throw with a distance of 108-10.