Track teams tune up at Icebreaker

Temperatures in the mid-60s welcomed the Outlaw track and field team to the annual Mountain View Icebreaker and made the meet more of a sweat-maker than an icebreaker. There were some impressive early season performances at the meet held in Bend on Wednesday, March 13.

Teams from Ridgeview, La Pine, Gilchrist, and the Cougars competed in the non-scoring meet.

It was the first meet as head coach for Josh Nordell, who felt pleased by the competitiveness of his relatively young team.

"We had good efforts in every event and some nice surprises from some of our freshmen," said Nordell. "The more experienced team members set a nice tone for the team as well."

Brandon Pollard showed that his winter conditioning is paying off as he cruised to an easy win in the 1,500-meters in a time of 4:16.0, twenty seconds faster than he ran at the same meet last season. He doubled back with a win in the 800-meters as well (2:10.31). Trent Marks picked up a third place (2:19.69), followed by frosh Jadon Bachtold (2:27.48) in fourth place.

Another freshmen, Dyut Fetrow, made it a sweep of the distance races for Sisters with a well-executed duel in the 3,000-meters (10:25.48).

The sprinters did their part as well for the Sisters boys, as Andrew Snyder (11.60) and freshman Austin Sandsness (11.63) went 2-3 in the 100 meter dash. Mountain Views Tyler Dunn won the event in 11.50.

In the 400-meters, another ninth-grader, Izaak Kanzig, placed fifth in a career best of 56.85, while juniors Jake McAllister (44.6) and Ian Baldessari (46.3) went 2-3 in the 300-meter hurdles. McAllister also ended in a tie for first place in the high jump, clearing 5 feet 10 inches.

Keegan Bloss picked up a win in the pole vault (12 feet 6 inches), while fellow sophomore Tim Streeter (18 feet 3.25 inches).

Among the girls team, Sisters picked up a number of top places including victories by Alisha Haken in the 100 hurdles (17.79) and triple jump (31 feet 2 inches), freshman Michaela Miller in the 300 hurdles (51.97), Aria Blumm in the 800 (2:39.38), Maddi Boettner in the 3,000 (13:45) and Zoe Falk in the long jump (15 feet 10.25 inches).

The versatile Haken also snagged third place in the shot put (27 feet 6 inches) and fourth in the high jump (4 feet 8 inches). Falk finished second in both the 1,500 (5:21) and the 400 (1:05.7), and frosh Macadia Calavan was the runner-up in the 800 (2:40.72).

The 1,600 meter relay team of Blumm, Calavan, Miller and Falk concluded the meet with a win in a time of 4:24.81.

"We are already seeing so much improvement in the kids and we look forward to what they will do week by week," said

Nordell.

The Outlaws compete Wednesday, March 20 at Summit High School against Ridgeview, Gilchrist, Hosanna Christian, La Pine, and the host Storm. Field events begin at 3:30 p.m. and running events get underway

at 4 p.m.