MISSOULA — Considering the circumstances, Thursday has to be considered a good day on the track for the Butte High and Butte Central track teams.
The Bulldogs and Maroons competed with Missoula Big Sky at Missoula County Stadium in what was basically the first time the Mining City schools got to work out on a track this spring. The track and field at East Middle School has still not recovered from the late-winter snow.
Still, the two schools combined to qualify five athletes for their respective state meets. Well, maybe.
Butte High saw sophomore Anna Trudnowski in the high jump and senior Gabbie Parini in the long jump reach qualifying standards in their events. Senior Lindsay McGree, junior Cutter Thatcher and freshman Rileigh McGree all reached the state mark in the long jump for Butte Central
However, the meet had technical issues that forced the running events to be hand timed, and hand-timed marks can’t count toward qualifying. So, Butte High coach Arie Grey and BC coach Zack Stajcar weren’t sure if the field events would count, either.
Phone calls will be placed to check on the rule in the morning.
Either way, both coaches were extremely pleased with their teams on the overcast but pleasant day in the Garden City.
“We had a pretty good day,” Stajcar said. “We only have 18 kids, but we counted it out and we won seven different events between the boys and girls.”
Butte High brought four buses with 174 athletes to the meet. Grey praised the effort and attitude of his athletes.
“We started really well for it being the firs time we were on the track,” Grey said. “I couldn’t be more pleased with how we did.”
Butte Sports will post complete results when they are available. Because of the technical issues, that will not be until at least Friday.
The Bulldogs will compete again in Missoula against Hellgate and Sentinel on Tuesday. They’ll travel to Great Falls the following Saturday.
The Maroons will compete in Belgrade’s meet on Saturday. That event has been moved to Bozeman. BC will also go to Tuesday’s Florence/Darby meet in Corvallis
