Spartans Qualify 14 Boys, 7 Girls For Class C State Way Out West

The final numbers of the Scobey-Opheim Spartans making it out of last week's East C Divisional Track & Field Meet in Sidney and into this week's State C Meet in Missoula appear fa vorable.

Held Thursday, May 20, at Lowman-Walton Sports Complex on Swanson Field in Sidney, where the weath er was windy with smokey skies but fortunately with no rain and in the mid-60s, the Spartans qualified 21-of-34 (.617) athletes for the state meet, which will be held in conjunction with Class AA.

The Spartans had 14-of-22 (.636) boys advancing and 7-of-12 (.583) girls still alive to compete one last time in 2021.

The team departed Sc obey on Wednesday, May 26, were scheduled to prac tice in Havre the same day and then get down to Great Falls for an overnight stay before getting into Missoula on Thursday.

The Spartan boys, who entered the gathering as the defending Class C state champions from their show ing in 2019, placed third last week to earn a trophy. They tallied 75 points, trail ing runnersup Hinsdale with 89 markers and champion Richey-Lambert with 107.5.

Scobey-Opheim had five male athletes enjoying firstplace finishes. The 4x400 relay team of, in order ran, sophomore Zak Traeholt, senior Jayce Tande, junior Cole Taylor and junior Reagan Machart, nipped Richey-Lambert 3:44.73-to-3:44.96 for the win.

Scobey-Opheim head coach Larry Henderson said Machart, who ran the last leg, was behind by three meters on the final turn but found a way to pass the last guy in front of him for the victory.

In the winner's circle as well was junior J.P. Braut, who soared over the bar for a personal-best 13 feet to win the pole vault, with the rest of the 13-boy field get ting no higher than 11-6.

The highest finishers for the Scobey-Opheim girls were senior Gracee Le kvold, who placed second in the 800- and 1600-me ter runs, and freshman Mia Handran, who placed third in the 400 with teammate Taylor Leischner .34 sec onds behind her in fourth. Here are the results of the East C Divisional Meet's top six finishers who earned a berth in the State C Meet in Missoula this weekend and of the other Scobey and Lustre Christian athletes who competed:

EAST C DIVISIONAL MEET Thursday, May 20 Swanson Field at Lowman-Walton Sports Complex Sidney, Montana GIRLS Team scores — Plentywood 65, Saco 60, Fairview 57, Savage 53, Hinsdale 50, Scobey-Opheim 50, Circle 48, MonDak (Westby-Grenora) 40, Whitewater 37, Culbertson 27, Richey-Lambert 22, Froid-Medicine Lake 6, Bainville 5,...