Usual heroes shine
Francis, Highley lead girls to Juneau Invitational title, boys 2nd
With a few waist-high snow drifts still scattered about Adair-Kennedy field Saturday, the Juneau-Douglas High School track and field team went blow-for-blow with visiting Kodiak before each team could finally exhale with a respective team title from the annual Juneau Invitational Meet.
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The JDHS squad took the girls' team title under clear, sunny skies, racking up 205 team points behind 30-point personal efforts from both junior Leah Francis and sophomore Emily Sharp. The Kodiak girls finished second with 196 team points, falling in the day's final events in what had been a neck-and-neck race since Friday's opening day.
The Kodiak boys took their title in more convincing fashion, using their 286 team points to top JDHS' second-place total of 182 team points. The Crimson Bears boys were led yet again by senior sprinter Jeff Cordle, who racked up 22 points for the club.
The main story of the day, though, might have been the team-wide improvement displayed by Juneau-Douglas. In all, JDHS athletes set 73 individual personal records on the weekend, including 40 from the girls' side and 33 from the boys'.
Francis, the defending large-school state title holder in the 800-, 1600- and 3200-meter events, won all three of her specialties at the club's home meet. Her times of 5:17.37 in the 1600 and 11:19.69 in the 3200 give her the state's top marks so far this season, and her time of 2:23.45 gives her the second-fastest time in the 800. Oddly enough, none of those marks were personal records for Francis, who was slowed by illness early in the season and is still rounding back into her accustomed shape.
"Well, they're better than last week, but not anywhere near last year," Francis said. "I can see (setting new PRs) happening soon. I had a lot left and I need to get my pacing back."
Emily Sharp took both the girls' 100 and 300 hurdle event titles on the weekend. Her time of 16.38 seconds in the 100 hurdles put her just ahead of her sister Sam Sharp, who finished second in 17.06. Emily's time of 49.69, though, put her well ahead of the pack in the 300 hurdles. Sitka's Kari Paustian finished second in that event in 51.15. Sam took third in the 300, finishing in 51.30.
Emily also placed second in the 200-meter sprint and ran a leg on the second-place girls' 800-meter relay. Sitka's Leisha Trani won the 200 in 27.51, with Emily finishing less than a second behind in 27.89. The Crimson Bears' 800 relay squad - complete with Emily, Maya Riselbach, Stacie Arnold and Marie Holden - finished just more than two second behind Kodiak's foursome to take second.
Despite scoring just 16.5 points in her events, Sam Sharp was named the JDHS girls' athlete of the meet for setting new personal best times in both the 100 and 300 hurdle events.
Crimson Bear Carolyn Chenoweth also impressed her coaches by marking three new personal records during the meet, setting a new bar in the triple jump, long jump and 100-meter sprint.
While Cordle led the Juneau-Douglas boys in scoring, he set just one personal record while fighting off shin splints over the weekend. His new mark and winning time of 24.25 seconds in the 200-meter sprint was also his first official timing in the event, after primarily running the distance during the boys' 800-meter relay in the past.
Cordle also won the 100 in 11.81 seconds to pull past Kodiak's Galen Cubbedge at the finish line. Cordle's anchoring leg of the boys' 400 relay also helped the JDHS group - also including Rey Delacruz, Josh Smith and Robert Partin - to post a time of 47.18 seconds that crushed Ketchikan's second-place mark of 50.37.
Along from Cordle, every JDHS boys' team member posted a personal record in at least one event on the weekend - a first for long-time Bears coach Scott May. Also, every boys' runner in the 200, 400, 800 and 3200 posted a personal best in those races.
Sophomore distance runner Zack Bursell posted a personal record improvement of 23 seconds in the 3200-meter race, and improved his 1600 mark by 10 seconds on the weekend.
"Our program has a storied history with some of the top distance runners in the state," may said. "I compared Zack's times with the other great athletes in our program and his times today were better than all the past guys as sophomores. In other words, he's doing really well. He's right on target."
Bursell needed a late burst in the 1600 to push past a pair of Kodiak runners Saturday during the race's final 200-meters. That final burst pushed Bursell into second place with a time of 4:32.84.
"(Catching up) was very, very hard," Bursell said. "I just wanted to stick with those two Kodiak guys and hoped that runners above my level will help me improve. I didn't expect that kind of time until around state."
The boys' athlete of the meet was sophomore Andre Bunson, who posted four separate personal records at the meet. Bunson set new personal marks in the 400, 800, 1600 and long jump events. Most impressive was his improvement in the 1600, where he shattered the hallowed five-minute mark to improve his past personal best of 5:11 to 4:47.
Senior Robert Partin also edged out sophomore teammate Eric Ashenfelter for the boys' shot put title, a week after Ashenfelter edged Partin at Skyview. Partin's winning throw of 41'7.5" set a new personal record for the second weekend in a row.
"(Eric) throws in the cold and I throw in the heat," Partin said.
Kodiak's nationally-ranked distance runner Trevor Dunbar also raised more than a few eyebrows with his winning time of 4:10.78 in the 1600.
"That's a lifetime PR. I had to dig so deep," said Dunbar, who will attend the University of Portland next year to compete on their track and cross country teams. "My goal was to come in and get a good time in the mile this week and focus on the two-mile next week. Nothing's more intense than the mile."