The Juneau-Douglas and Thunder Mountain High School track and field teams will compete in the first official meet of the season on Friday and Saturday: the Ketchikan Invitational.
The teams have only recently been able to run on an actual track. That hasn’t deterred athletes from coming out to participate, though.
JDHS track coach Janette Gagnon reported her team numbers in the 50s, a boost of about 10 athletes from last year. As of two weeks ago, the TMHS roster featured just over 70 athletes.
For the invitational this weekend, which will be attended by six teams, JDHS is sending 14 girls and 14 boys. TMHS is sending slightly more athletes: 15 boys and 21 girls.
“This weekend will show us how we all fare against each other,” Gagnon said. “Supposedly Ketchikan has a solid team, that’s what they’ve been saying, so it’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out this weekend.”
Petersburg, Sitka and Thorne Bay are the three others teams in the meet.
Gagnon said her boys team has a shot at winning the Region V title this year, a feat JDHS hasn’t accomplished in at least six years.
“I feel like our boys team is really well-rounded this year so they’re optimistic to steal regionals from Coach May before he retires,” Gagnon said. “That’s our little friendly competition piece.”
Arne Ellefson-Carnes, Finn Morley, Aaron Blust, Tim McKenna and Owen Squires should be point-getters in the middle and long distance events.
“We have a lot of people and we’re all working really hard in all our practices and showing up and pushing everybody farther ahead,” Blust said.
Blust will be running in 1600 and 3200-meter races and the 4×400 and 4×800-meter relays.
“It’s going to be my first 32(00) of the season, so I just want to get out and get a baseline 32(00) and see where I’m at compared to last sesaon,” he said.
Senior Brianna Fallis, who won the unified 100-meter dash and long jump titles last season, will also be in action this weekend.
Seniors Erin Wallace, Mary Landes, Mikayla May, and Ciara Kish will be in the blocks for the TMHS girls this weekend. So too will junior Audrey Welling, the state runner-up in the 100-meter hurdles, who will be competing in both hurdles events as well as long jump and 4×100 relay this weekend.
Wallace, the state runner-up in the 1600-meter as a sophomore, will be running in her signature event as well as the 3200, 300-meter hurdles and 4×400 relay.
“Our girls team is pretty well-balanced in all areas, and should be fairly competitive as the Southeast season unfolds,” May said.
Senior Erick Whisenant, one of only two returning TMHS boys runners who qualified for state last season, will race in the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes and 4×100 and 4×200 relays.
Soccer
With three visiting teams in town, all four prep soccer teams will be in action this weekend.
The JDHS boys soccer team plays three days in a row starting today. The Crimson Bears take on the Kenai High School at 6:45 p.m. tonight at Adair-Kennedy.
JDHS will then play West Anchorage on Friday night at 7:45 p.m. and Saturday morning at 10:30 a.m.
The JDHS girls team will also get two stabs at West Anchorage, on Thursday at 5 p.m. and Saturday morning at 8:45 a.m.
The TMHS girls play their only game of the weekend on Friday night at 5 p.m. against West Anchorage at TMHS. The TMHS boys take on Kenai immediately following this game at 6:45 p.m. before taking on West Anchorage at 5 p.m. on Saturday.
Softball and baseball
The JDHS softball team plays Ketchikan at 6 p.m. on Friday and 4 and 6 p.m. on Saturday at Dudley Field, in Ketchikan.
TMHS travels to Sitka for a trio of games against the Wolves on Friday (6 p.m.) and Saturday (11 a.m. and 1 p.m.).
The baseball games between JDHS and TMHS were canceled this week due to unsafe field conditions at Adair-Kennedy.
• Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nainsworth@juneauempire.com. Follow Empire Sports on Twitter at @akempiresports.
