The fastest and the farthest

CINTHIA RITCHIE

May 29, 2008 at 3:53PM AKST

The Seward High School track teams kicked in strong performances at the ASAA Class 1-2-3A State Meet May 23-24 at Lathrop High School in Fairbanks. The team finished third overall behind Anchorage Christian Schools and Haines.

Travis Price, Dylan Beck and Denali Foldager all won state championships in two events. Price won the 800-meter run and triple jump. Beck blew off the competition in the 110-meter high hurdles, finishing seven-tenths of a second ahead of Logan Schiller from Delta.

He also nabbed second in the 300-meter low hurdles and first in the high jump.

Foldager, who is headed off to California on a cross country and track scholarship this fall, won the 300-meter low hurdles and anchored the winning 3,200 (4 x 800) relay.

Rubye Foldager and Allison and McKenzie Barnwell also headed up the winning relay team.

Nick Spurr held his own in the 800-meter run, and sophomore Allison Barnwell racked up three impressive third-place finishes in the 800-, 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs, including a second leg of the winning 4 x 800 relay.

According to coach Lori Krier, 11 girls and 22 boys turned out for the team this year.

Twenty-two of them qualified for the state meet.

“Last year we had 12,” she said. “The year before, four.”

For the first time this year, the Alaska School Activities Association added a separate classification for smaller schools. Krier sees this as a positive step in building up Seward’s track program.

“You can take a look at the state’s top 100, and when you’re a small school, once or twice you have a kid come along that can compete against a 4A (school),” she said.

“The majority of them cannot.”

Athletes are now given the opportunity to compete with others at their same level, she said, evening the playing field and offering everyone a chance for personal best performances. Plus the allure of a state title will add a big incentive.

“You’re going to see more kids from small schools going out for the teams,” she said.

She’s hoping Seward’s track program will soon be on par with the cross country team, coached by Dan Marshall.

“It’s all about consistency,” she said.

She expects to see more girls out for next year’s team, which would lend needed strength, especially in sprint divisions. The boys’ team has a couple of promising freshmen and sophomore athletes she’s banking on in the future.

“It takes boys longer to build up their muscles,” she said matter-of-factly.

She also plans to put more emphasis on throwing events.

“We had numerous throwers almost qualify for state,” she said.

Runners to watch for next year include Spurr, Barnwell and Samantha Feemster.

Cinthia Ritchie can be reached at (907) 342-2428 or toll free at (800) 770-9830, ext. 428.