Bemidji defends both titles at Paul Bunyan meet

By Sports Sports

March 28, 2008 at 11:00 PM

The Bemidji High track teams will try to repeat a feat today that they have accomplished only once in history, win back to back titles the same year at a BSU indoor meet.

Last season, Bemidji took both the boys and girls crowns for the first time in the same year at today's Paul Bunyan Invitational, the fourth for the boys and fifth for the girls.

The closest they have come to doing this before came in the inaugural 1990 Lions Invitational which the girls won and the boys shared the title with Moorhead.

Both stand a good chance today in a reduced field with Hibbing the only major school on hand.

Bagley-Fosston, Fertile, Crookston, Otter Tail Central, Warroad and Thief River Falls round out an eight-team field.

The boys took first and the girls were third at the Lions behind Grand Rapids and Red River. Neither of that pair will be running today.

This is the third of the four indoor meets, compressed into an eight-day period due to the early Easter weekend.

The Little Amik-II will conclude the series next Tuesday.

Action will begin at 1 with the girls high jump and shot put and boys pole vault and long jump. The 4 x 8 relay will be the opening track event.

With the smaller field, the meet is likely to be over by 6:30 in time for the awards presentations which will include MVP trophies for the top boy and girl in addition to the team trophies.

Coach Chris Lehman received 19 of his 25 points in Thursday's Little Amik-I meet from varsity performers who will be counted on to score well again today.

He will open with Abby Hendricks, Ali Hougen and Tessa Comstock in the hurdles.

Serena Glass, Kelly Christiansen and Olivia Hruby will run the 55 meters.

He will enter nine runners in the 200 including Glass and Christiansen with nine more in the 400. Comstock and Hougen will be the only ones in both.

The 800 lists Sam Drewes, Brooke and Courtney Homer, Jamie Hoffman, Sara Heisler and Jessy Bruns with Emily Lawrence, Bailey Drewes, Nikki Gronhovd, Chelsea Warren and Hoffman in the 1600 and Suzann Nordquist and Ashley Erickson in the 3200.

The top relays will be Hendricks, Bruns, Jenna Sagedahl and Amanda Hunt or Ashley Long in the 800, Kelsey Heisler, Steph Marsh, Sagedahl and Hendricks in the 1600 and Kelsey Heisler, Marsh, Erickson and Bailey Drewes in the 3200.

The team will still be without sprinter Lexi Gauwitz, sidelined by an ankle injury. She hopes to be ready for the start of the outdoor season.

Boys starters

Coach Ryan Aylesworth will start Nate McGriff, Casey Orgon, Phil Malevich, Travis Greenwaldt and Trace Jahner in the 55., John Thompson, Malevich, Tyler Phillips, McGriff, Jake Robinson and Greenwaldt in the 200 and Thompson, Jake Sorby, Grant Mitchell, Luke Brokl, Richie Bjorklund and Pete Humeniuk in the 400.

It will be Robbie Jenson, Andrew Papke-Larson, Sorby, Alex Schoneberger, Dylan Russell and Brian Murphy in the 800., Papke-Larson, Jenson, Zac Oelrich, Jared Davis and Greg Moriarty in the 1600 and Davis, Oelrich, Chris Bowman and Andy Berube in the 3200.

Robinson and Dylan Hoven will be the hurdlers.

The relays will match Greenwaldt, McGriff, Jahner and Thompson in the 4 X 2, Thompson, Sorby, Jenson and Papke-Larson in the 4 x 4 and Brokl, Schoneberger, Bowman and Berube in the 4 x 8 with second units running the two shorter events.

In the field, Orgon and Chris Rust will be the shot putters, Luke Bruns, Derek Davis and Travis Olson the pole vaulters with Phillips, Derek Davis, Bjorklund, Joe Kingery and Olson high jumping, McGriff, Thompson, Max Roszkowski, Greenwaldt and Jahner long jumping and Jahner heading the triple jump crew.

The meet concludes the indoor season.

PAUL BUNYAN EXPRESS

PAST CHAMPIONS

Boys Division

1996 Forest Lake

1997 Park Rapids

1998 Red River

1999 Park Rapids

2000 Grand Rapids

2001 Bemidji

2002 Minot

2003 Moorhead