PREP TRACK: Paulson, Jassen help Huskies to Northern C titles
Please forgive Lindsey Paulson if she seemed a bit tired this weekend. She just had a busy couple of days Thursday and Friday.
All she did in that two-day span - and these aren't in any particular order - was:
Ran 3,200 meters;
Ran 400 meters;
Ran 800 meters;
Ran 1,600 meters; and,
Ran one 400-meter leg of a 4-by-400 meter relay race.
Now, if running 6.4 kilometers wasn't enough, she also won three of those races - breaking meet records in two of them, and - with a fourth-place effort in the 4-by-400 meter relay - helped her Belt Huskies capture the girls' team title at the 2022 Ralph Halverson Memorial Northern C Divisional Track and Field Meet Friday at Memorial Stadium.
And while the Huskies' girls only won their trophy by a mere three points over Fort Benton, the Belt boys also won their half of the meet in a more convincing fashion: 61 1/2 points over the Longhorns.
The Belt girls were tied with Fort Benton's ladies 57-all going into the final race of the day: the 4-by-400 meter relay. And rumor has it that Huskies' assistant Megan Graham told the relay squad - and especially Paulson, who ran the anchor leg - that they didn't have to beat everyone ... just Fort Benton.
Paulson hit the tape at the 4:33.72 mark, about 14 seconds in front of the Longhorns' runner, meaning the Huskies' girls won the meet 61-58.
Sunburst, with 50 markers, was third, followed by Highwood (48), Chinook (44) and Chester-Joplin-Inverness (44), Great Falls Central (34.5), Big Sandy (34), Denton-Geyser-Stanford (34) and Cascade (32.5).
But setting new meet records in the the metric mile and 3,200 was the highlight in the penultimate week of Paulson’s high school career. She completely destroyed the two-mile record of 11 minutes, 36 seconds, with a mark of 11:09.41 on Thursday, then came back Friday in the 1600 and shaved nine seconds off the old standard of 5:18, finishing with a 5:09.02.
"Going into (the 3200), I knew the divisional record was an 11:36, so that was first and foremost what I was going for," Paulson, who will be running cross-country at Montana State next fall, said. "Me and Ms. Graham just said that we're going to break that record and just see what else I can do.
"I knew (the 1600) was going to be a little harder, especially after the big day (Thursday) and everything, but I knew I could do it, and Ms. Graham knew I could do it, so we just went in there and did my thing, and ... it went the right way, I guess."
She also had a winning time of 2:22.84 in the 800, took fourth in the 400 (1:05.34) and fourth with the 4-by-400 relay team.
"It was a long weekend, but it was really fun and it was worth it in the end," she added. "It's definitely bittersweet; I'm really going to miss doing this, I'm going to miss the whole high school track environment.
"I'm just soaking it all in while it lasts, I guess."
Fort Benton's Cloe Kalanick took a pair of throwing events, going 36-01 in the shot put and 124-04 with the discus. Teammate Angeline Riener won the high jump at 4-10, and Kylynn Nack had the winning pole vault at 7-3, while Jenna Dunham's time of 26.76 topped the 200 meters.
Kara Reid of Denton-Geyser-Stanford won the 400 dash in 1:03.22 on Thursday, then took the 300-meter hurdles in 47.57. CJI's Tatum Hull won the 100 meter dash with a 13.11 and the 100-meter hurdles in 16.14, Alizae Howard of Roy-Winifred went 15-9.5 in the long jump, Braedyn Johnson from Cascade took the triple jump with a 32-9.5, Geraldine's Azzia Rowland threw the winning javelin mark of 110-6, and the Highwood girls swept the 4-by-100 and 4-by-400 relays.
FOR ASA JASSEN, A personal record seemed within his grasp, but the win still tastes just as sweet.
The Huskies' senior, after second place finishes in the 800 and 1600, set the pace in the 3200 and went wire-to-wire, winning with a mark of 10:34.10, just two seconds off his PR which he set last year.
Still, the Belt boys won this one going away with 139 points. Fort Benton was runner up with 77 1/2, Cascade took third with 73, followed by the Tri-City co-op from Hobson-Moore-Judith Gap with 44 1/2 in fourth, and Chinook fifth with 34.
The rest of the top 10 boys' teams were CJI (32), Great Falls Central (30), North Star (28), Big Sandy (14), and Winnett-Grass Range with 13.
Jassen said his 3200 time was his best this year: "It's two seconds off my PR from state last year, and I'm going to beat it next week at state."
The Class B and C State Meet will be run next Friday and Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
"I talked with my coach earlier, and we set our splits," Jassen said. "I felt good; first lap, second lap I was ahead of the pace, and I was just able to keep it through the race.
"I'm going to have to see what those sixth and seventh laps were; those ones were always tough. But it was pretty much how we planned it."
Belt head coach Jeff Graham was thrilled with both teams: "I thought out kids really stepped up, a lot of them over-achieved, and the depth helped as well, picking up those thirds, fourths, fifths, and sixths.
"It was awesome. A great team effort."
Graham admitted it was his wife - Megan Schmitz Graham - who talked to the 4-by-400 team.
"That's what my wife told them, 'Just make sure you finish ahead of (Fort Benton),'" Jeff Graham said. "I thought they did a great job of getting us out in the lead. They did well."
Other Belt winners included Ethan Triplett in the 100 and 200 meter dashes, JD Shepard in the 110 nurdles, and Memphis Black in the shot put and discus.
Also winning were Devin Bird of Fort Benton in the 400, North Star's Carter Campbell in the 800, Colter Howell of DGS in the 1600, Power's Spencer Lehnerz in the 300 hurdles, Caiden Sekuterski of Cascade in the long jump and triple jump, Chinook's Toby Niederegger on the high jump and Central's Jackson Tarum on pole vault, Carter Derks from Tri-City with the javelin, Tri-City won the 4-by-100 relay, and Cascade took the 4-by-400.
This article originally appeared on Great Falls Tribune: PREP TRACK: Paulson, Jassen help Huskies to Northern C titles
