Staff
The Muskie track-and-field team already has its rivals on the run.
The 17-member Fort High contingent captured 11 medals last Thursday at its first meet of the season—the Bronco Booster Invite in International Falls.
The host Broncos were the overall champs in both divisions, with the girls scoring 193 points and the boys racking up 160.
Setting the table for the black-and-gold were a pair of second-year veterans, Sekina Scheibler and Ellie Petsnick, who sparked the Muskie boys and girls to fourth-place finishes with 45 and 27 points, respectively, in the two five-team fields.
Scheibler enters this year as the reigning OFSAA Midget boys’ discus champ, which made him only the third Muskie athlete ever to win an individual gold at the all-Ontarios.
The 10th-grader showcased his versatility as he threw, leaped, and dashed his way to six medals at last week’s season-opener—two of each colour.
Scheibler ruled the roost as expected in the discus, with his top toss of 108.5 feet easily outdistancing runner-up Mark Brooks (Lake of the Woods/Rainy River), who finished nearly nine feet back.
Then it was on to the boys’ long jump, where Scheibler earned his second gold with a distance of 18 ft., 3 1/4 in.
There were silver linings for him in both the boys’ 200m (25.74 seconds) and boys’ triple jump (36 ft., 1 3/4 in.)
Scheibler rounded out his podium push with bronze medals in the boys’ high jump (5 ft., four in.) and shot put (36 ft., 11 inches).
As for Petsnick, she turned her long strides into a winner’s gait by capturing gold in the girls’ 100m (13.64).
Last year’s team captain, two-time OFSAA qualifier Jenny Hammond, also had quite the full day last Thursday.
In the morning, Hammond found out she had made the Muskie girls’ soccer team, whose tryouts came at the expense of her practising with the track-and-field team.
But Hammond’s lack of training took a back seat in the Falls that afternoon when she launched herself to a silver medal in the girls’ high jump (four ft., six inches) and raced to bronze in the 1,600m (6:02.98).
Jacob Empey, who missed advancing to OFSAA last season after qualifying two years ago, started his redemption quest by claiming bronze in the boys’ triple jump (36 ft., 1 1/2 in.)
The Muskie girls’ 4x100m relay team of Hammond, Jyllian Westover, Tory Beaudry, and Hanna LeDrew capped Fort High’s medal haul with a bronze (1:01.94).
Among the best results for other individual female performers, Westover tied for fourth with Petsnick and the Broncos’ duo of Jena Sullivan and Tenneyson Amdahl in the girls’ high jump (four ft., four in.)
Savannah Sinclair was fifth in the girls’ discus (68 ft., four in.) while Jessica Empey was sixth in the girls’ 200m (32.89).
Three Muskies had their best finishes in the girls’ 800m.
Harleigh Brow-Rose was seventh (3:48.64), followed by Sarah Rittau in eighth (3:55.42) and Cayla Leimenstoll in ninth (4:34.87).
Rittau also had an eighth-place showing in the girls’ high jump (four ft., four in.), as did Brenna Weir in the girls’ long jump (11 ft., 11 1/2 in.)
Taylor Steinke came ninth in the girls’ discus (58 ft., four in.) while Beaudry placed ninth in the girls’ 1,600m (7:16.14).
LeDrew soared to 10th place in the girls’ high jump (four ft.)
Maddy Morrison rounded out the Muskie female results by coming in 29th in the girls’ 100m (16.44).
On the boys’ side, with new Muskie coach Tara Allaire watching one of her two prized pupils intently, Arthur Van Ael surged to second halfway through the boys’ 3,200m before falling back to fourth (11:43.32).
Chad Westover, meanwhile, flew to fifth place in the boys’ high jump (four ft., eight in.)
The Muskies return to the Falls for this second meet of the season next Tuesday (April 26).
