by Missy Thompson

STAFF WRITER

The Tooele High School track and field team held their own against the tough competition of the Region 7 schools in the region championship last Wednesday and Thursday at Timpview High School.

The girls team finished fourth with 75 points behind Mountain View (147), Orem (125), Springville (122) and in front of Timpview (41), Provo (19) and Payson (14). The boys team also came in fourth tying Mountain View with 64 points each. Orem (146), Timpview (107) and Springville (86) came out in front of Tooele, while Payson (42) and Provo (33) fell behind.

Tooele will be taking 25 athletes to state, most of whom qualified at the Region 7 championship. The 4A Track and Field State Championship Meet will be held on Friday and Saturday at BYU.

"We had to beat these athletes at region in order to win at state," said coach Kendra Reed.

All six relay teams -- three boys and three girls -- qualified for the state meet at the region championship. The girls 4 x 100 meter race finished fourth (51.98) with the medley relay (4:36.13) and the 4 x 400 team (4:12.41) each taking third place.

The boys team finished third in the 4 x 100 meter relay (43.87), fifth in the medley relay (3:50.88) and third in the 4 x 400 meter relay (3:31.97).

"We did better than I thought we would," Reed said. "We got everyone in that we thought we would."

An athlete they didn't originally think was going to the state meet was Kolt Wright in the discus. He threw 118 feet two and a half inches finishing in sixth place. The top five qualifiers go to the state meet in each event.

Reed received a call on Monday at 11:50 a.m. informing her that Payson thrower Ryan Tukuafu was not an eligible thrower and was disqualified.

That gave Reed and coach Al Bottema 10 minutes to get Wright entered in to the meet with the deadline being noon. Working quickly Wright was admitted into the event, but just barely.

For some of the other athletes, they didn't cut things so close. Mason Halligan took first in the boys javelin with a heave of 156 feet two inches. Wright will now be kept company by Cody Mott who finished second in the discus (135 feet one inch).

"Mason marked two inches lower than his personal record," Reed said. "He should be in the top five at state. Kolt and Cody should be in the top six and Riley [Mulitalo] should be high up in the shot put and discus."

Jordan Clemente, who already qualified for the state meet in the 110 high hurdles, finished first with a time of 15.39 seconds. He jumped 20 feet eight inches in the long jump giving him a second place finish behind Orem's Landon Lloyd who had a mark of 21 feet two and a half inches. Clemente also qualified by time in the 200 meter dash. He finished seventh with a time of 22.85 seconds. The qualifying time in that event is 23.04.

"Clemente was sick at the beginning of the season with mono," Reed said. "Now he's back at full strength.

Talon Hughes took home third place in the 400 meters with a time of 50.60 seconds. Hughes also runs the anchor leg in the 4 x 400 meter relay.

According to Reed he is a second off of the school record. While that may seem like a lot, anything can happen at the state meet.

For the girls, Rylee Mulitalo already qualified for state in the shot put and took home a gold medal at region with a throw of 33 feet seven inches, just an inch ahead of Orem's Ella Moe. She also previously qualified for the discus but placed third at region with a throw of 101 feet 3 inches. Kenya Mamales finished in fifth for Tooele with a throw of 31 feet six inches getting her to the state meet. In the long jump Airica Stewart marked at 15 feet 3-and-a-half inches giving her a fourth place finish.

Sprinter Lindsey Terry took third in the 200 meter dash with a time of 26.70. She also took second in the 100 meter dash with a 13 seconds flat time.

Teammate Cassidee Christensen came in fifth at 13.24 seconds.

Jessica Anderson took third in the 300 meter hurdles (48.72) and fifth in the 400 meter dash (1:03.45).

Amaya Biorge also took home a fifth place finish in the 100 meter hurdles with a time of 17.59 seconds.

Despite the strong finish in the sprinting, throwing and jumping events, no distance athletes will compete at the state meet.

"It's so neat to do so well in a new region," Reed said. "They're stepping it up and peaking at the right time."

missy@tooeletranscript.com