PINEDALE – Blue skies, unseasonably warm temperatures and a slight breeze created perfect conditions for the Mountain Man Invitational hosted by Pinedale High School on Friday, April 30.

Pinedale athletes dominated the competition, filling their bags with first-place ribbons to beat out six other teams. Both the boys’ and girls’ teams combined tallied up 328 points to put Pinedale in first place overall by over 100 points.

“We challenged our team to bring a great attitude, intensity and focus to their events and they did,” said head coach Eric Oram. “Our boys’ and girls’ teams are showing strong improvements and our program is very excited about Regionals and State. We are having athletes step up in both field events and on the track.”

On Tuesday, May 4, the weather cleared enough for Big Piney High School to hold the Puncher Invitational canceled earlier in the season. Pinedale put in another strong performance and placed second with 326.50 points.

Mountain Man Invite highlights

Sticking to his winning trajectory this season, senior Teagan Bowers pulled out all the stops to take four first-place ribbons. In the boys’ long jump, Bowers broke the stadium record set in 2019 with a leap measured in at 22 feet, 4 inches.

Bowers crushed his opponents in the triple jump, winning the event at 41-10 1/2. Hitting the track in sprinting events, Bowers took first in the 100-meter dash at 11.69 seconds and the 200-meter dash at 23.48 seconds.

Pinedale throwers stormed the field. Freshman Katyana Dexter came in first place in the girls’ shot put with a toss clearing 36-06 1/2, nearly 2 feet longer than the second-place throw from Farson. Dexter won the discus at 109-06, beating the runner-up from Jackson by an impressive 5 feet.

Senior Dodge Westercamp swept the competition in the boys’ shot put, measuring his throw in at 41-10, 10 inches ahead of the second-place finish from Big Piney. Westercamp placed third in the discus, clearing 114-06.

Fellow senior Carson Gregory won the boys’ discus, clearing 134-07, beating his Big Piney opponent by an exceptional 20 feet. Gregory picked up sixth place in the shot put at 37-09 1/4.

Freshman Ashley Boulter came in eighth place in the girls’ discus at 76-00 3/4.

The girls’ and boys’ teams did well in jumping events. Senior Riley Dauwen scored a win in the girls’ 300-meter hurdles, clocking in at 51.20 seconds, two seconds ahead of the rest of the pack. Freshman Seren Noble placed sixth in the event at 57.21 seconds.

Senior Alexander Bitters placed eighth in the boys’ 300-meter hurdles at 54.43 seconds.

Sophomore Rhonda Auradou tied for second in the girls’ 100-meter hurdles at 18.88 seconds. Noble placed sixth at 18.97 seconds.

In the girls’ high jump, Auradou took first place at 4-07. Senior McKinley Boulter came in third in the event at 4-07 with freshman Lauren Kervitsky in seventh at 4-05 and freshman Trista Covill in eighth at 4-03.

In boys’ high jump, sophomore Nicholas Vitanza finished in third place, clearing 5-04. Sophomore Luke Gray and senior Alexander Bitters tied for fourth at 5-02.

McKinley Boulter placed second in the girls’ long jump, leaping 16-05 1/2. Senior Grace Davis took fourth in the event at 15-02 1/4 and sophomore Mikayla Drake in sixth at 14-10 3/4.

Junior Maggie Harber placed fifth in the girls’ triple jump at 30-05, followed by Drake in sixth place at 30-02 1/4.

Mid-distance athletes scored significant points for Pinedale. Junior Jacob Bain won the boys’ 400-meter dash, clocking in at 53.79 seconds, two-tenths of a second ahead of the runner-up from Big Piney.

Senior Gatlin Egle came in third in the 400-meter at 56.41 seconds with freshman Zack Moreno in fifth place at 59.15 seconds.

Sophomore Mandy Majhanovich snapped up a second-place ribbon in the girls’ 400-meter dash, timing in at 1:05.48. Freshman Lauren Jones took fourth in the event at 1:06.25.

Pole vault athletes performed well before the home crowd. Sophomore Noah Sletten finished second in boys’ varsity, clearing 8-00. Auradou placed fourth in girls’ pole vault at 7-00.

Sprinters made an impressive showing. Freshman Trista Covill came in second place in the girls’ 100-meter dash, timing in at 13.44 seconds. Dauwen took third place in the sprint at 13.60 seconds, with Majhanovich in sixth place at 13.76 seconds.

In the girls’ 200-meter dash, Covill came in third place at 27.96 seconds. Drake finished in eighth place at 29.82 seconds.

Junior James Kervitsky led the Pinedale pack in the boys’ 100 meter, finishing in third place at 11.82 seconds. Egle placed sixth at 12.20 seconds with sophomore Nicholas Vitanza in seventh at 12.30 seconds.

The boys’ 200-meter dash saw junior Konner Ziegler take fourth place at 24.19 seconds and Kervitsky snag eighth at 25.61 seconds.

Juniors Lexie Goodrich and Mason Orm represented Pinedale in distance events. Goodrich placed third in girls’ the 800-meter run at 2:56.08 and fourth in the 1600 meter at 6:41.85. Orm took fifth place in the boys’ 800 meter at 2:25.20 and seventh in the 1600 meter at 5:24.11.

Mountain Man relays

Relay teams hit the ground running at the home meet with numerous top-five finishes. McKinley Boulter, Davis, Majhanovich and Dauwen won the girls’ 1600-meter sprint medley relay at 4:35.57.

Sweeping the competition in the girls’ 4x100-meter relay, Auradou, McKinley Boulter, Harber and Covill took first place at 53.57 seconds. Majhanovich, Jones, Davis and Dauwen scored a first-place ribbon in the girls’ 4x400-meter relay at 4:22.12.

In the boys’ 4x400-meter relay, Egle, Sletten, sophomore Dillon Boespflug and Bain took second place at 3:46.41. Kervitsky, Sletten, Bain and Egle placed third in the boys’ sprint medley relay at 3:52.42.

Puncher Invitational highlights

Throwers put in another excellent showing at Big Piney. Dexter dominated the girls’ shot put, clearing 32-04 1/2 and also placed first in the discus at 99-05 1/2.

Sophomore Morgan Grossman picked up seventh place in girls’ discus at 74-00 1/2 with fellow sophomore Ceili Fallon in eighth at 73-06.

Westercamp snagged first place in the boys’ shot put at 43-02. Gregory won the boys’ discus with a throw measured in at 142-11. Gregory placed third in shot put at 38-04 1/2.

Freshman Austin Green took fifth in discus at 107-03 and sixth in shot put at 33-02.

Jumpers and sprinters scored success on Tuesday. Auradou captured first place in the girls’ high jump at 4-03 and won the pole vault at 6-07.

Noble pulled out a first-place finish in the girls’ 100-meter hurdles, timing in at 18.40 seconds. Freshman Stephanie Resendiz took fourth in the event at 19.30 seconds. Noble also placed second in the 300-meter hurdles at 54.80 seconds.

Covill picked up a first-place ribbon in the girls’ 100-meter dash at 13.20 seconds and a second-place ribbon in the high jump, clearing 4-01. Davis took fifth in the 100-meter at 13.90 seconds.

Dauwen won the girls’ 200-meter dash, finishing in 28.20 seconds. Covill tied for fourth place at 28.70 seconds with Drake in eighth at 30.60 seconds.

In the girls’ triple jump, Harber took second place at 30-01 and Drake fourth place at 29-04. McKinley Boulter led the Pinedale pack in the girls’ long jump at 15-03 3/4, followed by Davis in third at 14-07 1/2, Harber in fourth at 14-06 and Drake in sixth at 12-09.

Vitanza led the Pinedale boys in the high jump, landing in second place at 5-04. Freshman Owen McMillen took fifth in the event at 5-00, with Gray in sixth at 5-00 and Bitters in seventh at 5-00.

Sletten won the boys’ pole vault, clearing 9-06. Gray placed third, clearing 8-00.

In the boys’ 100-meter dash, Kervitsky came in second place at 11.80 seconds. Sletten came in third at 11.90 seconds, with Vitanza in sixth at 12.20 seconds and Bitters in eighth at 12.40 seconds.

Ziegler tied for fourth place in the boys’ 200 meter at 25.80 seconds with Vitanza in sixth at 26.00 seconds and Moreno in eighth at 26.50 seconds.

Bitters took fourth place in the boys’ 300-meter hurdles at 53.70 seconds.

Mid- and long-distance runners placed well. Majhanovich took second place in the girls’ 400 meter, clocking in at 1:05.90. Jones placed second in the girls’ 800-meter run, finishing in 2:51.70. Goodrich placed fifth place in the girls’ 3200 meter at 15:07.90.

Egle won the boys’ 400-meter dash, clocking in at 56.60 seconds. Moreno took fourth in the event at 1:02.10 and Gray came in seventh at 1:04.80. Orm picked up a second-place ribbon in the 800-meter run at 2:32.70 and took fourth in the 1600-meter run at 5:27.40.

Puncher invite – relays

The boys’ 1600-meter sprint medley relay team – Kervitsky, Sletten, Egle and Bain ­ won with a time of 3:52.00. Bain, Boespflug, Kervitsky and Zielger took third in the boys’ 4x100-meter relay at 48.20 seconds.

McKinley Boulter, Davis, Majhanovich and Dauwen came in second place in the girls’ sprint medley relay at 4:46.80. Second place also went to Auradou, McKinley Boulter, Covill and Harber in the 4x100-meter relay at 54.60 seconds.

Majhanovich, Jones, Davis and Dauwen placed second in the girls’ 4x400-meter relay, clocking in at 4:34.00.