Senior 'Dogs lead at C-Falls Invite

The Whitefish track team was anchored by a handful of tried and true upperclassmen Saturday at the Columbia Falls Invitational.

Derek Crittenden snagged the team's only first-place finish with a dominating performance in the 110 hurdles — his specialty. The senior finished the race in 16.30, half a second faster than the next closest finisher.

Another senior, Kalin Hale, placed third in the 400, finishing in 56.10.

On the women's side, long-distance specialist Jessica Sagen locked up a second-place finish in the 1,600-meter race, while fellow cross-country teammate Bailey Eaton finished third in the 3,200.

"Those girls come to compete every time," coach Derek Schulz said. "It's a pleasure to watch them. They're well coached by coach Bill Brist, and they look at the season as a process. They're very intelligent in how they go about that so they don't peak too early."

Senior Megan Apple was strong in the 110 hurdles, taking third with a 17.70 second performance.

Other notable finishes came from juniors Drew Galbraith in the high jump and Olivia Nagler in the javelin throw. Galbraith cleared 6 feet, 2 inches to take third place among a competitive field of high jumpers.

"A 6-2 jump is a good jump early in the season," Schulz said. "He's a multi-sport athlete. He was kind of green at the beginning of the basketball season, but everyone watched him grow, and I think he's picking up where he left off (from the basketball season). He's very confident right now."

Nagler was impressive in javelin, tossing the spear 105 feet, 4 inches, to take second place overall. Schulz said Nagler is a cornerstone of the girls team who is always a consistent performer.

Making her track debut, junior Heather Bailey scored a 31-feet 2.5-inch leap in the triple jump — good enough to land her in third place. Schulz said the performance was commendable, and that the team is excited about her prospects.

As teams, the boys accumulated 35 points for sixth place and the Lady Bulldogs tallied 54 points for fifth place among a field of 13 schools.

Schulz said the Whitefish teams were smaller than usual because the prom was scheduled for just after the meet.

"When you go head-to-head with the prom, you take what you can get," Schulz said.

He expects deeper rosters in the teams' upcoming meets in Missoula and Bigfork.