PHS track team seniors, from left, Gianni Vinson, Casey Bell, Mariah Taylor, Kelsa Sperl, Ethan Cummins, Alexandra Bless, Nathaniel Lenhard, Izabelle Ith and Kayleigh Eddy. (not pictured Axel Vides and Alan McCay, photo courtesy of Brad Taylor)

Petersburg High School’s girls track team took first and the boys team took second among the three schools at a meet in Ketchikan last weekend. The girls team ran away with the meet, scoring 326 points, ahead of second place Ketchikan with 92 points. For the boys, the host Kayhi Kings were far out in front, scoring 325 points,to 132 for the Vikings. Thorne Bay came in third for both the boys and the girls.

For the PHS girls, Kianna Kivisto took first in the 100 and 200 meters. Erin and Maria Pfundt and Eva Lenhard were 1, 2 and 3 in the 400 meters. Erin Pfundt was first in the 800 as well. Kayleigh Eddy and Melanie Chase took first and second in the 1600. Izabelle Ith and Eddy were 1st and 2nd in both the 100 and 300 hurdles. Mariah Taylor and Elisa Larson took first and second in the shot put. Larson was first in the discus and Taylor was third. Petersburg also swept the high jump, long jump and triple jump.

Coach Brad Taylor said his teams had fun at the Ketchikan meet trying out some new events. “They did an amazing job, especially the girls. I don’t think we’ve ever scored that many points. It was a lot of fun. It was nice to see some of those kids who have been in third and fourth place winning events, just really added a lot of motivation to them this last week so that’s pretty cool.”

For the boys, Gianni Vinson took second in the 100 meters and third in the long jump. Tolin Eddy was third in the 400 and 1600. Casey Bell and Nathaniel Lenhard were one and two in the 110 hurdles and first and third in the 300 hurdles. Koren Sperl was second in the discus. Ethan Cummins was second in the triple jump.

That’s the last meet of the regular season for the track teams and the last meet for the seniors before the regional meet. Between the boys and girls teams there are 11 seniors. Some have been on the team for all four years of their high school career.

“Four years ago as these kids were coming into the program, watching them in the eighth grade I knew it was going to be something pretty special and watching them develop over the last four years and this year it’s going be pretty sad for me to watch them go because they have been so competitive throughout their whole high school career and even as middle schoolers we knew that we had something special,” Taylor said. “And hopefully we were going to be able to put something together for the state meet and kind of make a statement. We’ll see what happens but yeah it’s been fun watching these kids grow and really have become a big part of my life.”

The track teams head to the regional meet at Thunder Mountain High School in Juneau this week.