Young Plains track team competes, advances

The Plains track and field teams are the young and the restless; and you can expect to hear a lot more from them in the next few years.

Coaches Denise Montgomery and George Sherwood led the Trotters and Horsemen into the combined District 13C/14C/6B meet in Missoula last week and will be leading many of those same athletes into MCPS Stadium again this week for the combined Western C/Western B divisional meet Friday and Saturday.

Led by Mason Elliott, who qualified in three individual events and the 1600 meter relay, the Horsemen finished the meet with 41 team points. Using strong efforts in both relays, the Trotters teamed up to score 32 points.

Elliott won second place in all three of his events, clocking 55.97 seconds in the 400 meters, 18.65 seconds in the 110 meter hurdles and 46.05 in the 300 hurdles, and joined Nicholas Hill, Joseph Martin and Brenden Vanderwall in placing fourth in the 1600 meter relay.

Additionally, Martin marked a career-best 37-0 to win second place in the triple jump and Vanderewall leapt to fourth place in the long jump with a best effort of 16-7.5.

With the Trotters, the relay teams were the biggest thing as the quartet of Jaelyn Carr, Adelle Ercanbrack, Alexis Helterline and Amy Hill ran to second place in the 400 meter relay, and the team of Carr, Ercanbrack, Helterline and Peyton Wasson placed fourth in the 1600 relay.

Carr also recorded a fourth place finish in the 400 and fifth in the 200, Hill took fifth in the 100 meter hurdles and Ercanbrack third in the 300 meter hurdles.