Although it seems the track and field season has just begun, the MHS athletes have wrapped up their 2023 season, excluding those that have qualified for the upcoming state track meet.  The closing meet for the Dragon track team was the 2A District 5 meet held May 8 and 9 in Malad.  Competing at the meet were teams from Malad, Aberdeen, Soda Springs, West Side, and Bear Lake.

Throughout the course of the two day meet, Malad had several athletes rise to the top as they competed in their various events.  Braylin Tripp won first place in the triple jump, leading with a distance of 43’ 11”, setting a new personal record for Tripp as well as qualifying him to compete at the state meet.  Tripp earned a third place finish in the long jump with a distance of 20’ 4” and third place in the high jump with a new personal best height of 6’4”.  Austin Jacobson took third place in the triple jump behind Tripp with a distance of 42’ 4”.

Brycen Talbot qualified for three races at the state meet as he took third place in the 800 meter race (2:07.08), third place in the 1600 meter race (4:43.65) with a personal best, and third place in the 3200 meter race (10:28.68) with another new personal record.

Brynlee Bastian took first place in the highly competitive 800 meter race with a winning time of 2:32.18.  Bastian also earned a third place finish in the 400 meter race with a time of 1:01.01, behind Oaklie Hebdon in second place with a time of 59.87.  Hebdon took first place in the 300 meter hurdles with a new personal best time of 45:16 as well as first place in the triple jump 34’ 4”, her best of the season.  

Senior Cortlyn Coleman took second place in the 3200 meter run with a personal record of 12:13.94 and third place in the 1600 meter run 5:45.56.  Cally Coleman came in just ahead of her sister in the 1600 meter run, taking second with 5:45.18.

The MHS women’s 4X400 meter relay put up the second fastest time at the meet, a time of 4:17. 84 run by Bastian, Joni Beck, Brooke Isaacson, and Hebdon.  

Malad was disappointed to learn that instead of qualifying the top four finishers in each event for the state meet like they had for years in the past, only the top three would advance.  In some cases, qualifying times, jumps, and throws of considerable merit will also be invited to compete.

Overall, the coaches and athletes are nothing short of proud of how the season went for the MHS track team.  With the difficult start due to weather, the athletes did very well to make the best of the season.  The team handled the schedule changes, poor weather and other challenges well to put together a season they could be proud of.

The 2023 season was especially exciting as they were able to run on their newly refinished track and host several events, including the Malad Invitational meet, the Bear Lake Invitational since their track was still unusable, and the District Track meet.  Seeing the buses and teams parked all alongside the track brought back great memories for the coaches, athletes, parents and fans.  For many of the MHS track team, they had never experienced a home meet since the last track event held in Malad was in 2018.  

Hosting several meets gave the Dragon athletes a great opportunity to compete in front of their parents, peers and other fans that wouldn’t normally be able to cheer them on.  Having the hometown support after such a long season of hard work was a great way to end the season.

The track and field coaches as well as other high school staff, learned quickly how much work it takes to host a track meet.  Of Malad’s four track coaches, only one has had experience putting on a meet, which meant the other had a steep learning curve.  They shared, “We never could have done it without the help from Darrell Tripp and Larry Nielsen who helped get the facilities up and ready, from the new disc cage, to putting the pole vault pit together, to even keeping the sand freshly tilled in the jumping pits. We were lucky enough to have the help of the booster club from Tori Green, Principal Corbett, Wendy Owens, and Tansy Talbot, as well as the Malad AD, Kory Kay. It definitely takes a lot of good people to run a track meet!”

The MHS track and field team also shared, “We are very grateful to have such a nice track and facilities to call home and we look forward to having many more high school and middle school track meets in Malad in the future.”  The new facilities and strong team are something that all athletes should be proud of and excited to be a part of.