Spartans win top spots in Bonners Ferry

Lamanna breaks school record at Lewiston

BONNERS FERRY — The Spartan track and field team is up and running, jumping, hurling and throwing their way to an already successful season, medaling in several events Saturday, March 22 at the Bonners Ferry Invite.

Nicki Porinchok won first place in discus and shotput; Carter Korff took first in long jump and third in the 100-meter; Ryan Bell won first place in javelin; Ian Lamanna was first in pole vault; Luccas Simcox won second in long jump and third in the 200-meter; Kylee Swoboda was third in high jump; Anden Griesmer was third in shot put; Jasmine Stark won third in pole vault; and Chase Smith was third in javelin.

The girls’ 4x200-meter relay team, consisting of Haley Braae, Stark, Jepson and Swoboda, won second place, as did the boys’ 4x200 team made up of C. Korff, I. Lamanna, Simcox and Gunnar Pettit.

Ashlyn Korff, Stark, Braae and Jepson won third in the girls’ 4x100-meter relay and Landon Blackburn, Gage Erhmantrout, Doug Ezell and Kellen Smith did the same for the boys.

“Besides a little slush on the field when we arrived, the weather turned out to be OK for March and led to some great early season performances,” coach Jared Hughes says. “The boys team finished in third place overall and the girls came in fifth out of 13 teams.”

Leading the way for the boys were seniors Carter Korff and Luccas Simcox with 23 points each. The girls were led by sophomore Haley Jepson and senior Kylee Swoboda with 20 and 16 points, respectively. Nicki Porinchok also had a great day by winning both the shot put and discus and being named the Male Field Athlete of the Meet.

Earlier last week on Friday, March 21 Brayden Lamanna shattered the 45-year-old Priest River Lamanna High record for the 3200-meter race at a meet in Lewiston. Brayden’s time of 9:47.21 beat the record of 9:51.6 set by Mark Jones in 1980.

“Bradyn previously broke our cross country 5K record several times, lowering it by about 40 seconds to 15:42.0 last fall,” Hughes says. “In 27 years of coaching track and field at PRLHS, I can count on one hand the number of athletes that have worked as hard as Brayden. The coaching staff is so proud of him and are excited to see how the rest of his season goes.”

Brayden traveled to Lewiston to compete against some runners from some of the bigger schools, Hughes adds. He came away with a 1600-meter win and a third-place finish in the 3200-meter.

Next up for the Spartans will be the Ezra Gordan Invite in Colville on Saturday, March 29. This is a schedule change, as Priest River was originally going to attend a meet at West Valley in Spokane.

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