Burlington thinclads bring home twin crowns

By MARLYS GOOD
“We were pleased; we had a good weekend,” said Burlington track coach Albert Henderson, in what could be called the understatement of the year, after both his boys and girls teams won the 1A state track and field championships in Casper last weekend.
Quite a coup with the Lady Huskies scoring 138.33 points and  successfully defending their 2008 title, and the boys, who scored 162 points, more than doubled second-place Cokeville, showed why they were considered a “prohibitive favorite” going in.
But the excellent performances, the individual championships, the multiple placings in events, has come to be what is expected of Burlington. There were some “small” surprises, Henderson admitted. One was the two-three finish by Shawn Christiansen and Anson George in the  110-meter hurdles.
Henderson said that George, just a freshman, “ran clean and that was the key. He was in the middle of a group of four hurdlers running side-by-side, and was a little behind the other three. All three of the others hit the third to the last hurdle; George ran clean, and pulled away over the last three. It was nice for him to do that. He did really well.”
Christiansen capped a successful season setting new school and state records in the pole vault of 14-2.5. He broke the state record of 14-0 that had been co-shared by BHS grad Whitney Neves in 2002. Sam Davidson set the pace in the triple jump with a 40-7 jump, followed in second-place by Mychael Wiles, 40-2.5 and Spencer Flores, fifth, 39-7.5
Eric McNiven broke his own record in the 400 with a time of 50.98. Henderson laughed, “that’s two-hundredths quicker than his 51 last year, but ‘50’ sounds better. He was excited about that,” Henderson added.
McNiven came home with three golds, in the 400, 300-hurdles and long jump, plus a third place in the 200 meters, scoring 36 points for his team, while teammate Justin Preator added first places in the 100 and 200 meters, and high jump, and ran the second leg of the second-place 400-relay team — for a total of 32-1/2 points. “The last person we can remember scoring that many points at state was Dalen Winters, who was a specialist in the 3,200, 1,600 and 800.
For the Lady Huskies, Michelle Fabricius claimed the title in the high jump at 5-1, fifth, in the 100, sixth, in the 200, and fourth, in the long jump; Brandy Bullinger was second in the 800 and fourth in both the 400 and 1,600. Paige Neves won individual titles in the 100-hurdles and pole vault, then tacked on a third in the 300-hurdles and an eighth, in the discus.
Lyndsey Wardell owned the 300-hurdles, finished second, in the 100-hurdles (Carrizales was the third Lady Husky to score in the event finishing eighth), second in the high jump and third in the triple jump.
Henderson will lose Huskies Preator, Todd Davidson (first year out but strong finisher/competitor in both shot and disc), Wesley Neves, a perennial top finisher in the pole vault, Spencer Flores, multi-talented, and Mychael Preator, who came on strong toward the end of the season and had a good, solid state meet.
The four seniors “really wanted this (state title).  Look at them, talk to them, and they might downplay it, but after two-second place finishes, this was big,” Henderson said.
Lost to the Lady Huskies will be Fabricius, Alicia Wardell and Brandy Bullinger, good athletes all, Henderson said, and girls “who scored a lot of points for us. They have been solid for four years and will be sorely missed.” Returning are Paige Neves and Lyndsey Wardell. “We won’t have quite the depth we have had for the last four years, but we do have points coming back.”
Overall, “Hopefully we’ll have other kids step up, mature and get bigger and stronger.”
Summing up the year, Henderson said, “They are good kids and it’s been a fun year — but a strange year. Up until the last two weeks, we never had our whole team for any meet. This was a good way to finish the year. The kids are very deserving and I couldn’t be happier for them.”
Lady Huskies, 138.33, Cokeville 112, Saratoga 70, Little Snake River 65.33.
100: fifth, Michelle Fabricius, 14.15.
200: sixth, Fabricius, 28.69.
400: fourth, Brandy Bullinger, 1:05.21.
800: second, Bullinger, 2:28.66.
1,600: fourth, Bullinger, 5:46.76.
100-hurdles: first, Paige Neves,16.80; second, Lyndsey Wardell, 17.23; eighth, Brecka Carrizales, 19.48.
300-hurdles: first, L. Wardell, 48.31; third, Neves, 49.55.
400-relay: fourth, (Carrizales, Alisha Wardell, Janet Davidson, Julie Davidson), 55.29.
1,600-relay: sixth, (Alysha Henderson, Kendra Jensen, Janet Davidson, Jamie Dehl), 4:41.48.
3,200-relay: fourth, (Julie Davidson, Bullinger, Henderson, Jensen), 10:51.36.
High jump: first, Fabricius 5-1; three-way tie for second, L. Wardell, 4-08.
Pole vault: first, Neves 9-07, (state record); second, A. Wardell, 8-090; third, Sadie Neves, 8-00.
Long jump: fourth, Fabricius, 15-02.
Triple jump: second, A. Wardell, 33-03.25; third, L. Wardell, 33-00.
Discus: fourth, Dehl, 99-02; eighth, P. Neves, 88-05.
Huskies 162; second, Cokeville, 78; third, Southeast 62, fourth, Saratoga 55.
100: first, Justin Preator, 11.81.
200: first, Preator, 23.35; third, Eric McNiven, 23.83.
400: first, McNiven, 50.98.
110-hurdles: second, Shawn Christiansen, 17.65; third, Anson George, 17.99.
300-hurdles: first, McNiven, 41.18; sixth, S. Christiansen, 43.30.
400 relay: second, (Wesley Neves, Prerator, Mychael Wiles, Spencer Flores), 47.33.
1,600 relay: seventh, (Christiansen, Neves, Landon Tolman, Gary Hibbert), 3:53.31.
3,200 relay: second, (Tolman, Ammon Howard, Frank Gould, Jacob Bullinger), 9:21.60.
High jump: first, Preator, 6-00; third, Sam Davidson, 5-10; fifth, George 5-08.
Pole vault: first, Christiansen, 14-02.50 (new state record); third, Neves, 13-00; sixth, Flores, 11-06.
Long jump: first, McNiven, 19-11; eighth, George, 18-07.
Triple jump: first, Sam Davidson, 40-07; second, Wiles, 40-02.50; fifth, Flores, 39-07.,50.
Discus: sixth, Todd Davidson, 124-03.
Shot put: third, T. Davidson, 41-09.