Senior Walker McDonald throwing the shot put. He extended his school record 2 feet 4 inches in Great Falls last week.
Junior Emily Maughan competing in the long jump. She earned a place in the Seeley-Swan High School record book last week with a jump of 17 feet 6.25 inches.
SEELEY LAKE - A pair of school records and several meet records fell over the past week as athletes from Seeley-Swan High School competed in the Russ Pilcher Top 10 in Missoula April 26 and the Fairfield Belt State Preview in Great Falls April 30.
Junior Emily Maughan has had her eyes on Seeley-Swan's Long Jump record of 17 feet 4 inches for several years. She recalled that she first felt it was attainable when she was in eighth grade and was jumping around 16 feet.
This year, Coach Mike Haines helped her change her run-up from seven to nine steps giving her more distance to build speed. She also has been working on consistency in her take offs and landings.
While Emily has had some doubt that she could break it, her hard work paid off at the Top 10. She added 6 inches to her personal best, clearing 17 feet 5.5 inches and shattered Shelley Nicholson's 1976 school record.
Four days later Emily extended her school record to 17 feet 6.25 inches at Great Falls also breaking the meet record by more than 5 inches. She does not plan to stop there with her new goal being 18 feet. The Class C State record is also well within Emily's reach at 17 feet 7.5 inches.
Senior Walker McDonald is no stranger to the record books holding both Seeley-Swan's Shot Put and Discus records. At Great Falls last week Walker extended his school Shot Put record and broke the meet record, set by himself in 2021. His throw of 55 feet 0.25 inches added 2 feet 4 inches to his school record.
Walker spent the last week focusing his training on the Shot Put and said that the shot put area at Great Falls is one of his favorites to throw at.
Walker has also extended his school Discus record this season. He added 6 feet with a throw of 170 feet 10 inches at the Sapphire Twilight Invitational in Corvallis April 21.
Walker said he has been taking training and throwing more seriously this year and is aiming to break the State records. His best throws are less than 2 feet short of both the Class C Shot Put and Discus records.
Senior Sariah Maughan and Junior Owen Hoag also set meet records at Great Falls.
Sariah swept the 400, 800 and 1,600-meter events setting meet records in all three. Her 400-meter time of 59.12 broke her own record set in 2021. She took more than a second off Lindsey Paulson's 2021 800-meter record, crossing the line at 2:17.97 and she shaved more than three seconds off Seeley-Swan's Stephanie Robbins' 2017 record in the 1600-meter with a time of 5:24.86.
Owen set the meet record in the 200-meter crossing the line in 22.77, more than a tenth of a second faster than Seeley-Swan's Logan Robinson's time in 2019.
This week Seeley-Swan heads to Missoula May 7 for the Kim L. Haines Memorial track meet.
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