YAKIMA – Five Tonasket tracksters braved cold conditions on Saturday, March 17, as they traveled to the Papa Wells Invitational at East Valley (Yakima) for a season-opening meet against 29 other schools, including several 3A and 4A teams.

Damon Halvorsen had a solid first outing, coming within three seconds of his personal best in the 3200-meter run (10:17.67) while running to a fourth-place finish in a field of 39, finishing only behind three runners from state 4A distance running power Eisenhower.

“Damon ran a very smart race,” said Tonasket coach Bob Thornton. “He went out on pace and that let him finish the race strong. He is going to have a very good season.”

For the girls, Cassie Spear led the way in the 200 (5th, 29.09) and 400 (7th, 1:09.67). Also competing were Kelly Cruz in the 100 (19th, 14.54) and 200 (9th, 29.71); Devan Utt in the 100 hurdles (10th, 19.13), high jump (9th, 4-4), and long jump (19th, 12-11.5); Ali Hill in the shot put (14th, 27-4.5); and Shea Smith in the shot put (21st, 25-9).

“Cassie and Kelly came close o setting new PRs,” Thornton said. “It’s exciting for them to start the year running where they finished last year.

“It was a large meet and it was good to see them all place in the top half of their events, especially with as cold a spring as we are having.”

The Tigers sent some of their younger athletes to the Wenatchee JV Invitational on Tuesday and travel to Ephrata’s Ray Cross Invite on Saturday, March 24.