Track Girls Take Regionals by Avery Scott-Fudge

Lakeland’s track and field competed in district competitions to determine who goes to state and in what events. 

The first meet was at Coeur d’Alene High School on May 12th.

Several teams and individuals qualified for state at the first meet. 

For track events, John Cornish, Richie Thomas, Weston Saputski, and Terry Edwards qualified for the boys 4×2, and Michaela Palaniuk, Stacey Barker, Chloe Charvier-Solleilet, and McKenzie Palaniuk qualified for the girls 4×2. 

Regan Wright, Michaela Palaniuk, Chloe Charvier-Solleilet, and Addie Kiefer qualified for the spirit medley relay. 

For field events, Grant Roth qualified for Shotput and Discus and Addie Kiefer qualified for Discus. 

Bryce Henry, Emily Morlan, and Kenna and Landree Simon qualified for High Jump, Cody Morse qualified for Pole Vault, Ziya Munyer for the Triple Jump.

The second meet was in Lewiston at Sweeney Track on May 13th. 

Yet again, many Hawks qualified. 

For track events, Terry Edwards qualified for the 400M, Stacey Barker for the 100M Hurdles, Addie Kiefer for the 400M, John Cornish, Weston Saputski, McKenzie Palaniuk and Chloe Charvier-Soleillet for the 100M, Landree Simon for the 800M.

Regan Wright, Michaela Palaniuk, Chloe Charvier-Soleillet, Michaela Palaniuk for the 4×100, and Sam Daniels for the Pole Vault. 

The Lady Hawks won the regional meets. 

Track Head Coach Brian Etchison said, “Very happy and proud of our girls for winning regionals, first time since 2017, and a lot of qualifiers as well.” 

He added, “With both the boys and girls 4×2 they have a legitimate shot at winning state, I’m excited to see them compete for it, and I think it speaks to trusting the process to what we are doing.” 

Lady Hawks off to State by Liam Bradford

On May 13, the Lakeland Lady Hawks (14-12) beat the Moscow Lady Bears(10-15), 16-15 in game two of districts, sweeping the district series and advancing to the state tournament. 

The Lady Hawks reached base with 20 hits on the day, with seven of the hitters in the lineup with multiple hits. Emma Avalos and Harley See both had four hits on the day, leading the offense and combining four eight runs batted in. 

Avalos, See, Cienna Walls, and Erin Byrne all hit home runs for the Lady Hawks. 

“The pitcher threw me two pitches outside the zone and then when I finally got that inside pitch, I knew I was swinging and then I just looked up and it was sailing over the left field fence. It was kind of an accident,” said Walls. 

“As a senior, it is so awesome to be going to state and I’m so excited for it. Our middle infield played really smooth and I’m looking forward to seeing how our team does against the best teams. I want to say thank you to our coach who has really helped us get to where we are now,” Walls also added. 

Senior infielder, Harley See said, “I am excited to get the state hoodie. Our whole team dominated and seeing a freshman, Alexis Hanna hit a walk-off single was awesome. Also, Payton Sterling is a stud catcher”. 

Haylee Smit pitched the entire game as usual, twirling seven innings and striking out three while pitching well enough to secure the Lady Hawk’s berth in state next weekend. 

The Lady Hawks will play in the state tournament on May 20-21 in Post Falls, Idaho. 

The Final Volley by Malia Batman

On Friday, May 13, the Lakeland Hawks tennis team went down to Moscow to play in the 4a Tennis Districts against Moscow and Sandpoint. 

For the hawks, the morning began rough. All of the singles players began at nine am and just getting off the bus with a thirty-minute warmup was going to be hard. 

Unfortunately, all of the singles players lost in the first round. 

The hardest thing about this was that the number one and number two girls single players are seniors. For Elle Brown, her senior season came to an end in the first round with a first set score of 0-6 and a second set score of 4-6.  

Faith Brodwater, also made her senior season end with a score of 2-6 and a second set score of 0-6. 

“I think I improved a lot over the season, just not enough to win against who I played in districts. Overall, I’m proud of how I did this season and how I improved overall.”

For the Hawks, this was a huge loss, six out of the eighteen players lost and are out in the first round of districts, and the day had just started. 

This put huge pressure on the mixed doubles teams, the boys doubles teams, and the girls doubles team. 

Addi Raebel and Ellie Carlson placed second against Sandpoint’s number one girl’s doubles. 

7-5 for the first set and the second set was 3-6 and 4-6 for the third set. 

The game that led them to the championship was against the Sandpoint number two girls doubles with the score for both sets 6-1. 

“ The game was stressful we lost to the Sandpoint number two girls doubles two weeks prior in a tie breaker so making it was a relief.” 

Bo Wilding and Madison Hersh also placed second for the Lakeland team. 

Brady Hanna and Cole Andres won the first round against the Sandpoint number two doubles team with a first set score of 6-3 and the second set was 7-5. 

“ The other team improved a lot from the beginning of the season so we were not expecting it to go as long.” 

After that round, Andres and Hanna qualified for the championship against Sandpoint number one. The first set ended in Lakeland winning 6-0 and the second set turning around and Sandpoint winning 4-6. 

However, during the second set was where Hanna and Andres had a downfall. Andres sustained an injury making it hard for him to finish. 

The third set ended 2-6 with Lakeland placing second. 

“ We played our heart out and we played with passion.”