Nome-Beltz track team’s unlikely underdog season

The Nome-Beltz Track team had a late start to the season this year, with only about a month of regular practices, due to the lack of a coach. Lahka Peacock filled the void and stepped up to coach the team despite having no experience coaching track and field. Corey Erikson and Dan Pardee volunteered to helpPeacock as assistant coaches.
Nome-Beltz does not have a track or field. To start, the team trained inside. Athletes competing in field events were inside the gym, throwing against the divider. They had no idea how far they were throwing. Track athletes were running laps in the school hallways, two athletes elbow to elbow. “We were training in this nice long hall,” said Peacock. “It’s a pretty good distance, it's about 100 meters, we would push it back as far as we could through these double doors.”
When the weather got better, the team could start training outside. They marked distances from 100 meters to 800 meters on the highway heading into town and would run on Center Creek Road, heading towards Anvil Mountain Correctional Facility. “We would use the gravel road for some longer distances,” he said. “Just a little less pounding on the legs.”
The team wasn’t taking it easy. “For the limited amount of practice time we pushed them hard. We only got a month,” said Peacock. “It's not like we got to slowly start up and get in shape. We're gonna go really hard. We had really hard practices.”
Qualification for state this year was different, too. Unlike previous years, where competitors would compare their best time or score from any regular season meet against other Region I competitors, athletes this year needed to qualify based on their performances in regional championships. Only the first-place finishers in each event were guaranteed a spot at state championships.
Peacock said that none of the teams in Region I have a track, so they had to pick a different region’s championships to join. They picked Region II, held at Susitna Valley High School, scheduled for May 15 and 16.
The team had one meet leading into Region II Championships, held on May 8-9 in Soldotna. Day two of that Soldotna meet was canceled after it snowed, so the athletes only had one day of competition before competing for spots at state. Peacock said that from that one day of competition, they had an idea on which kids could maybe do well, but there were events they simply did not get to compete in. “We had no times, no throws for some, and just were kind of going in blank on where we stood at all,” he said.
They showed up to compete at Region II last weekend with 13 other teams and were ranked second to last in standings. Many of the other teams would have had tracks and been training longer than the Nanooks. Friday was mostly preliminaries, to qualify for the finals on Saturday. “We did all right. Pretty much everyone made it to the finals,” said Peacock.
Peacock said that not having any real benchmarks for how good the team was maybe ended up being a good thing. “Typically, you go in and you can see who the top kids are, because they've had these neat times, these neat jumps,” he said.
When Kendall Ulroan did his first jump in the men’s Long Jump event, Peacock said the crowd started talking. None of their competitors expected that Ulroan was competitive in the event. “You start hearing some kids and some coaches go, ‘Who’s this kid?’” he recounted. “And then he goes and ends up taking second in the event. It kind of gets Nome a little bit on the map.”
Then Young Erikson earned a second place in discus. Noel Pardee took second in women’s Long Jump. Peacock said there was some chatter here and there about Nome, leading into the men’s 100-meter dash.
Keegan James Musich was running for Beltz and ran the second fastest preliminary heat time. He went into the final, next to the fastest finisher. “They start, and Keegan’s running, I’m videoing, and he is just killing it,” said Peacock. “Crossed the line first, no problem, and I’m just like ‘Wow, how did he do that?’”
Peacock said that the athlete who was ranked number one and ran the fastest time into the final ended up getting disqualified for a false start. Musich had secured a spot at State Championships. Musich also took first in the 200-meter dash and won the 4x100 meter relay along with Levi Pederson, Kendall Ulroan and Drake Medlin.
Granite Peacock won the 400-meter dash, also securing a spot at state. Coach Peacock said his son Granite was entered into the 800-meter race as well but had no expectations. “We said, 'You got nothing to lose, go out, go as hard as you can,’” Coach Peacock said.
Granite was in the middle of the pack until the last corner when he and one other competitor put pedal to the metal. “They came out and just started passing these kids, and came down to a photo finish,” said Coach Peacock. Granite ended up winning by a hundredth of a second against Joseph Laudermilch of Birchwood Christian.
For the Lady Nanooks, a last-minute changeup could have thrown a wrench in the works. Senior Kive Shannon was slated to run the anchor leg for the women’s 4x100-meter relay but had to back out of the race due to shin splints. The coaches called up an alternate, freshman Noel Pardee, to join Aurora Walker, Cassidy Martinson and Audrey Bruner-Alvanna in the relay. Pardee was competing in three other events – 300-meter Hurdles, High Jump and Long Jump. Pardee ran the anchor, and the Lady Nanooks won the relay with a time of 57.49. “She took the baton that last leg and just crushed it,” said Peacock. “The girls were ecstatic, the smiles on their faces were unbelievable.”
As the organizers announced the team scores at the end of the event, Nome-Beltz had another shock. “Next thing you know, they're calling Nome for second place, and we were all like, ‘What?’” said Peacock. “We went from second to last, to second behind Susitna Valley by three points, 90 to 87.”
The Region II championships happened last weekend, but other regions will compete this coming weekend. Once those results are up, Region II athletes will have their scores compared and if they beat out other athletes, may win a chance at state. “We have to sit around, bite our nails, waiting to find out,” said Peacock.
The State Championships take place the final weekend in May. Peacock said that the athletes are excited.

Nome-Beltz Boys Region II Championship Results
1st place 100m & 1st place in the 200m: Keegan Musich
1st place 400m & 1st place in the 800m: Granite Peacock
1st place 4x100 relay: Levi Pederson, Kendall Ulroan, Drake Medlin & Keegan Musich,
2nd place 4x200 relay: Levi Pederson, Kendall Ulroan, Drake Medlin & Keegan Musich, with Gabe Tran as an alternate.
2nd place Long Jump: Kendall Ulroan
2nd place in the discus and shot-put: Young Erikson

Nome-Beltz Girls Region II Championship Results
1st place 4x100: Aurora Walker, Cassidy Martinson, Audrey Bruner, Noel Pardee
2nd place long jump – Noel Pardee

ACADEMIC AWARDS
4.0 academic awards – Cassidy Martinson, Kive Shannon, Noel Pardee, Levi Pederson.