A Triple Crown for West Jefferson’s Bella Spencer and two state records for Marsh Valley’s Lydia Townsend earn East Idaho Sports honors

EASTERN IDAHO — Every year the Track and Field State Championships provide plenty of highlights as the state’s top athletes compete for medals, records, and the thrill of a podium finish.

This year was no different.

Area athletes accounted for dozens of individual medals and area teams won trophies in every classification.

So it’s no easy task to pick out the best of the best.

But numbers don’t lie.

And that’s the bottom line when it comes to picking out the East Idaho Sports Girls Track and Field Athletes of the Year.

We couldn’t pick just one.

Lydia Townsend, Marsh Valley

The senior has already established herself as not just one of the top pole vaulters in the state, but also in the nation when she cleared 13-8 at the Arcadia Invitational earlier this season.

But Townsend is also a state champion hurdler.

Her final high school meet proved she could be elite in both as she won the 4A 100 hurdles and added a third state pole vault title.

She also placed second in the 300 hurdles and anchored the 4×400 team to a second-place finish.

Did we mention numbers?

Townsend, along with Kimberly’s Karlie Bair, became the first Idaho hurdlers to break 14 seconds in the 100 hurdles during the event prelims.

Townsend clocked 13.86, but the results were wind-aided so they did not count toward state or meet records.

In the finals, Townsend was even faster, finishing in 13.79 to win the title. The time was wind-aided, but still counts as breaking the 14-second mark.

“I remember when I ran my 13.79 in the finals, I got in the blocks and had a grin on my face because I knew it was going to be a good race and I had the confidence in the blocks,” she said.

Townsend cleared 13-feet in the pole vault, breaking her own 4A state record while claiming her third state title in the event.

With Townsend’s four medals, Marsh Valley earned a team trophy, finishing fourth in the 4A team standings.

Bella Spencer, West Jefferson

The Triple Crown.

That was the goal for the Panther junior heading into the 3A state championships.

Spencer made the podium last season in the 800 and 1,600, and already had a state title in cross country.

But she decided she wanted to take on the challenge of winning titles in the 800, 1,600, and 3,200 this year.

“My expectations this season were kind of high because my sophomore season wasn’t very good,” Spencer said. “I didn’t get all I wanted. My coach kind of gave me the idea of the Triple Crown. ‘I think you can do it.’ So that was my goal.”

Spencer finished fifth in the 800 and was third in the 1,600 at last season’s state championships.

She said she didn’t like the grueling 3,200 and did not run in the event at all last season.

That changed this year as the focus shifted to the Triple Crown.

“It was a lot of workouts … mentally I was just excited for it,” she said.

Spencer said she felt more mentally prepared entering the state meet.

“I was locked in.”

Locked in indeed.

Spencer ran a PR of 11:09.01 to win the 3,200 on the first day of the meet, and completed the Triple Crown with a PR of 5:08.75 in the 1,600 and a convincing win in the 800 on the second day.

“This season was so fun,” Spencer said of accomplishing her Triple Crown goal.

Despite setting a PR in the 1,600, she said she was disappointed at coming up short of the record at 5:03.31.

But that will be another goal for next season as she chases a repeat Triple Crown.