Helena athletes enter state track meet with top title hopes
Brayden Brisko, Jameson Canney and five more Helena standouts enter Missoula with top-three seeds and real state-title chances.
Helena High and Helena Capital are taking a deep postseason crew to Missoula, where seven athletes arrive with top-three seed marks or times and a real shot to shape the Class AA championship race. The state meet runs Thursday through Saturday at MCPS Stadium, and Helena’s best chances run through the same names that have carried the city all spring.
Capital senior Brayden Brisko stands at the center of it. He enters as the reigning pole vault state champion and owns the best vault in Montana at 16 feet, 6 inches. That mark, cleared at the Western AA divisional meet, broke the previous meet record by 6 inches and came after he won last year’s state title at 15-6. Brisko also brings the fastest 100-meter seed in the field at 10.68 seconds, making him one of the meet’s most unusual threats because he can score big points in both a power event and a sprint.
Helena’s sprint and hurdle picture is just as strong. Capital senior Jameson Canney has the state’s fastest 300-meter hurdles time this season at 39.12, while Capital junior Oliver Mow won the Western AA 110 hurdles in 13.79, the second-fastest time in Class AA this season. On the boys side, Capital junior Carson Toivonen sits third in javelin at 183 feet, 3 inches. On the girls side, Capital senior Kaelyn Saari is third in javelin at 134 feet.
Helena High adds another pair of medal threats. Junior Asher Hazen cleared 6 feet, 5 inches in the high jump, leaving him just one inch shy of the state-best mark. Sophomore Quinlyn Simmons enters with top-three seed times in both the 100 and 200 meters, clocking 12.23 and 25.44. Simmons also made noise at Missoula’s Russ Pilcher Top 10 meet on April 28, when she set a new 100-meter meet record of 12.31.
The strength of the Helena group fits a bigger statewide picture. Montana Sports reported that at least 20 Class or all-class records have already been tied or surpassed this season, and the boys 100 is crowded with 12 Class AA sprinters already under 11 seconds. Helena’s athletes will try to break into that fast company over three days at MCPS Stadium, where Montana High School Association says track and field has been part of spring athletics since the 1904-05 school year. For Helena, the meet offers more than participation: it offers a chance to turn a strong seed sheet into medals, points and maybe a championship-defining performance.
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