Tommy Lewis sets records to win Eastern A shot put title

Tommy Lewis left East Helena High School with more than a divisional title in hand. The Havre thrower won the Eastern A shot put championship at the East Helena-hosted meet and set both a new meet record and a new facility record in the process.

The Eastern A Divisional track and field meet ran Friday, May 22, and Saturday, May 23, 2026, with individual and team champions crowned on the second day in East Helena. The performance gave the divisional meet one of its sharpest headlines and put Lewis at the center of a field that will feed into the Class A state championships in Laurel on May 28-30.

East Helena Public Schools formally welcomed athletes, coaches and families to the 2026 Eastern A Divisional Track and Field meet, and the turnout underscored how much the high school has become a stage for the region’s spring sports showcase. The records Lewis set added a local benchmark to a meet that was already carrying state-level weight for Montana’s Class A programs.

Track and field has long mattered in Montana high school athletics. The Montana High School Association traces the sport as a spring staple back to the 1904-05 school year, which helps explain why divisional weekends still carry so much importance across the state. Winning at East Helena did not just mean a divisional medal for Lewis. It also positioned him near the front of the Class A conversation heading into Laurel, where the season’s final test was set for the end of the week.

For East Helena, the meet showed what a well-run divisional can do for a community gym, a campus and a local athletic pipeline. Hosting a divisional brings together the top throwers, runners and jumpers from Eastern A, and Lewis’ record throw gave the East Helena facility a mark to measure against going forward. It also added another data point to the spring, where the best performances are increasingly shaping the way coaches and programs are judged before state.

Lewis’ title will travel with him to Laurel, but the numbers he set in East Helena will stay with the meet. On a weekend built around team scores and individual crowns, his throw stood out as the performance that changed the record book.