Senior Hunter Shelmerdine reacts to hearing that he broke the school record in the 400-meter as Coaches Zelda Haines and David Cahoon congratulate him at the finish line.
Senior Hunter Shelmerdine way out front in the 400-meter as he kicks it in for the home stretch.
MISSOULA - The sun was shinning bright at the Kim L. Haines Memorial Track Meet May 4 and for Seeley-Swan's Hunter Shelmerdine it was a perfect day to shine as well. The senior ran the 400-meter in 49.82 seconds, breaking the school's 36-year-old 400-meter record set by Shawn Holmes. He also set a new KLH meet record.
Shelmerdine said not only was it really cool to break Holmes' record because Holmes teaches and coaches at Seeley-Swan but he said it was extra special to do so at the KLH meet. Haines was a long time track coach at Seeley-Swan who Shelmerdine credited with setting up most of the Blackhawks' track traditions.
Since he was a freshman, it has always been in the back of Shelmerdine's mind that he could break the record of 50.3 seconds Holmes set as a senior in 1983. He knew he'd have a good shot at it this year after running it in 50.82 seconds at the state meet last season.
Holmes, who was working the KLH meet, said he never would have guessed his record would stand that long. It was the second oldest record on the Boys' side at the beginning of the season and became the oldest record after the 200-meter fell to Logan Robinson a month ago. Shelmerdine said that Holmes had been pushing him to break it for years. Shelmerdine was happy he could finally do it.
Looking forward, Shelmerdine hopes to shave a little more off his 400-meter record by the end of the season in three weeks. In addition to his individual record, Shelmerdine and his teammates are still gunning for the state class C record in the 4x400 relay in which they already hold the school record. Their current fastest time of 3:27.59 minutes is just a few seconds short of the 2016 state record set by Ennis.
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