BULLHEAD CITY — As the starter’s pistol went off, starting the first race of the day, the storm clouds that hovered around the mountains to the north swept in and covered Thunderbird Stadium.

David Bell/News-Herald Photo. Havasu’s Christina Semmens tosses the shot 19 feet during a four-team multi Track & Field event at Bullhead City Mohave Wednesday.

And while those clouds didn’t bring rain, they dropped temperatures at least 10 degrees and brought winds that challenged runners coming down the final straight, throwers tossing into the winds and jumpers trying to leap before the wind pushed off the bar at a four-team track and field multi at Mohave High School Wednesday.

Havasu finished in third place in both the boys and girls divisions Wednesday — the girls scoring 30 points and the boys 48 — with both teams coming behind winner Mohave and second place River Valley. Seligman was fourth in each division

The Knights traveled mostly junior varsity players to the Wednesday meet.

“We’re saving varsity for the Buckeye Invitational Saturday,” said Havasu head coach Julie Hofman. “But the kids that traveled today earned it. Putting them in competition always helps.”

Havasu scored a pair of first place finishes at the meet, with a pair of hurdlers swapping spots in two races. Daniel Odom was first in the 110 Hurdles with a time of 18.55, just barely beating teammate Brett Mesisca’s time of 18.56. But Mesisca came back to win the 300 Hurdles with a time of 49.73. Odom was second in the race at 49.82.

Richard Engelbrecht finished fifth (21.31) in the 110 Hurdles

Other finishes for Havasu were Taylor Snell fifth (12.04), Odom ninth (12.46), Terin Lillard 11th (12.63), Damin Dixon 14th (12.71), Zach Smith 17th (13.16), Michael Pope 21st (13.56), Robert Sobrito 25th (14.98) and Tyler Partee 26th (15.01) in the 100-meter dash.

Snell finished fourth (24.50), Dixon sixth (26.06), Lillard seventh (26.26), Kyle Smith ninth (26.96), Brennen Bowman 10th (27.24), Santos Solis 16th (28.55), Pope 17th (28.67), Sobrito 20th (31.61), Partee 21st (31.64) and Ray Gallup 27th (36.11) in the 200-meter dash.

In the 400-meters, it was Bowman fourth (1:02.33), in the 800-meters Josh Neskahi was fourth (2:28.74), Gabriel Sanchez 12th (6:07.12) in the 1600-meters and Connor Kassik took third (12:03.58) in the 3200-meters.

Both the 4x100 relay team of Dixon, Engelbrecht, Gallup and Partee (53.36) and the

4x400 team of Odom, Lillard, Gallup and Dixon (4:13.60) finished third.

In the High Jump Colton Spyr finished second (5-06) and Zach Smith fifth (5-0) while in the Long Jump Zach Smith was fourth (16-02), Bowman and Pope tied for seventh (15-0)

and Sobrito was 12th (11-03)

Zach Smith took third (32-11) in the Triple Jump and Spyr closed out the Havasu scoring with a fifth in the Shot Put (35-01) and fourth in the Discus (104-02).

For the Havasu girls, Aimee Wakulinski and Maggie Schmeling both had solid showing with three second place finishes. Wakulinski was second in Long Jump (11-05) and Triple Jump (27-06) while Schmeling was second in High Jump (3-10). Courtney Murphy was fifth (8-09) in the Long Jump while Angie Jones was third in the High Jump (3-08)

Wakulinski also scored a third in the 100-meters (14.52), Casey Wilson third (3:08.98) and Kendahl Janecek fourth (3:13.25) in the 800-meters, Wilson fifth (6:59.36) and Janecek seventh (7:29.25) in the 1600-meters and Gloria Moreno third (15:59.75) and Johanna Knott fourth (16:01.26) in the 3200-meters.

In the Shot Put Jones finished sixth (24-2.5), Schmeling eighth (22-5.5), Christina Semmens 12th (19-0), Robyn McMann 13th (18-10) and Michele Woodstock 14th (18-5.5).

In the Discus, Hanna Hoffman was sixth (65-0), Schmeling seventh (64-06), Jones 10th (54-01), Woodstock 12th (50-07), McMann 13th (49-08) and Semmens 17th (45-02).

Hofman said her team was challenged by the swift change in weather.

“A few (athletes) came up to me and said ‘I’m a step behind’ and I told them that because they need to stay warmed up,” she said. “This was good because now they’re learning the routine of a track meet and that will help them at the big meets.”

A number of the JV athletes may get another chance to compete Saturday. Coaches expect a significant portion of the upperclassmen Varsity athletes to miss the Buckeye Invitational in order to take the SAT test.

You may contact the reporter at dbell@havasunews.com.