HELENA — Some of Helena’s homegrown track talent will hit the national stage next week when the 2024 USATF National Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships kick off on Monday in Bryan-College Station, Texas.
Over his 60 years as head coach of boys track at Helena Capital High School, Lon Carter said he’s never had an athlete qualify for the Junior Olympic Championships.
That is until two of his athletes qualified this year.
“Well, this is the middle of the summer, and normally we’re pretty much done with track,” said Carter. “But we got some kids here that do not want to be done with track.”
Capital teammates Gavin Mow, a rising senior, and Cooper Nelson, a rising junior, qualified in their respective events for the national meet next week. But they first burst on the national track stage last month at the Nike Outdoor National’s in Eugene, Oregon, which Carter called the mecca of track.
“Getting to be at Track Town USA and run on that amazing surface with the best in the nation is something that I’ll never forget,” said Mow, who will compete in the 110-meter hurdles. “It was truly incredible.”
Nelson agreed with Mow’s feelings of awe.
“It almost felt like you’re in college,” said Nelson, who has qualified in the 100- and 200-meter dashes as well as the long jump. “Like you’re in a huge stadium and like the nerves, you kind of just realize, like, I’m on the big stage now. It’s really cool.”
But qualifying for the Junior Olympic meet is an accomplishment both Mow and Nelson said they would not have attained without the guidance of their coach.
“He’s been nothing short of the best coach I’ve ever had and like a second father to me,” said Mow. “He’s taught me lessons about perseverance, not giving up, work ethic and of course general knowledge about hurdling and track. But he’s the greatest coach I’ve ever had.”
And for Carter, the chance to watch his Capital High kids fulfill their track dreams has been just as meaningful.
“It’s really the chance of a lifetime for these kids to experience that type of a track meet,” said Carter. “Just the track meet, let alone the people that are in the track meet.”
In addition to the two qualifiers from Capital, Helena High School will have one representative at the Junior Olympic meet. Rising freshman Lane Eckerson qualified in the 100-, 200- and 400-meter races and long jump.
