"We had the Justin Smith show," said Track Coach Harry Rasmussen. "He was involved in all of our (boys team) points."
Smith missed second place in the 100-meter, "by a whisker," Rasmussen said, and tied for third in the 200 with a time of 23.85 seconds.
Smith also ran the anchor leg of the 400-meter relay team that took third at 47.33.
The boys 800-meter relay team looked strong as well for most of the race until a missed exchange kept them from the podium.
"We were beating Kenai," said Rasmussen. "I know we would have given them a run."
Kenai ended up winning the race with a time of one minute, 33.39 seconds.
"I was encouraged and discouraged at the same time," Rasmussen said.
Still, the coach was happy with the improvement he is seeing with many Mariners.
"I think all but two had personal bests. It went about as smooth as you can hope," Rasmussen said.
Korey Romanchuk improved his distance in the shot put by four feet and Matt Kinney nearly made the finals in the hurdles — an event he picked up for the first time this year.
While none of the Mariner distance runners made the finals at the Invite, Rasmussen said Tyler Haas and Ben Hawkins are getting close.
"We had some of the best teams in the state at the meet," Rasmussen said. "Placing and getting points was substantial there."
On the girls side, Tatiana Gruber finished third in the 400 with a time of one minute, 4.93 seconds — the fastest time in the Region so far this year.
Rasmussen was pleased with the way Anna Duz and Tia Halpin competed without teammate Erika Klaar who is missing a couple of weeks of school.
While the girls team finished 15th overall in the 21-team meet and the boys finished ninth, Rasmussen said there was nothing at the meet to be discouraged about.
"Now we just need to take one more step and we'll make a dent at Boroughs and be competitive at Regions," Rasmussen said.
The Mariners host the Homer Invite Saturday that will draw most Kenai Peninsula teams and a couple from Anchorage.
Ben Stuart can be reached at ben.stuart@homernews.com.
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