* The boys 1,600m race featuring Ethan Pedersen
By Derek Munson - MileSplit Correspondent
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Clouds and rain. Sun and wind. Even an occasional rainbow.
The sky poured everything it had on to Eastlake High School's track complex on Thursday in Sammamish as the Wolves' boys' and girls' programs hosted the Juanita Ravens for their first home meets since 2019.
The Eastlake girls and boys continued their dominance on the track, with both teams combining to collect wins in all but four running events.
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But Juanita, with its deep roster of throwers and jumpers, swarmed the field pits to claim a big chunk of the team points there.
It was a split decision in end, with Eastlake's girls winning the team honors 86-54 and the Juanita boys squeaking past Eastlake's boys 73-68.
Juanita's throwers came through yet again, with the boys and girls taking a combined 39 of the 54 possible points in the shot, discus and javelin. For the Ravens' boys, 67 of their 73 points came from underclassmen.
Juanita's future looks promising for the thrower girls as well, with all but two of the scoring athletes returning in the fall.
Along with strong performances by their boys' and girls' sprinters, Eastlake's distance crew cranked up their speed, with athletes competing in three or four events from the 1,600m all the way down to the 200m.
There were plenty of noteworthy performances from start to finish:
* Max Verboort after his LJ win
Girls Running Performances
- Eastlake's Azita Balsara had a huge day on the track, winning the 100m before out-leaning teammate Abby Beckstead for a photo finish victory in the 200m. Balsara also ran on the winning 4x100m and 4x400m teams, contributing 20 points to Eastlake's team score.
- Eastlake's Regina Guest won the 100m hurdles in 16.89 to remain undefeated for the year.
- Eastlake's distance machine rolled along with the top 11 finishers in the 1,600m, led by Emily Van Valkenburg in a winning-time of 5:17.79.
- Juanita senior Bella Rogers picked up 13 points on and off the track, winning the 300m hurdles (53.07) and the triple jump and placing second in the 100m hurdles
- It was a sophomore sweep for Eastlake in the 800m, as Ava Hagwell took the win with a time of 2:20.10. The top four runners all broke 2:26.
Girls Field Event Performances
- Rachel Gough remained undefeated for the year in the shot put and discus. In addition to last week's school record in the discus, this week's shot put launch of 36-2.50 landed her at No. 3 on Eastlake's all-time record list.
- Ashley Schroeder led Juanita's sweep of the javelin with a throw of 117-09, and then took second in the shot put.
- In a battle between freshman, Eastlake's Noelle Marineau (4-04) edged out Juanita's Lily Roudebush (4-02) in the high jump.
- Eastlake teammates Dawson Flaker and Addison Keller battled it out in a rainy pole vault pit to finish first and second, both clearing 9-0.
Boys Running Performances
- Eastlake senior Caden Barrysmith won the 100m and 200m to remain undefeated for the season.
- Eastlake's Aaron Heisser matched last week's performances with a first-place finish in the 400m (52.58) and second in the 200m (23.47).
- Juanita junior Adrian Klinkenberg earned 13 points for the Ravens with wins in both the 110m and 300m hurdles and a second-place finish in the javelin.
- Eastlake's boys swept the 1,600m and the 800m, led by Ethan Pedersen's 4:31.86 in the 1600m.
- In the 800m, Owen Bloom edged out Pedersen in a sprint to the finish with a personal best time of 2:08.11.
Boys Field Event Performances
- For the second week in a row, Max Verboort was the lone Eastlake jumper taking on an entire squad of long jumpers from the opposing school. He came out on top again, this time with a winning jump of 19-08.50.
- Barrysmith crushed the triple jump with a jump of 43-09.50, landing him at No. 2 on Eastlake's all-time list.
- In the shot put, sophomores took three of the top four spots in a close battle, with less than 16 inches separating the first five places. Eastlake's Kai Baker took the win with a throw of 34-3.5.
- Gryff Thomas led Juanita's PR-filled sweep of the javelin with a winning throw of 110-01.
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