In the week four of GSL competition at Mt. Spokane High School the host team earned a victory over rival CV 80-65 partly on strength of their distance crew.
Mt. Spo’s Head Coach Bryan Payne and CV’s Head Coach Chuck Bowden both anticipated this GSL dual was going to be within a hand full of points. They had their score cards in close in hand keeping track of the meet (you gotta love head track coaches.) CV jumped out to a 16 point lead after the 1600 with strong performances in the Shot Put, 110 hurdles, and Javelin going 9-0, 8-1, and 9-0 in those events. However, Mt. Spo continued to chip away at the lead getting big points in the Pole Vault, Triple Jump, 1600 and the 800. Going into the 3200 Mt. Spokane and caught CV and needed six points to clinch the victory.
Both schools were well aware what was needed in the 3200 and pulled out all the stops in the race, some were planned some were not. Mt. Spo’s distance coach Craig Dietz looked to his senior star Allan Schroeder to lead the Cats planning him to race all three distance events (Schroeder won the 1600 and 800.) CV’s distance coach Kieran Mahoney called on his senior Bryan Aguilar (who also had already run the 1600 and 800) in the last minute to go after the points. Mt. Spokane had a few fresh bodies in Connor Jones and Jake Depledge to battle the Bears. At the gun Schroeder took the lead from start and put the hammer down. He quickly pulled away from Jones, Aguilar and DePledge who formed a group of four after the first few laps. Lap after lap Schroder continued to push and Aguilar sat on Jones’s, followed closely by DePledge. Schroeder never let up running his last lap in 1:06 to finish in 9:38. Jones led Aguilar through the last lap then with about 150 meters to go Aguilar pulled up to the junior’s shoulder and attempted to go around. Jones was able to hold him off and gain a slight advantage at the line finishing in 10:05, while Aguilar finished 10:06, which was a 10 second PR. Jones commented later “I knew Aguilar was there with 200 and I was thinking I need to hold him off.”
Mt. Spokane got more than the six they needed scoring eight in the 3200 and capping off a strong showing by their distance crew going 1-2 in the 1600, and 1-2 in the 800. Schroeder said “I was tired after the 800 but felt good in the 32.” when asked about his first triple. The Wildcats added a 4x400 victory to increase the final tally.
Central Valley girls’ get the win over Mt. Spokane
CV on the strength of their jumping events and overall depth beat Mt. Spokane 64-86 girls’ competition. CV scored 23 of 27 points in the long, triple and high jumps, and was solid in all the other events getting 10 wins and only giving up six points in two of the events.
CV’s Kendra Szoke picked up double wins in the long and triple jump with marks of 15-6.5 and 34-5.75. Mt. Spokane’s Afton McKinlay got wins 100 and 400 and also ran on winning 4x100 and 4x200 relays. Her victories were razor thin in the 100 and the 400. In the 100 she clocked the same time at CV’s Michelle Nemeth at 12.9. In the 400 she edged CV’s Allison Jordan 62.3 to 62.7. Mt. Spokane freshman distance runner Brooklin Young also got two razor thin victories in the 1600 and 3200. In the 1600 she out kicked Jamie Lambie 5:31 to 5:34 and in the 3200 she out-leaned CV’s Kiah Kondos 11:58.4 to 11:58.5