The GSL 3A/4A District Meet concluded on a beautiful Friday evening at Spokane Fall Community College with a flurry of meet records and a razor thin victory for one of the teams.
The record setting got started early in the day in the javelin. Going into the completion Levi Taylor was the favorite having thrown 198-10 earlier this season but Ferris’s Gage Orosco and Mead’s Sam Hilmes had no intention of just giving him the victory. Hilmes put the pressure on Taylor with his first throw of 193-1, which was an 18 foot PR for the Panther then Orosco followed with his own 9 foot PR at 193-10. Rising up to the competition Taylor then threw a 196-10 to take the lead on his first throw. As the second round of throws progressed Hilmes or Orosco were unable to better their marks. Taylor then took the runway and launched his record setting throw of 208-10 breaking the previous mark of 201-11 held by Mead’s Justin Graff.
Mead’s Tasha Clark continued the record setting in the pole vault with a vault of 12-0. The senior broke her own record of 11-6 set last year. Her Panther teammate Alizabeth Ennis finished second with a vault of 10-0.
Record breaking also got started early on the track with two records in the 3A 1600. In the boys’ 3A NC’s Ben Johnston jumped out the lead with much more of a purpose than he did in the 3200 the night before and again he was shadowed by Shadle’s Nathan Weitz. The duo pulled away from the pack of Allan Schroder and Hunter Johnson from Mt. Spokane, and Casey Adams from NC. They came through the half way mark in 2:06. Johnston edged away from Wetiz in the final lap winning in a record time of 4:14.37. The previous record 4:16.88 set by NC’s Leon Dean in 2009.
The girls’ race also had saw common opponents racing to record pace. Shadle’s Kendra Weitz took the lead from the start and was followed by freshman classmate Katie Knight. Knight pulled away from Wetiz in the final lap and sprinted to a 3A meet record of 4:58.98 besting the previous best of 5:03.9 set by Cheney’s Jeanette Zimmerman in 1995 (Cheney was a AA school at that time.)
The sprinters also got in on the record breaking action in the 200 meters. In the 3A race Roger’s Corde Bailey ran just shy of his 100 meter record running 10.88 (he set the meet record of 10.77 in the prelims on Thursday.) He then came back in the 200 at raced to a 21.85 breaking the record of 22.0 set by Dave Farnham from West Valley set in 1981.)
Mead’s Wes Bailey apparently won the 300 hurdles but there was an entire flight of hurdles missing from the track and the race was re-run this morning before the JV/Frosh District Meet. Wes had to come back from the "fake race" to run the 200. The 300 hurdles must have been a good warm-up for him because he ran a meet record time of 21.98 breaking the previous mark of 22.0 set by Brian Canton from EV set in 1991 (though again I’m not sure why this is a 4A meet record, EV was not 4A in 1991 and not even in the GSL in 1991.)
Other Action:
Ferris’s Kelsie Lin was happy to be competeting in four events after being sidelined with a mid-season injury. She expressed frustration with the timing of her injury and looked forward to competing at Regionals and hopefully moving on to State. She won two indivudal events, the 100 meters in 12.74, and the triple jump in 35-1. She was also on the Saxon's winning relay teams (4x100, and 4x200.)
Jazmine Redmon from Mead also had a busy two days of competing where she won two individual events, the 400 meters in 58.68 and the long jump in 17-8.5. She also was a member of the winning 4x400 team. Baylee Mires, another member of Mead’s 4x400, cruised to victory in the 1600 (5:04.16) and the 800 (2:14.93.)
In the boys’s 4A high jump five jumpers remained at 6-2 including Mead’s AJ Maricich who had yet to jump. CV’s Joel Chavez and Mead’s Jeremy Beck made 6-2 and moved on to 6-3 where Chavez was eliminated. The bar was then raised to 6-4, which Beck made easily. Maricich entered the competition at this height and missed on his first attempt but made it on his second. The two Panthers teammates were tied when the bar was moved to 6-6 (Beck had a previous miss at a lower height) and easily made 6-6 on their first attempt. At 6-8 Beck cleared easily but Maricich just clipped the bar with his heel but then cleared it on his second attempt. Beck bailed out of his first two jumps at 6-10 grabbing the bar with his hand while Maricich cleared this first attempt. Beck was eliminated on his third attempt making Maricich the winner.
In the team competitions Mead won the 4A boys’ and girls’ divisions. Mead boys bested Ferris a 179 to 154.5, and the girls beat Central Valley 165 to 151. Mt. Spokane girls won the 3A division with 244.5 points. The 3A boys’ competition came down the 4x400…Mt. Spokane held a 1.5 point advantage over North Central going into the final race of the evening. North Central was able to slip past Mt. Spokane in the final stages of the race for the narrow victory (3:24.76 to 3:25.35) and securing the team victory.
Next week regionals in Yakima at Eisenhower high school.