It was a dark and stormy night…Not quite but it was cold and windy at Zaepfel Stadium in Yakima for the 3A/4A East Region Championships. Despite the less than perfect conditions for this State qualifying meet, the athletes from the Columbia Basin Big Nine League and the Greater Spokane League fought hard and were very positive and enthusiastic about the competition and the possibility of moving on to the State. The 3A classification sends the top two to State and the 4A the top four. Finals were held in this first day in some of the field events and the 3200 meters.
Freshman Lindsay Burns from West Valley entered the today’s meet atop the 3A state rankings in the long jump with a PR of 18-4.25. After the prelims she was short of her PR but leading with competition with a jump of 17-7.5, which was 18 inches over NC’s Brittney Konynenbelt. On her first jump in the finals she extended her lead to 18-1.25 and that was all she needed for the victory. She was very excited about competing at State next week and just hopes to “make it to finals, PR, and have fun.” She went on win her heat in the prelims of the 400 meters.
Wenatchee’s Jacob Sealby had a busy schedule of events today with prelims of the 200, 400 and finals in the long jump. In the long jump he made very efficient use of his time only jumping once, which was enough to win the competition with a mark of 22-1.5. After that one jump he never returned to the long and was able to focus on his running events.
The Davis duo of Michael Martinez and Marucs Schooley went 1-2 in the pole vault in 4A competition with vaults of 14-0. Maritinez tied his PR and got the win over his teammates with fewer misses. Schooley’s PR of 14-9 is tied for the 4A state lead with Woodinville’s Curtis Flolid. The pair hope to repeat the 1-2 finish next week at state but know competition with be tough. Mead’s Michael Green finished third and after close examination of the results his teammate Hayden Douglass finished fourth in the last qualifying spot.
As the 4A girls’ high jump was being completed, Wenatchee’s Audrey Ketcham was running back and forth between the high jump and the warm-up area for the 4x100. She had clinched the hj competition with her jump of 5-2. The bar was then moved to 5-4 and Ketcham quickly got in one jump before running the 4x100 where she helped the Panthers qualify for State. She then hustled back to the hj to clear 5-4 but didn’t have the legs to clear 5-6. She hopes to PR, over 5-8, at State next week.
Jessica Bush moved on the next week's State Meet with her winning put of 41-4.25. The senior from Eisenhower is excited about the competition next week with the top five girls throwing within two feet of each other and hopes for a top 3 finish.
Mt. Spokane’s Allan Schroeder missed out going to state last year by .7 of a second after placing third as a sophomore in 2008. He was not going to miss out his senior year. His race plan was to go with NC’s Ben Johnston and get the automatic berth to State by finishing second. Johnston took the lead from the start hoping to lead his teammate Vince Hamilton (and others who wanted to follow) under the qualifying time of 9:13. He inched away from Schroeder, Nathan Weitz, and Hamiton to win in 9:10.6 despite having a side ache for the last two laps. Schroeder got that coveted second spot out sprinting Weitz and finishing in 9:14.24 (.13 faster than 09.) Weitz missed the qualifying time, which had Johnston lamenting how many great Spokane runners stay home.
In the 4A 3200 the field opted for a tactile race. Walla Walla’s Aaron Nelson hoped for a fast race so took the early lead and led the pack by 10 meters. Ferris’s Adam Thorne and Mead’s Andrew Gardner led the chase group, which caught Nelson by the fourth lap. A group of five formed (Thorne, Gardner, IKE’s Bryan Simison, Kamiakin’s Anthony Armstrong, and LC’s Kenji Kierig) with only four going to State. Bierig slipped away from the foursome leaving a mad dash to the finish for the four spots. For the second week in a row Thorne, the senior, was able to hold a younger runner for the victory (9:13.73.) This week is it was sophomore Armstrong who set a new Kamiakin school record with his 9:13.86.
NC’s Katie Knight and Shadle’s Kendra Weitz have accepted and now relish in the fact that the two are destined to race side-by-side for the next three years as they have done all season. Lap after lap the two freshmen circled the track headed for a show down in the final lap. Knight was able to pull away from Weitz on route to a new North Central School record of 10:46.22 (previous record held by Laura Hodgson with a 10:48.92 in 2002.) Weitz was going after records as well but just fell shy of Shadle’s freshman record of 10:46.80 (Held by Andrea Nelson) running 10:49.91. The pair light-up when talking about racing against classmate Amy Eloise Neale from Glacier Peak who has run 10:31 this year.
Marisa Vander Malle from Pasco cruised to victory in the 4A 3200 with a 10:59.58.
Mead’s Jazmine Redmon won the hotly contested 4A long jump competition with a 16-10.6 where the top eight finalists were all with 15 inches of each other.
The meet concludes tomorrow.