The prior week at Regionals Panther Head Coach John Mires was hopeful of another 4A championship saying “It would be nice to get the repeat.” However he didn’t expect his athletes to step up like they did with number of individual championships Mead picked up. He was very gracious and humble describing their winning performances as “A Tacoma gold rush! When the first guy got a gold medal the others wanted one too.” This was confirmed by 300 hurdles meter champion Wes Bailey after his win. “They (the coaches) had me picked third and I got pissed and wanted to win.” Mead scored 82.5 points, which is the highest points total ever in the 4A/AAA classification. Lincoln’s 1974 team scored 81 points including a second place finish in the 800 by Mead’s Distance Coach Steve Kiesel.
Sam Wright got the victories rolling by winning the shot put on Thursday then followed that with a second place in the discus. Freshman Andrew Gardner didn’t get a victory but came close with his second place finish and Washington freshman record with a 9:01.40. 110 meter hurdler, Casey Monahan powered way from the field in the final few hurdles to get the win with a 14.82 on Friday night in nasty conditions. Mead’s vertical jumper scored big points with AJ Maricich winning the high jump clearing 7-0, Jeremy Beck finishing in a third place tie at 6-4, Michael Green’s finishing fourth place in the vault at 14-0 and Connor Hemming eighth place at 13-0. The Panther 4x100 relay picked up a second place.
In contrast to Coach Mires's openness in talking about Mead’s championship, girls’ coach Dori Robertson was playing it closer to the vest saying “we’ve got some points” when asked how the Panther’s were doing in the team competition. Mead scored 65 points, eighteen points ahead of second place Rogers of Puyallup.
Kishia Mitchell from Rogers and Jazmine Redmon from Mead in the 400
Baylee Mires (daughter of boys’ Head Coach John) led the Panthers with wins 800 and the 1600. In the 800 she laid back waiting until the final 200 meters to take the lead where exploded away from the field for the victory. “I knew I had the 1600 and 4x400 later so I waited to take the lead. Anna (Dailey) will be tough in the 1600” mires commented after her 800 victory. Senior Jazmine Redmon, Mead’s muli-event star, picked up big points for the Panthers in the 400 where she placed second and in the long jump where she placed fifth. She and Mires teamed up with Tymen Grant and Peyton Barcellos to win the 4x400 in 3:55.94. Tasha Clark won the pole vault with a 12-0 vault, in competition that sent the coaches scrambling for their rule books. Clark, Kent Meridian’s Kelsey Bueno, Auburn Riverside’s Rebecca Turnbow all cleared 12-0 on their first attempt with Issaquah’s Eva Perry clearing 12-0 on a later attempt. All four of the competitors missed at 12-3 so that left a three-way tie between Clark, Bueno, and Turnbow. The next tie breaker was based on total misses in the competition which Clark had the least and crowned the champion. On Thursday Courtney Hutchinson won the shot with a put 42-6.
Mead's Tasha Clark
Another great weekend for the Mead Pathers and the Mires family!