Kamiakin\'s Haggett ready to hurdle again
This story was published Thursday, April 13th, 2006
By Rene Ferran Herald staff writer
Kamiakin senior Michaela Haggett will make her season debut today when the Braves travel to Wenatchee for a three-team Big Nine meet.
Wait a second. Hasn\'t Haggett\'s name been seen in the results for several of Kamiakin\'s meets this season?
True enough. While rehabbing a stress fracture in her left foot, Haggett dabbled in the shot put and discus, competing at a couple of relay meets.
But that\'s like Ichiro Suzuki getting a pinch-hit appearance or two while recovering from an injury. Not until he played right field would he truly say he\'d played that season, and such is the case with Haggett, one of the top hurdlers in the state who already has signed to run for Weber State.
After a month of pool workouts and lifting weights at Tri-City Court Club, Haggett is more than ready to break out of the blocks this afternoon. She\'ll compete in the 100-meter hurdles and the 4x100 and 4x200 relays.
\"It got old for her to go to the court club every day,\" said Braves coach Cheryl Schauble. \"She wasn\'t cleared until Friday, and Monday in practice she felt good on the hurdles. She had her smile back and got that glint in her eyes again. Now, we\'ll have to see how she does Thursday.\"
Haggett also will run at Saturday\'s Pasco Invitational, but she still will not long jump for at least another week -- she jumped 17 feet, 61Ú4 inches last year. Her left foot is her takeoff foot, and Schauble said they wanted to wait until at least next weekend\'s Kiwanis Invite in Hermiston to re-introduce her to that event.
-- The Big Nine coaches didn\'t want to have dual meets today, just two days before the Pasco Invite, but with WASL testing taking place next week, meets were moved to remove the conflict.
The highlight of the day should come at Fran Rish Stadium, where a pair of 2-0 teams (Walla Walla and Richland) square off in a four-team meet that also includes Southridge and Kennewick. Pasco travels to Moses Lake for a meet that includes Eisenhower and Eastmont.
-- The 39th Arcadia (Calif.) Invitational was Saturday, with only a pair of Walla Walla athletes taking part from the region. Adam Hair ran the 300 hurdles in 39.48 seconds, second-best in the Mid-Columbia this season, while Yasmeen Colis ran the 800 (2:24.51) and the mile (5:17.65).
Ferris\' Cameron Elisara, a UW football signee who will compete at this weekend\'s Pasco Invitational, took second in the shot put on a tiebreaker with a best of 60-4 1Ú2. His best this season is a state-leading 62-5.
-- Looking ahead six weeks, here are a couple of tidbits that will have an impact on Star Track when the state meet is held in Pasco in late May:
* Senior Jeff Helmer, who won the 4A 3,200 last spring and the state cross country title in November, received approval from the Everett School District superintendent to transfer from Jackson to crosstown rival Everett.
Helmer, an Arizona State recruit, said in March that he would no longer compete for Jackson because of a conflict with coach Eric Hruschka. The move is unusual because typically student-athletes are not allowed to transfer for athletic reasons under WIAA rules, but because Everett is a multi-school district, the WIAA lets it set its own transfer rules.
* O\'Dea seniors Taylor Mays and Brandon Jones have changed their minds and will run track this spring.
Mays, who won the 3A titles in the 100 and 200 as a sophomore but was injured during last year\'s state meet, had said he would forgo track to concentrate on football workouts (he signed with USC in February). Jones, who won the 100 last year and is headed to California to play football, is still recovering from ankle surgery.
-- Besides the Pasco Invite, this weekend also features the Columbia Basin Inviational in Royal City, one of the biggest meets for small school athletes on the eastside. Last year, it didn\'t conflict with Pasco, which allowed Moses Lake (boys) and Kennewick (girls) to win the titles. Cashmere also will hold its annual invitational Saturday.