The house wins at Eason Invite

The house wins at Eason Invite
Host Snohomish bests Everett in 60-team meet

By Darren Fessenden
Herald Writer

SNOHOMISH - What a way to host a party.

Invite 60 or so groups, 1,100 or so individuals, and treat them to an all-access pass of your premises on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon.

Then promptly send them home by dusk with a defeat.

So it was for the Snohomish High School boys track and field team at the 18th annual Larry Eason Invitational at Veterans Memorial Stadium. The Panthers edged two-time defending champion Everett, 59 to 53.5.

\"Our seniors realized what they\'re capable of,\" Snohomish head coach Tuck Gionet said. \"They had really good performances.\"

Left: Everett\'s Alex Stanovsky (981) hands off the baton to teammate Logan Ordona at the end of the first leg of the distance medley relay event. Stanovsky ran the 1,200-meter portion of the event, while Ordona ran the 400. The Seagulls set a new meet record in the event with a time of 10:21.74
Nick Mundell (second in the 300 hurdles, third in the 110 hurdles) and Michael Johnson (third in both the shot put and discus) led the Panther surge. Also placing third for Snohomish was David Pinkerton in the pole vault and its distance-medley team.

It was that particular relay that proved to be the highlight of the meet for the boys.

Jeff Helmer, in his first action of the season after transferring from Jackson, anchored Everett\'s distance medley relay team (Axel Stanovsky, Logan Ordona, Matt Kaftanski) to a meet record (10 minutes, 21.74 seconds) and the seventh-best time in state history.

\"We stacked the distance-medley (race) to do something special,\" Everett head coach Doug Hall said. \"That cost us the team title. But it was worth the sacrifice. It\'s our only chance to do that.\"

The Arizona State-bound Helmer, who ran a 4:21 1,600-meter split, is scheduled to run the 3,200 at Saturday\'s Shoreline Invitational.

\"I\'m just trying to move on from everything that has gone on the last two years,\" said Helmer, who had hoped for anything under 4:25.

\"It was great to get Jeff on board with Everett (today),\" Everett distance coach Bruce Overstreet said.

Fellow Seagull Cori Moore tried a new strategy in the 800. Despite a slower time, she still won her marquee event in 2:18.6.

\" (The plan was) not to lead after the first 300 meters, and then I picked it up with 500 to go,\" said Moore, the area\'s top half-miler.

Another Everett-area star, Cascade\'s Whitney Hooks, won the shot put by more than 10 feet with a mark of 49 feet, 1 inches - a half inch off her all-time personal best. One of the state\'s all-time greats in the event and among the top five currently in the nation, Hooks shattered the meet record by almost four feet.

\"I was really pleased,\" said Cascade head coach Bill Stengele about Hooks. \"She was really hungry.\"

The future Washington Husky rested this past week instead of competing in a dual meet, opting instead to work on fundamentals.

\"I was not going to come to the meet and not do what we trained,\" said Hooks, the girls field athlete of the meet for the third consecutive year.

In the discus, Hooks was nudged out by teammate Janel Alyea - 136-7 to 136-1.

Other local boys winners included: Chris Hilliard (Cascade) in the high jump (6-3), Nick Snyder (Archbishop Murphy) in the 110 hurdles (15.13), Rendel Jones (Everett) in the triple jump (45-6