3A track and field: Beach\'s sprinters making fast tracks
By Michael Ko
Seattle Times staff reporter
Imagine if she actually liked track.
Charnay \"Nay Nay\" Combs, a freshman at Rainier Beach High School, won the girls 100 and 200 meters at the Sea-King 3A District track and field championships Friday at the Southwest Athletic Complex. She also ran on the winning 400 relay.
All that, despite her lament that she\'s only running because her mom Nancy is making her. Basketball is Nay Nay\'s first priority.
\"In order for me to play basketball, I have to run track,\" she said. \"My mom feels like track is my first sport, and I\'ll go further in track than I will in basketball.\"
Combs said she is starting to see the benefits of track, especially in early scholarship interest from colleges.
\"But I still don\'t like it,\" she said.
Combs, who took the 100 in 12.42 seconds and the 200 in 25.38, highlighted a big day for 3A freshman girls. Cleveland\'s Olivia Ward won the triple jump with 37 feet, 4 inches and Seattle Prep\'s Olivia Sylvester won the 800 in 2 minutes, 16.05 seconds. Johanna Carr from Issaquah and Madison Yakaboski from Mount Si qualified for state in the 100. Carr also qualified in the 200.
Issaquah won the 3A girls team title, led by its 800 relay, which blistered a damp track with a state-best 1:43.72.
Holy Names finished second, Mount Si third and Rainier Beach fourth.
Rainier Beach also dominated the boys sprints. Senior Attrail Snipes stood out with wins in the 100, 200 and 400 races. He also ran on the winning 400 relay, leading the Vikings to the boys Class 3A team title.
\"The youngsters on the team are looking up to me to put up big points at state,\" Snipes said. \"And I\'m looking to them for the same.\"
For the boys, Newport finished second, O\'Dea third and Nathan Hale fourth.
Notes
• Rainier Beach sophomore Dyneeca Adams won the 400 in a state-best 56.96 seconds.
• Despite a sore leg, Interlake senior Laura Schvaneveldt, two-time state pole vault champion, won with an 11-6.
• Holy Names junior Devin Brooks, the two-time defending 100 hurdles champion, qualified for state in that event and in both the 100 and 200 sprints.
• Bellevue senior Kelsey Walker won the 1,600 and finished second in the 800, qualifying her for all three distance events at state. She also qualified in the 3,200.
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