Nine Wolves headed to State 1A meet
Goldendale will send nine track team members to State at Mt. Tahoma High School, this weekend, including the girls’ 4x200 relay team. Call it luck, or just rewards, but the fact Goldendale edged Connell by one, one-hundredth of a second for the final slot was particularly satisfying, because of what it meant to team members Mollie Barthlow and Krystal Giese.
Barthlow and Giese would have preferred to make it to State in their speciality; for Barthlow, the triple jump, and for Giese the 100 or 200 meter sprints. But due to a quirk of high school championship arrangements, SCAC girls only had three slots to State this year, giving up one slot to another district.
Barthlow seemed to be in the top three, until freshman, Kelly Snyder, of Naches Valley nailed her final jump. It was a leap of 33-6, a foot further than her previous best of the day, and nearly two-and-a-half feet longer than her personal record, and 10 inches longer than Barthlow, who finished fourth. Giese finished a solid fourth in the 200 and fifth in the 100 meter races.
Making it to State for the two girls was all the more special, as both girls are in their final year of high school competition. The other members of the relay team are freshman, Irene Goble, junior, Hannah Swigart, and sophomore, Addie Christensen, who is an alternate.
Asa Israel was on fire at the district meet, winning two events and posting new PR’s in the 1600 and 3200 meter races, where he finished first and second, respectively. Maybe his best race, however, was the 800 where Highland’s Cody Long, tried to break the field by setting a blistering pace. Long was nearly 50 yards in front of the pack with 300 yards left in the race before Israel began to reel him in. Israelcaught Long, as he began to fade at the head of the home stretch. Israel had company as he blew by Long, but from somewhere deep within, Israel found another gear and held-off Connell’s Reid Empey to win by 24-hudredths of a second.
Israel attributed his success to a change in technique… a change he implemented just two weeks ago, called negative splits. “Coach (David Stelljes) showed me an article on it. You let your body warm up,” said Israel. Already possessing a strong kick, Israel said he feels stronger at the end, not taking it out quickly and having to hold on at the end. He’ll get to work the strategy in all three distance races at State.
Goldendale also had three qualifiers in the field events. Eric Dohrman found a good time to set a new PR in the shot put. The senior has shown steady improvement during the year, and made the state cut with a toss of 45-7.25, an inch-and-a-half better than Mabton’s Eli Perez, who was fourth.
Wade Plumlee needed a new PR to make it to State in the discus, after finishing sixth in the 110 hurdles and 14th in the shot put. A new PR is what he got, passing Naches Valley’s Thad Callaghen with a throw of 122-11; five-feet, nine-inches better than his previous best.
Also picking a good time to do her best was Nikki Williams. But her PR shot put of 28-9 was only good enough for fifth place. However, she had already qualified in the discus, where she and two other girls threw far beyond the rest of the field.
Other results: boys -Dalton Jaekel, 11th in the 1600; Shane Crawford, 12th in the 320; Torey Spaulding-Jimenez, seventh in the 400; Dohrman 11th in the discus; Jacob McElravy, 16th in the discus; and JimJack Davenport, Cody Herbeholz, Israel and Spaulding-Jimenez, fifth in the 4x400 relay. Girls - Goble finished fifth in the 800 and seventh in the 400; Christensen was sixth in the 3200, 15th in the 1600, and 13th in the triple jump; Swigart was fifth in the 300 hurdles, sixth in the 100 hurdles and fifth in the pole vault; Williams was 10th in the javelin; Hannah Brokaw, was eighth in the pole vault and 11th in the javelin; Moriah Clark was 15th in the long jump; and Goble, Brokaw, Christensen, and Barthlow were sixth in the 4x400 relay.
Wandersheid 79 wins second district golf title, boys’ first win
ANDREW CHRISTIANSEN
Reporter
It is hard to say what the future holds for Zach Wandersheid. Goldendale’s golf phenom won his second district golf title, which is pretty good for a sophomore.
Wandersheid was tops in an all-around great performance by Goldendale golfers, who will send four golfers and two alternates to State in Bellingham. Consistency has been the key for Wandersheid, who has been shooting under 80, all year long. His 79 at Suncadia near Roslyn on May 14, was one stroke better than last year on the course where he was also the top golfer and medalist. Last year he finished 11th at State, which included a bad round. Consistency on a course that is familiar to him this year, makes a top five possible. The state tournament starts on May 19.
Kyle Titus is making his second appearance at State, as he shot a 96, to take the last State spot. He finished sixth at District in 2007. D.J. Campbell came through with a 95 to make the State trip. Campbell and Titus are both seniors.
Ron Lindhe, a junior, also shot a 96 and will make the trip as an alternate, after losing a tie-breaker to Titus. Missing the cut at District was Tyrel Quantrell, who shot a 103.
The scores for Wandersheid, Campbell, Titus and Lindhe were good enough to win the first District golf championship for the Goldendale boys.
The Lady Timberwolves will also be present at State. Amber Ihrig came through with a fourth place finish at District, where it took a top 10 finish to qualify. Ihrig shot a 103, 10 strokes off the winner, Laura Perkins, of Royal. Monica DeRushe’ was in at 117, which gave her 11th place and the alternate spot.
Trout Lake-Glenwood girls capture 14 of 18 District titles
ANDREW CHRISTIANSEN
Reporter
To nobody’s surprise, the girls of Trout Lake-Glenwood collected most of the spots for the 1B State track meet, which will be held this weekend in Cheney. Last Friday’s district meet was held at Kumler Field, in Yakima. TLG girls won 14 of 18 events, losing four to Klickitat freshman, Samantha Brewer.
Two of the best freshman, female athletes in all of class B high school sports are Brewer and Liz Vogt. Both girls are key players on their volleyball and basketball teams, in addition to track. They battled head-to-head for most of the year in the other sports, and did so on occasion in track.
At this year’s state B meet, they won’t be battling each other, but they will both be trying to set new State records. Brewer qualified in the high jump, triple jump, long jump and 100 meter hurdles. Vogt will answer the gun in the 100, 200 and 400 meter sprints. The State B records were all set last year, the first year for a separate 1B meet.
Brewer’s best shots are in the high jump, where her best is 5-2 versus the record 5-0, and 100 hurdles, where she is a half second off the mark.
Vogt ran 13.42 in the 100 at District, and has a PR of 13.34, making her a good bet to beat the 13.45 record. She is also about a half second off the 200 record.
Other qualifiers were: TLG-Kyle Webberly (100), Mikael Dick (200, 400), Tyler Cope (110 hurdles), Kristian Rubesh (pole vault), Luke Larson (pole vault), Neola Putnam (800, 1600), Emily Paxson (3200), Anna Schmid (300 hurdles), Dave’y Lumley (shot put, discus, javelin), Kindra VanLaar (pole vault). Boys 4x100 and 4x400 relays with Dick, Larson, Webberly and Rubesh; girls’ relays: 4x100 (Katie Welch, Stephanie Anderson, VanLaar, Schmid), 4x200 (Megan Anderson, Stephanie Anderson, Welch, VanLaar), 4x400 (Putnam, Schmid, Paxson, Megan Anderson).
Klickitat-Hershel Sanchey (800, 1600, 3200), Jeromie Mason (triple jump).
Bickleton-Andrew Venema (110 hurdles, 300 hurdles, high jump), Eric Hess (shot put, discus), Cody Loomis (long jump), Patrick Maeder (pole vault), Star Kibby (pole vault).
2B Qualifiers
Lyle-Wishram’s Robbie Phelps set PRs in the 400 and pole vault, earning him a trip to the 2B State meet. He will be accompanied by Mike Murphy, who won the shot put and discus events. |
