The OHS track and field team qualified 11 athletes for the state meet this season at the District Track and Field meet held at Raymond High School on May 19. The top six in each event advanced to the 2B State Championships at Eastern Washington University in Cheney held this past weekend.
District Field events
Mary Davis (8-6) was the first state qualifier, finishing 3rd in the pole vault. Cosmo Silver and Matthew Hart both cleared 11-0 in the vault to advance in 3rd and 4th place respectively. Silver (5-8) narrowly missed in the high jump, placing 7th. Teammate Anthony Juarez finished 12th.
Ryan Short (37-9.5) took to the triple jump, but finished 9th overall.
Davis, Alivia Marsh, and Kennedy Merino competed in the girls high jump immediately following the boys. Davis (4-8) and Marsh (4-8) jumped their way to State with 4th and 5th place finishes. Merino bowed out at 4-2 and finished 11th. Marsh was able to equal her personal best while advancing.
Merino (12-3) also competed in the girls long jump, and placed 11th.
Marsha Poulsen (90-0) was the lone Wildcat in a throwing event. She placed 11th.
District Running events
In the running events, the girls 4x200m relay team (Poulsen, Rachael Saul, Kelsey Gundersen, and Kathryn Anderson) ran 1:53.65 and placed 5th. Things got exciting when an official was standing in our lane on the first turn. Poulsen had to swerve around him, losing momentum. That forced two girls to run themselves back into the race, as they were on the verge of not qualifying. The rest of the girls fought to get the team back into position before Anderson fought to hold the 5th position.
In the 3200m, Sararose Gallo (12:32.94) and McKenzie Ballo (12:50.88) ran their best races of the season to qualify in 2nd and 6th places. Gallo improved her personal record by 12 seconds while Ballo lowered her PR by 23 seconds.
In the girls 1600m, Anderson ran a season best (5:47.75) finishing 5th at the tail end of a pack of four girls who were all within 0.94 seconds of each other.
The girls 4x100m relay team (Poulsen, Saul, Gallo, Davis) sneaked ahead of Napavine by 0.22 seconds to nab the 6th and final slot to State.
In the girls 800m, Saul ended up getting boxed in on the last turn, and was forced slow down, then bounce outside. She was able pull her way back into position after being in the 8th position for a moment. She ended up 6th in 2:31.43, which was only 0.54 seconds out of 3rd. It was a battle!
The last event of the day was the girls 4x400m relay. Saul, Poulsen, Gundersen, and Anderson ran a solid 4:20.63 and placed 3rd to advance. They all ran extremely well.
State results
The Wildcats came away from the 2B State Championships at Eastern Washington University in Cheney with three medals and one season best.
The state meet was held last Thursday, Friday and Saturday, May 26 – 28.
Thursday events
On Thursday afternoon, Gallo and Ballo took to the track for the girls 3200m final. Both ran their hearts out. Gallo (13:12) put herself in medal contention early on, but faded in the final three laps. Ballo (13:04) ran a pretty even pace throughout and overtook her teammate on the final stretch. The girls ended up 11th and 10th.
The 4x200m relay team had some difficulty with their exchanges and missed the finals. Late in the meet, Saul was ill, and was replaced with Davis at the last minute. The girls were not able to pull themselves together and again missed the cut to finals.
The girls 4x100m relay team (53.97) was able to run its fastest time of the season, placing 16th.
Davis was able to salvage the day by placing 6th in the pole vault with a jump of 8-6.
Saul also competed in the 800m while feeling less than 100 percent. She finished 16th in 2:34.85.
Saturday events
On Saturday, Hart and Silver got things going in the pole vault while Davis and Marsh were competing the high jump. The boys both cleared 10-6 and girls both made it over 4-6. Silver went out at 11-0 and Marsh exited at 4-8. They finished 10th and 15th respectively.
Hart went on the clear 11-6 and place 5th. Davis cleared 4-10 on her first attempt before narrowly missing at 5-0. She was over and then grazed the bar with her heel on the way down. Her ability to clear 4-4 thru 4-10 without a miss put her in a 4-way tie for 6th. One miss would have left her on the outside looking in.
The last event of the day for Ocosta was the girls 1600m. Anderson (5:56.52) ran a solid race, finishing 13th.
