Sultan girls advance to 2A state track meet in two events

Published 11:09 pm Wednesday, May 19, 2010

SULTAN — It wasn’t a bad first day for the Cascade Conference at the 2A District 1 track and field tournament at Sultan High School on Wednesday night.

Just bad weather. Really bad.

“It’s supposed to be worse on Friday,” Sultan head coach John Hubbard said.

That wonderful thought aside, the Turks have a lot to be hopeful for come the final day of the tournament. Currently, the girls are in third place with 13 points, behind Anacortes (18 points) and Sehome, which is running away already at 41 points.

Rici Morrill’s second-place finish in the 1,600-meter run with a time of 5 minutes, 7.64 seconds got the meet rolling for the host team. It was a personal best for Morrill, who also won her heat in the preliminaries of the 800 to advance to the final run Friday night.

Another happy moment for Sultan occurred when junior Emily Kjelland, who has been hovering around fifth in the district most of the season, finished fourth in the discus with a throw of 97 feet, 4 inches, more than 5 feet ahead of the fifth-place finisher to earn a trip to state.

“(Kjelland) was a happy surprise for us,” Hubbard said.

Two of the field events, the boys high jump and girls pole vault, were postponed until Friday because of the weather. The events that were able to carry on were definitely affected.

“The rain really (influenced) the field events because they happened in the horrible weather,” Hubbard said. “Everybody competed in the weather so no one was at a disadvantage.”

Or, everyone was.

“You tell the kids to be mentally prepared for that,” Hubbard said. “Physically there’s not much you can do. Just practice when it’s raining out, and we’ve been doing that all season.”

South Whidbey’s Cayla Calderwood also earned a trip to state, finishing fourth in the long jump. Calderwood jumped 15-5, defeating fifth place by 1 inch.

In the boys competition, the Cascade Conference currently occupies the fourth through seventh positions in the team standings. In a much closer race, Sehome again leads with 21 points, followed by Bellingham with 17 and Burlington-Edison (16).

Separated by no more than three points are: Cedarcrest (15), Archbishop Murphy and Lakewood (tied for fifth with 13) and South Whidbey and Sultan (tied for seventh with 12).

Kenny Bates led an impressive showing in the javelin, in which the top four throwers all came from Cascade conference teams. Bates, from Cedarcrest won with a throw of 163-8. The Turks’ Zach Beebe placed second at 160 feet. Matthew Downey and Patrick Throckmorton, both from Archbishop Murphy, threw 157 feet and 149-6, respectively.

A similar event took place in the triple jump where the conference took three of the top four spots.

Will Hallberg of South Whidbey won with a jump of 44-5.75, which was also a meet record. Second place went to Andre Scott (Lakewood), who posted a 42-10.75. Cedarcrest’s Jackson Pleis took fourth (42-1.5), 3.25 inches behind Brett Bajema of Lynden.

Taylor Guske of Lakewood was the only male runner from the Cascade Conference to earn a state berth on the first day with a time of 4:25.84 in the 1,600. Guske’s event took place right in the middle of one of the worst downpours of the day.

As did the boys 400 relay prelims, which quickly became the controversy of the day.

When the first heat lined up, they were on the wrong side of the track. Afterwards the results were challenged and officials and coaches gathered on more than one occasion to figure out what to do.

Ultimately, it was decided that before anything else happens on Friday, the heat will be re-run, this time from the correct starting position.

“Same teams, same lanes, except this time they will run from the correct starting place,” Hubbard said.

At Sultan H.S.

Boys team scores—Sehome 21, Bellingham 17, Burlington-Edison 16, Cedarcrest 15, Archbishop Murhy 13, Lakewood 13, South Whidbey 12, Sultan 12, Mt. Baker 11, Squalicum 11, Lynden 9, Blaine 6

Cascade Conference boys state qualifiers

Triple jump—1. Will Hallberg (South Whidbey) 44-5.75; 2. Andre Scott (Lakewood) 42-10.75; 4. Jackson Pleis (Cedarcrest) 42-1.5

Javelin—1. Kenny Bates (Cedarcrest) 163-8; 2. Zach Beebe (Sultan) 160-0; 3. Matthew Downey (A. Murphy) 157-0; 4. Patrick Throckmorton (A. Murphy) 149-6

1,600—4. Taylor Guske (Lakewood) 4:25.84

Girls team scores—Sehome 41, Anacortes 18, Sultan 13, Squalicum 10, South Whidbey 10, Bellingham 8, Burlington-Edison 6, Lakewood 5, Lynden 3, Mt. Baker 3

Cascade Conferene girls state qualifiers

Discus—4. Emily Kjelland (Sultan) 97-4

Long jump—4. Cayla Calderwood (South Whidbey) 15-5

1,600—2. Rici Morrill (Sultan) 5:07.64