Oak Harbor’s Young stands out in 4A girls track district meet

Published 10:50 am Saturday, May 22, 2010

SNOHOMISH — In addition to being incredibly athletic, Shantae Young is a little silly.

She wears long tie-dyed track socks, spontaneously sings songs on team bus trips and busts out dance moves whenever the mood strikes her.

And, to the further delight of her coaches, she wins.

“She’s a little goofy,” Oak Harbor High School assistant track coach Mike Fisher said, “and it works for her. Very rarely do you ever see her uptight.”

Young, an Oak Harbor senior, certainly didn’t look uptight on Friday during the Class 4A District 1 track and field championships. She won the triple jump and ran on Oak Harbor’s first-place 400-meter relay, capping a great district meet that included her victory in the long jump on Wednesday.

The top three finishers in each individual event and relay event at the district meet qualified for next week’s 4A state meet in Tacoma. Young — who moved from Florida to Oak Harbor after her sophomore year and holds Oak Harbor school records in the long jump and triple jump — is headed to state in three events, just like her speedy teammate, freshman Naomi Walker. Walker pulled off a sprint sweep, winning the 100 and 200 and joining forces with Young to help propel the Wildcats’ 400 relay win.

Emerging as a confident leader this spring, especially with Oak Harbor’s 400 relay squad, Young’s positive attitude carried over to her jumping events, Fisher said. Young hopes to compete in college and has been receiving recruiting interest from Portland State University, Western Washington University and Washington State University, said Fisher.

“She’s just a natural trackster,” he said. “This is her sport.”

Spearheaded by Young and Walker, Oak Harbor (105 points) placed third in the team standings behind champion Stanwood (118 points) and runnerup Arlington (108).

Stanwood won its first girls district track title since 2000, but that was in 3A. This is the Spartans’ first 4A district championship in program history, Stanwood coach Jordan Sneva said.

Stanwood’s distance crew had another outstanding day. Spartans Natasha Verma, Minna Fields and Jordin Stephenson placed 1-2-3 in the 1,600. Two days earlier the same trio swept the top three spots, although in a different order, in the 3,200. Verma, a University of Portland-bound senior, won both races.

“That (double distance sweep) definitely hasn’t been done by Stanwood in our school’s history,” Sneva said, “so that was pretty cool.”

Lake Stevens freshman Brooke Pahukoa won two individual events (300 hurdles, high jump). She also qualified for state in a third individual event, placing second in the 100 hurdles behind Arlington’s Kylene Swegle, and was a member of the Vikings’ second-place 1,600 relay.

Stanwood isn’t the only school that swept all three state berths in an event. Marysville-Pilchuck teammates Sarah Clark, Riley Taitingfong and Summer Cull went 1-2-3 in the pole vault. Clark cleared 10 feet, 6 inches, going 9 inches higher than Taitingfong and Cull.

Friday’s other individual event winners were Edmonds-Woodway’s Amia Nash (400), Shorewood’s Erin Johnson (800) and Jackson’s Samantha Bowers (shot put). Bowers’ winning throw, 38 feet, 9.5 inches, was the second-best of her career.

The other winning relay teams were Cascade (800 relay) and M-P, which finished first in the 1,600 relay, the final event of the night. M-P edged Lake Stevens by less than half a second.

At Snohomish H.S.

For complete results go to Athletic.net.

Team scores—Stanwood 118, Arlington 108, Oak Harbor 105, Marysville-Pilchuck 90, Cascade 64, Snohomish 64, Jackson 61, Edmonds-Woodway 60, Lake Stevens 59, Shorewood 46, Kamiak 17, Mountlake Terrace 16, Monroe 11, Mariner 2.

State meet qualifiers

100—1. Walker (OH) 12.38, 2. Tougas (E-W) 12.57, 3. Redix (Arlington) 12.58.

200—1. Walker (OH) 25.86, 2. Harrison (Cascade) 26.02, 3. Redix (Arlington) 26.45.

400—1. Nash (E-W) 58.51, 2. Cornish (Snohomish) 58.75, 3. Teichgrab (Stanwood) 59.14.

800—1. Johnson (Shorewood) 2:16.12, 2. Penner (MT) 2:16.40, 3. Wadey (Arlington) 2:17.35.

1,600—1. Verma (Stanwood) 5:07.6, 2. Fields (Stanwood) 5:08.5, 3. Stephenson (Stanwood) 5:09.02.

100 hurdles—1. Swegle (Arlington) 15.67, 2. Brooke Pahukoa (LS) 15.78, 3. Johnson (Snohomish) 16.63.

300 hurdles—1. Brooke Pahukoa (LS) 46.03, 2. Hood (Cascade) 46.09, 3. Anderson (Arlington) 46.86.

400 relay—1. Oak Harbor 49.62, 2. Marysville-Pilchuck 49.84, 3. Edmonds-Woodway 49.93.

800 relay—1. Cascade 1:45.88, 2. Snohomish 1:46.68, 3. Arlington 1:46.76.

1,600 relay—1. Marysville-Pilchuck 3:59.35, 2. Lake Stevens 3:59.81, 3. Stanwood 4:03.82.

Triple jump—1. Young (OH) 36-1.25, 2. Johnson (Snohomish) 35-9.5, 3. Mowbray (OH) 35-1.5.

High jump—1. Brooke Pahukoa (LS) 5-2, 2. Mowbray (OH) 5-0, 3. Fabian (Shorewood) 4-8.

Pole vault—1. Clark (M-P) 10-6, 2. Taitingfong (M-P) 9-9, 3. Summer Cull (M-P) 9-9.

Shot put—1. Bowers (Jackson) 38-9.5, 2. Gonzalez (Kamiak) 36-8.25, 3. Jones (Stanwood) 35-5.25.

3,200—1. Verma (Stanwood) 11:03.51, 2. Stephenson (Stanwood) 11:04.23, 3. Fields (Stanwood) 11:04.30.

Discus—1. Gravelle (Snohomish) 109-11, 2. Eaton (Jackson) 106-1, 3. Wayland (Stanwood) 105-5.5.

Javelin—1. Van Slageren (Arlington) 123-11, 2. Caldwell (Cascade) 114-4, 3. Nelson (Cascade) 104-7.

Long jump—1. Young (Oak Harbor) 17-0.5, 2. Tougas (Edmonds-Woodway) 16-11.25, 3. Cull (Marysville-Pilchuck) 16-8.25.

Mike Cane: mcane@heraldnet.com. Check out the prep sports blog Double Team at cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/heraldnet/doubleteam.