Arlington’s Little, Lake Stevens’ Tupua among 4A state champs

Published 10:36 pm Friday, May 29, 2026

TACOMA — Ramon Little knew he had to be a closer.

Competing in the Boys Ambulatory 400 at the WIAA Track & Field State Championships at Mount Tahoma High School on Friday, the Arlington junior was seeded right behind Lake Stevens junior Avery Touchette, separated by just 0.29 seconds.

With Touchette starting on the blocks and Little upright, the reigning Boys Ambulatory Cross Country state champion knew his opponent would be able to start out faster, and it was up to him to close the gap after that. Sure enough, the two Wesco 4A runners separated themselves from the rest of the heat around 150 meters in, and Little remained just a few meters behind as they entered the final stretch.

Little pumped his arms ferociously, swinging his head as his upper body did everything to will the lower body forward. Slowly, methodically, he drew even with about 25 meters to go. Approaching the line, Little launched off his racing prosthetic and leaned across as Touchette crossed the line alongside him.

Well, not exactly alongside. Finishing at 1 minute, 0.80 seconds, Little captured the 400 title by just eight-hundredths of a second.

“He had a little bit of a gap, but I just had to swing my arms,” Little said, catching his breath moments after the race ended. “Maybe I could have driven my knees more, I don’t know. It was just the arms, so just trying to get him. And then my inner-sprinter came out at the end; pretty ugly, but it worked, I guess.”

After capturing a much less dramatic win in the Boys Ambulatory Discus Throw (82 feet, 9 inches, nearly 17 feet ahead of second) earlier on Friday, Little capped his weekend with two state titles and two second-place finishes, in the Ambulatory Javelin Throw (98-9) and Ambulatory Shot Put (25-3).

Little was born with tibial hemimelia in his right leg, a rare congenital condition that left the lower portion of his tibia undeveloped. His parents made the difficult decision to amputate his lower leg when Little was about a year old, and it ultimately allowed him to pursue a more active lifestyle than if he had kept it.

Since last track season, when he received his running blade from the Challenged Athletes Foundation after applying for one, Little’s performance on the track reached a new level. However, he ran into issues with it after a whole winter season of training with the distance runners, and is now in the process of getting a new one.

Rather than taking a few days off amid the complications, Little continued to push through and ultimately had to miss nearly two weeks in April with an injury he sustained because of it. He was able to occasionally work on his throws in the interim, but his running fitness hit a snag.

“I honestly didn’t care about the fitness,” Little said. “I just didn’t like not running with my buddies, and that’s why I didn’t stop running in the first place. When I see the stings, I need to stop, but I wasn’t because I just wanted to keep pushing myself, so it made it worse.

“But it’s okay now. I’ve learned, and hopefully next time if I see something, I won’t run so hard.”

Even with his track season over, Little will keep himself busy. He has a state bicycle race on Sunday, and he will strive to crack Arlington cross country’s varsity team after finishing in the No. 12-14 range for the team last season.

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Lake Stevens’ Keira Isabelle Tupua achieves dream with 4A Girls Shot Put title

As soon as the final shot put hit the dirt, Lake Stevens senior Keira Isabelle Tupua let everything out.

First, triumph. She clapped her hands once and did a small fist pump with both hands as she walked out of the circle. By the time Tupua looped back to retrieve the belongings she left next to the circle, she was wiping away tears.

Her final attempt of 41 feet, 5.75 inches sat ahead of every other attempt in the field except for her first (41-6.5), which won her the 4A Girls Shot Put title over Tahoma’s Hannah Huff (41-0.5) and Bethel’s Inina Taman (39-2.75). Tupua’s teammate, senior Oluwadarasimi Olotu placed fourth (38-9.25) despite being seeded 11th.

The tears were much different than the year before, when she placed fourth in the shot put and second in the discus throw. The devastation of falling short of her goal last year only made the accomplishment this year even more satisfying.

“A lot of drive and determination,” Tupua said. “Last year, I didn’t really have the best year going into state, but adversity is what makes you, so I’ve been busting my butt off to get here.”

That was not the only difference from last year. After the initial celebration, Tupua ran straight to her father, Niva, for a big hug. Niva Tupua was unable to attend last year while recovering from an injury that left him paralyzed from the waist down in the fall of 2024. He wasn’t supposed to attend on Friday either, but Keira received a pleasant surprise: Using the wheelchair-accessible van the family had purchased, Niva would be there.

“I got a surprise message saying like, ‘Hey, I’ll see you there,’ and I was like, ‘What?’” Tupua said. “I’m really happy, and yeah, it’s the reason why I got a little bit emotional.”

Niva starred as a multi-sport athlete at Lynnwood in the 1990s, and after years of helping Keira develop into one of the best all-around athletes in the state, he was able to witness her reach the pinnacle from just a few feet away.

A star athlete in soccer and basketball as well, Tupua only trains for track & field during the spring season. She realizes she probably would throw even further if she trained year-round — although, evidently she doesn’t need to — but her other sports are too important to her to give up. Plus, the competitive drive she gets from each sport helps her succeed in the other two.

It helped her realize a dream on Friday. After throwing slightly shorter in the attempts following her first, Tupua ramped it back up for the last one after Huff got within striking distance.

“I’m a state champ,” Tupua said, relaying what she thought the moment her sixth throw hit the ground. “This is something I’ve been saying (since) my freshman year, and it finally happened senior year.”

Tupua will have an opportunity to double up on Saturday in the 4A Girls Discus Throw, where she is seeded first, nearly 14 feet ahead of second.

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Kamiak’s Miller Warme reaches peak in 4A Boys 110 hurdles

Only two hurdlers were on Kamiak junior Miller Warme’s heels by the time he reached the fifth hurdle in the Boys 4A 110m hurdles on Friday. By the time he landed over the seventh, the rest of the field lagged behind. The gap grew wider and wider with each remaining hurdle. There was no photo finish. It was Warme, then everyone else.

A year after finishing third as a sophomore, Warme reached the top of the podium at 14.34 seconds, ahead of Eastmont’s Andrew Saenz (14.83) and Bethel’s Amari Quiocho (14.87).

Warme credits a much more deliberate training plan this past year for his progression into a state champion. As opposed to only competing in the summer before his sophomore year, he started his junior season training back in October.

It was not only the additional time, but rather how he used it.

“I would just say I refined my training,” Warme said. “Last year was more kind of like, ‘If this feels good, I’ll do this. Like whatever works,’ but this year was a lot more refined and a lot more specific to what I wanted to work on.”

The main specific was becoming more aggressive going over the hurdles, since Warme described himself as “pretty timid” in that area historically. There were no signs of timidness on Friday as he surged further and further ahead of the pack.

Perhaps the biggest hurdle Warme had to clear this season was the condition of the Kamiak track. With portions of it left unusable and fenced off, Warme and his teammates only had about 300 meters to work with, and also had to supplement the training at neighboring middle schools.

“We couldn’t do a full lap, so we just worked around it,” Warme said. “I was able to do fine. It would have been nice to have a full track though.”

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Complete Results of Area Top 8 Finishers through Friday:

Boys 2A

110 Hurdles— 8. Ke’ala Malunay (Marysville Pilchuck) 15.76

Shot Put— 5. Rhonan Copeland (Lakewood) 54-05.75

Girls 2A

Discus Throw— 6. Kani Cham (Archbishop Murphy) 113-05

Boys 3A

1600— 2. Max Billett (Shorewood) 4:06.56; 3. Elijah Graves (SW) 4:07.63

110 Hurdles— 2. Jaden Marlow (SW) 14.57; 5. Barric Danielson (Stanwood) 15.10

Pole Vault— 1. J. Marlow (SW) 15-06; 7. Michael Carpenter (Monroe) 14-00

Long Jump— 1. J. Marlow (SW) 23-04.75; 4. Tyler Marlow (SW) 22-04

Triple Jump— 3. Jakyle Williams (Meadowdale) 44-10.5

Discus Throw— 4. Garrett Gunnerson (Snohomish) 162-10; 7. J. Marlow (SW) 146-10

Javelin Throw— 1. T. Marlow (SW) 185-08

4×100 Mixed Unified— 2. Stanwood (Xander Krause, Isabella Jette, Abigail Schram, Levi Stiers) 53.20

800 Sprint Medley Relay Mixed Unified— 6. Stanwood (Krause, Schram, Jette, Stiers) 2:01.45

Girls 3A

100 Hurdles— 3. Brynlee Dubiel (Mountlake Terrace) 15.07

High Jump— t-6. Zoe Grant (Mea) 5-02

Long Jump— 2. Allison Mervin (MT) 18-09.5; 6. Sienna Capelli (Sno) 17-08

Discus Throw— 2. Ena Dodik (Lynnwood) 134-10; 3. Malachai Smith (Everett) 134-05; 4. Kaydence Hansen (Edmonds-Woodway) 132-06

Boys 4A

110 Hurdles— 1. Miller Warme (Kamiak) 14.34

High Jump— 3. Truant Schulz (Jackson) 6-05; 4. Royce Rabb (Lake Stevens) 6-05

Triple Jump— 4. Stephan Bonshe (Glacier Peak) 44-01; 5. Schulz (J) 43-10

Shot Put— 4. Luke Jennings (GP) 56-09

100 Ambulatory— 1. Avery Touchette (LS) 13.37

400 Ambulatory— 1. Ramon Little (Arlington) 1:00.80; 2. Touchette (LS) 1:00.88

Shot Put Ambulatory— 2. Little (A) 25-03

Discus Throw Ambulatory— 1. Little (A) 82-09

Javelin Throw Ambulatory— 2. Little (A) 98-09

Girls 4A

100 Hurdles— 3. Kaetyn Riley (LS) 15.13

Shot Put— 1. Keira Isabelle Tupua (LS) 41-06.5; 4. Oluwadarasimi Olotu (LS) 38-09.25

Javelin Throw— 6. Isa Palmer (Cascade) 119-04; 8. Delaney Lundquist (LS) 117-10