Local track & field athletes star at Nike Outdoor Nationals

Published 9:11 am Friday, June 26, 2026

Track & field athletes from across the area made the annual pilgrimage to Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon for Nike Outdoor Nationals from June 18-22.

King’s Kimberly Beard tosses best hammer throw in nation, wins Gatorade Player of the Year

As the U20 Women’s Hammer Throw turned into a gauntlet entering the final round, Kimberly Beard knew she had more to give.

The King’s senior could not crack 190 feet no matter how many adjustments she made, and despite entering the event as the third seed, she sat in fourth place entering the final round and got bumped down to fifth before her final throw.

“Every throw was getting a little bit closer to what I needed to be technique-wise,” Beard told The Herald over the phone. “It was like one throw, I’d fix one thing, and then the next throw would be a little bit off, so it was just like building and building and building up into that last throw, and then getting bumped into fifth gave me that extra boost of a little bit of anger.”

Whether it came down to the adjustments or the anger — or a combination of the two — Beard put it all together in her final attempt and unleashed it 201-07, moving up into second place and eclipsing 60 meters (61.44) for the first time.

Beard ultimately finished in third behind Oklahoma State’s Burklie Burton (212-06) and Kentucky’s Meagan Ewers (203-02), but she set the longest high school hammer throw mark in the country this season, which also tied for the fourth-longest prep throw of all time.

“I got bumped into third, but I couldn’t complain because it was a PR,” Beard said. “And finally breaking that 60-meter mark was really cool.”

Beard also picked up the High School Girls Hammer Throw national title two days later, and on Thursday, she received the news that she was named the 2025-26 Gatorade Washington Girls Track and Field Player of the Year.

It marked yet another accolade for Beard, who has three Nike National championships to her name.

“With Nationals and everything, I had kind of forgotten about (the nomination),” Beard said. “And then I woke up (to an email and a text message) and I was like, ‘This is amazing. That’s so cool,’ and it’s so fun to represent Washington and all of that.”

After wrapping up her high school career on a high note, Beard is set to compete at the LA Throws Cup on Saturday, which will mark her first professional meet. She will also throw at the Jerome Classic in Burnaby, British Columbia in mid-July and the National Junior Olympics in California in late July-early August before moving on to start her collegiate career at the University of Illinois.

“I’m really focusing right now on speed, getting comfortable with that,” Beard said. “I’ll probably start lifting more, too, just now that the big meets are over, and I kind of just get to test some new things out and have fun with it, and enjoy my last time having my dad (Chris) behind my coach, too. … Just trying to enjoy being with family and spending time with friends before I head out.”

Kamiak’s Miller Warme records fastest 400m hurdle by high school junior

When Miller Warme crossed the finish line in the U20 Men’s 400m Hurdles, he made history. Finishing in 49.28, Warme eclipsed the previous national high school record for the event (49.38).

However, so did senior Keenen Davis out of Archbishop Carroll (DC), who won the event in 49.20. That left Warme in second place and without the record to his name. It was a tough break, but one that should not negate what Warme accomplished on the country’s biggest stage.

In addition to qualifying for the U.S. National U20 team for the World Championships at Hayward Field from Aug. 5-9, Warme ran the fastest 400m hurdle time from a high school junior in U.S. history. His 49.28-second run would have placed sixth at the 2024 Olympic Trials.

“It’s pretty surreal,” Warme told The Herald over the phone. “It is kind of hard to picture that. I mean, I don’t know how long that record’s been a thing, but I mean, I just go out and run every time I have a race. So if I run a time like that and I happen to break a national record, I just think of it as my own PR. I can’t really place it on a national scale. I just try and keep it personal to myself and how I can improve.”

Not only does Warme have another year in store to shave more fractions of a second off his time, but he was not even at full strength this past weekend.

After winning the 4A Boys 110m Hurdles at the WIAA State Championships in Tacoma on May 29, Warme had to pull out of the 300m Hurdles due to a minor lower-leg injury he had been dealing with since early in the season. He likely could have put together a strong performance, but he had bigger aspirations in sight.

“We’ve always talked since ninth grade that ‘Your real race is 400 hurdles,’” said Kamiak assistant coach Mike Moore, who works closest with Warme in his training. “‘You got to dial everything in around that, and that’s coming up (at Nike Nationals) in the third week of June. You don’t want to jeopardize it.’”

That decision ultimately paid off. Warme set a PR in the prelims the day before, but he did not expect to take nearly 1.5 seconds off that time in the finals on June 19. Squaring off against the top competition in the country, including his longtime teammate at GLS Speed Track Club, Kenyon Andrews, Warme felt like that played the biggest role in getting under 50 seconds.

Moore praised Warme’s natural sprint endurance, which allowed him to finish strong despite limited fitness, but heading into the World Championships in August, the Kamiak junior is eager to build on it now that he’s closer to full strength.

“Last weekend was my first time running (the 400m hurdles) this year. … So I still have plenty of stuff to work through,” Warme said. “I’ve got some more fitness to get in. Definitely some hard workouts in between now and World Championships to feel like I can finish my races a little better. It’s just finalizing my race plans and making sure I’m 100% confident in my race.”

Lake Stevens’ Avery Touchette wins two Para-Ambulatory titles amid large Viking contingent

As he approached the Para-Ambulatory 100, Avery Touchette did not want to know how fast his opponents were. The Lake Stevens junior wanted to leave everything on the track, and not let seed times impact his mental preparation.

“I didn’t know what competition I was going to have,” Touchette said over the phone. “And my goal for just doing this sport as a whole is to improve myself. I feel like if I were to look at those times and see that they were not as fast as me that I would have some sort of mental change that would not make me try as hard as usual, so I like to imagine that all the people around me are just faster than me.”

More than anything else, Touchette wanted to break 13 seconds. He felt good coming off the blocks, and Lake Stevens boys track coach Nick Page thought he saw the clock in the high-12.90s when Touchette crossed the line, but the official time came in at 13.05.

While Touchette did not quite hit his goal time, he finished 1.37 seconds ahead of second place to secure the national title. He also picked up the 400 Para-Ambulatory title with a 1:01.82, but was caught off-guard when the race got switched to the same day as the 100, and when he learned he would be the only competitor in that race.

“I did run as fast as I could, but if someone was right beside me, I felt that I could have run a faster time,” said Touchette, who was born with hemiplegic cerebral palsy. “It’s just with this (Para-Ambulatory) division, like throughout the year, it’s really rough trying to get better times when you don’t have competition.”

Regardless, Touchette walked away from Nike as a two-time national champion, and he will continue to focus on his own improvement going forward no matter what the competition looks like.

“We were pumped for him,” Page said. “He got to go stand on the podium and get his medal. … Next year going into it, regardless of his competition, whether he has any or not in the meets, it’s going to be, ‘We got to get under sub-13 (seconds in the 100). We got to get under sub-60 (seconds in the 400),’ and that’s just sort of how we’re going to keep going.”

Touchette represented one of seven Lake Stevens athletes who competed at Nike Outdoor Nationals.

Junior Kaetyn Riley held the top time in the Girls 100m Hurdles Emerging Elite prelims (14.91) before ultimately placing sixth in the finals (15.04). Riley also placed 25th in the 400m Hurdles Emerging Elite (1:06.53).

Sophomore Maxten Cook won his heat of the Boys 400 Emerging Elite from the outside lane, running blind of his competition, and placed eighth overall with a 49.15. Fellow sophomore Delaney Lundquist placed 23rd in the Girls Javelin Throw Championship (120-01).

Senior Dara Olotu placed 15th in the Girls Discus Throw Emerging Elite (125-06) and 27th in the Shot Put Emerging Elite (38-01.25). Ella Collins placed 55th in the Girls Freshman 800 (2:28.07), and senior Malik Parker wrapped up his high school career with a 46th-place finish in the Boys 400m Hurdles Emerging Elite (58.40).

After the Lake Stevens girls placed second at the 4A State Championships in late May, Vikings girls coach Tammy Bowers is excited for the returners who competed in Eugene to help build momentum for the program.

“It’s a great goal to come into your next school year and be able to hit those standards again and be back on Hayward Field,” Bowers said. “I think once you do Nike Nationals, you kind of want to come back every year, so I know that those group of girls will be great leaders next year to try to inspire more people to hit those marks and be down at Nike Nationals next year.”