Arlington’s ‘rock star’ wins 3A state hurdles championship

TACOMA — Sidney Trinidad has won numerous national championships for indoor rock climbing.

Now the multi-talented Arlington senior can add a track state title to her lengthy list of accomplishments.

Trinidad followed up last year’s second-place state finish by cruising to victory in the Class 3A 100-meter hurdles Friday during day two of the state track and field championships at Mount Tahoma High School.

“It’s a good feeling,” Trinidad said moments after the race. “Last year, I was just happy because I didn’t even think I was going to do that good. But now I had expectations for myself.

“I wrote down on a piece of paper that I wanted to be the champion. I’m really goal-oriented, so putting it down really made me visualize it and make me want it even more.”

Trinidad crossed the finish line in a personal-best 14.60 seconds, 0.3 seconds ahead of second-place Gig Harbor senior Leahi Manthei.

Trinidad’s previous personal best came last week, when she won the district title with a meet-record time of 14.65 seconds that gave her the top 3A seed heading into state.

“She’s a rock star,” Arlington coach Judd Hunter said. “I knew she’d be at her best. I said to my hurdles coach right before the race, ‘Would you rather have anybody else about to start this race than her?’ And he says, ‘No way.’

“She’s just an incredibly solid competitor, so we felt pretty confident going into the finals. And (then) she ran her fastest race of her entire life in the state championship, so that was pretty awesome.”

Friday was just the beginning of a busy stretch of competition for Trinidad.

The Arlington standout is slated to race Saturday in both the 4×400 relay and the 300-meter hurdles, which she enters as the top seed.

Next weekend Trinidad is set to compete in the state heptathlon, where she will look to improve on last season’s sixth-place finish.

Then she will turn her attention to rock climbing, with a July trip to Georgia on the docket for this year’s national championships. Her goal is to advance to the world championships in Austria.

And next year, Trinidad will continue her track career as a multi-event athlete at Central Washington University.

“Sidney is a pretty amazing girl,” Hunter said. “She works hard, whether she’s training for track, rock climbing or academics. She’s a rock star.”

As talented as Trinidad is in track, she considers rock climbing to be her primary sport. She has been climbing since age 7 and has won an estimated 12 national championships.

Trinidad’s climbing prowess even earned her a television appearance five years ago, when her skills were featured on the Nickelodeon show “Figure It Out.”

Yet despite her success in both climbing and track, Trinidad said there’s not much carryover between them.

“I’ve always had big, sprinter legs, so it almost gets in the way when I climb,” she said. “But I’ve always had a sprinter’s body, and I’ve always really loved hurdles.

“It’s hard to practice both, so I’ve put 100 percent of my time into track this year. I really wanted to focus on this competition and this race in particular, because it’s my favorite.”

Trinidad reaped the reward Friday for all her hard work.

“She has just continued to work on her strength gains and her speed gains all the way through her career,” Hunter said. “And they paid off today.”

Bassett places second

Granite Falls junior Kelsey Bassett took second place in the 2A girls pole vault, falling short of the state title by virtue of a tiebreaker.

Both Bassett and Fife junior Madison Licari cleared 11 feet, 9 inches before failing to clear 12 feet. But since Licari cleared 11-9 on her first try and Bassett needed two attempts, Licari was awarded the state championship.

Bassett matched her personal best with the 11-9 mark and improved on last year’s sixth-place state finish, when she cleared 10-9.

In the 4A girls pole vault, Cascade sophomore Tyrza Lamma cleared 11-6 to take third place.