Battle for state
Published 11:43 pm Friday, May 20, 2011
MARYSVILLE — When Dave McFadden’s headache subsided, it was replaced by pure elation.
The Mariner High School track and field coach had been in this position before, with a 4×100 team that was sprinting toward a berth in the state championships, and yet he’d watched it come up short — twice
.
“All this gray hair on my chin,” McFadden said, pointing toward his salt-and-pepper goatee, “is because of that one race. I love the race, but I’d love it more if I wasn’t a coach and just got to stand behind the fence and watch it.”
On Friday night, the headache went away.
Ma
riner’s 4×100 relay team, one year removed from dropping the baton in its final race before the state championships, finally got a state berth after battling Bothell down to the wire at the 4A Bi-District 1 track and field meet at Marysville-Pilchuck High School on Friday night.
“It’s the first time I’ve been to state in anything, so it’s exciting,” said junior Dominique Law, who ran Mariner out to a lead during the third leg of the 4×100 before Bothell anchor Trent Sewell finished the race off in dramatic fashion.
“I’m pumped about next week.”
Law was in on the fumbled exchange after running the Marauders to a lead two legs into last year’s district race, and he hasn’t forgotten the heartbreak. The three returning runners — Law and fellow juniors Chris Knowles and Keivarae Russell — were dedicated to making up for last year’s gaffe.
“These guys are focused,” said McFadden, who also had a well-regarded 4×100 team false-start in recent years. “They’re good kids and on top of it. Maybe it was because of the bad luck last year. The juniors understand how much hinges on that one thing.”
The exchanges were flawless in Friday’s 4×100 final, and Law ran such a great third leg that he had the Marauders out in front for the final 100 meters. Bothell’s Sewell caught and passed freshman Josh Williamson with about 50 meters to go, but pulled his hamstring down the stretch and barely held on to win by one-hundredth of a second — 42.76 seconds to Mariner’s 42.77.
Sewell collapsed after the finish, had to sit out the 400-meter dash a few minutes later, and is not expected to be available for next week’s state meet because of a high hamstring pull.
“With about 10 meters left, (Sewell) was by side, and he was running with weird form,” Williamson said. “When he pulled something, I almost caught him.”
That marked one of the few close races in the boys competition Friday.
At a meet that included the University of Washington’s top recruits in both football (Skyline’s Kasen Williams, who won the triple jump and high jump) and basketball (Garfield’s Tony Wroten, who competed in the 100-meter dash and 4×100 relay), two Snohomish County products proved they were the class of this arena.
Edmonds-Woodway’s Alec Fellows breezed to a win in the 110-meter hurdles to open the track portion of Friday’s meet. His time of 14.52 was .78 faster than anyone else in the finals. Fellows also took second in the 100-meter dash and edged out Skyline’s Williams to win the long jump.
But the most impressive race of the day belonged to Jackson middle-distance runner Grant Grosvenor, who sprinted away from a balanced field in the 800 and never looked back. His time of 1:51.75 was a school record, a personal record and almost six seconds faster than second-place Daniel Swanson of Roosevelt.
“A year ago, I would never take the lead until I knew I could sustain it,” Grosvenor said. “I think I discovered a new side of me, something I didn’t know I had.”
Grosvenor had never sprinted to the front in a race before Friday, yet he wanted to try that strategy before next week’s state meet.
“At this point, I’m just kind of going for the win, but I’m also seeing where I was at,” he said. “And maybe I could throw a little fear into the guys I’ll face next week.”
Arlington won the team title, led by Jared Alskog’s win in the 300-meter hurdles.
Other winners at Friday’s bi-district meet included Jackson’s Blake Nelson in the 3,200-meter run (9:23.48), Snohomish’s Travis Pickett in the discus (160 feet, 6 inches) and Monroe’s Cody Melnrick in the javelin (202-3).
The most decorated champion from Friday’s meet was Marysville-Pilchuck’s Truman Walker, who won four wheelchair events: the 100-meter sprint, the shot put, the discus and the javelin.
Arlington’s team-best 74 points edged out Bothell by two points. Jackson, with 61 team points, finished third.
At Marysville Pilchuck H.S.
Team scores–Arlington 74, Bothell 72, Jackson 61, Garfield 60, Skyline 55, Lake Stevens 50, Roosevelt 37, Issaquah 36, Snohomish 31.5, Inglemoor 29.5, Monroe 29, Edmonds-Woodway 28, Marysville Pikchuck 18, Newport 15, Ballard 13, Woodinville 10, Stanwood 10, Eastlake 10, Mariner 9, Cascade 7, Redmond 6
Wesco state qualifiers
110 hurdles–1. Alec Fellows (EW) 14.40, 3. Derek Sweeney (A) 15.51, 4. Jacob Dowd (Mon) 15.52, 5. Jordan Moore (Mon) 15.53; 100–2. Alec Fellows (EW) 11.05, 5. Devante Gaillard (A) 11.20; 1,600–1. Grant Gorsvenor (J) 4:15.59, 2. Bklake Nelson (J) 4:18.45; 400 relay–2. Mariner 42.77, 4. Arlington 43.70; 300 hurdles–1. Jared Alskog (A) 40.35, 2. Jacob Dowd (Mon) 40.56, 3. Alex Iverson (LS) 41.20, 4. Brendan Casel (J) 41.44; 800–1. Grant Grosvenor (J) 1:51.75, 5. Andrew Bosket (A) 1:58.80; 200–5. Duke Dolphin (LS) 23.03; 3,200–1. Blake Nelson (J) 9:23.48, 5. Aaron Campbell (Cas) 9:31.28; 1,600 relay–2. Lake Stevens 3:23.86, 4. Stanwood 3:27.23; High jump–2. Max Bryson (A) 6-4, 3. Kevin Yates (Sno) 6-2, 4. Ryan Shannon (MP) 6-2, 5. Larry Bruce (Cas) 6-2; Long jump–1. Alec Fellows (EW) 22-6.5, 4. Duke Dolphin (LS) 20-9.5, 5. Kevin Yates (Sno) 20-8; Triple jump–3. Lucas Revelle (A) 43-3.5, 4. Moussa Sanoh (LS) 43-1, 5. Stuart Hezlep (LS) 42-1.75; Shot put–2. Dan Boyden (A) 52-5.5, 5. Carey Campbell (LS) 48-0.5; Discus–1. Travis Pickett (Sno) 160-6, 2. Colton Niblack (J) 156-4, 3. Dan Boyden (A) 154-0; Javelin–1. Cody Melnick (Mon) 202-3, 2. Blake McPherson (A) 183-5, 4. Duke Dolphin (LS) 168-9, Max Bryson (A) 167-1; Pole vault–T2. Connor Hemming (MP) 14-6, 5. Jon Ell (MP) 13-6.
