Glacier Peak track and field athletes survive Mother Nature

SHORELINE — Mother Nature was not happy Wednesday afternoon.

The weather conditions were awful during the first session of the Class 3A District 1 track and field meet at Shoreline Stadium, making life miserable for those who had to compete in the intermittent driving rains.

But those conditions couldn’t prevent Glacier Peak High School’s big guns from doing what they needed, despite their plans being blown off course.

Devon Kiser and Amy-Eloise Neale shrugged off meteorological adversity, bringing home district titles in the boys high jump and girls 3,200 meters, respectively, to lead the Grizzlies on day one.

One other Snohomish County athlete took home a district title Wednesday as Everett’s Monica Webber won the girls javelin. A total of eight events — four boys and four girls — were completed Wednesday, with the top two finishers qualifying for next week’s state meet. The district meet concludes Friday.

Both Kiser and Neale entered the meet ranked No. 1 in the state among Class 3A athletes in the events they contested Wednesday, Kiser in the high jump and Neale in the 3,200. Both were heavy favorites.

But the weather conditions — which were so bad they forced the postponement of the boys pole vault until Friday — made sure both Kiser and Neale earned their titles.

Kiser, a senior and the defending district champion in the high jump, was originally scheduled to compete in both the high jump and the long jump Wednesday. However, the heavy rains came early and often, forcing Kiser to scratch from the long jump to concentrate on his specialty, the high jump.

Kiser had a qualifying mark of 6-foot-8, but he won Wednesday with a leap of just 6-0. His height tied with Ferndale’s Brett Watson, but Kiser took first by virtue of a jump off.

“It’s good winning this title,” said Kiser, whose high jump win negated some of the disappointment of having to drop out of the long jump. “The weather is terrible, so I feel good with first place. The conditions were really bad, you’d jump and then land in a pool of water, so you get cold and everything.

“The jumps were no where near my PR, so I’ll be going into state as a ghost,” Kiser added. “They’ll have the marks from this meet at state, so no one will know me, but I think I’ll still have a good shot.”

By the time Neale’s race, which was the final event of the day, arrived, the worst of the weather had passed. However Neale, Glacier Peak’s freshman sensation, was still affected indirectly. The bad weather contributed to snarls on the freeway, and Neale got stuck in traffic traveling to the meet. As a result, she didn’t arrive until approximately 25 minutes before her race began, and she usually warms up over the course of an hour.

Therefore Neale, who planned on going for a personal record, decided to throttle it back instead. Her winning time of 11 minutes, 1.60 seconds was nearly 30 seconds off her qualifying time, though it was still good enough to win by 100 meters and lap 10 of the race’s 15 other competitors.

“It definitely wasn’t a PR, but my aim was to qualify (for state),” Neale said. “The conditions were partly (the reason for the slower time), and there was a lot of traffic on the freeway.

“I wasn’t here for the worst of the weather, but I got to see it from my car,” Neale added with a chuckle.

While the bad weather hindered Kiser and Neale, it had the opposite effect for Webber. The junior was forced to throw during the worst of the rain, yet still managed to uncork a personal-best throw of 109-9 to claim the girls javelin for the Seagulls.

“It feels great, I’ve been working really hard for this,” Webber said. “It was pretty wet when I went out there, it was really rainy and bad conditions. But I think it got me more focused.”

Shorecrest jumped out to an early lead in the team scores in both the boys and girls competitions. Led by wins from seniors David Cannon in the shot put (51-0) and Jordan Brown in the long jump (21-0.5), the Scot boys tallied 50 points, 20 ahead of second-place Glacier Peak. The Shorecrest girls, buoyed by first-place finishes by sophomore India Matheson in the discus (112-7) and junior Rachel Schrote in the long jump (16-6.75), totaled 43 points, edging Glacier Peak by four.

One other local boy athlete finished in the top two and qualified for state. Glacier Peak junior Jeff Bastian nearly pulled off a stunning comeback in the 1,600, making up a 10-meter deficit on leader Lee George of Ferndale on the last lap. However, George regained the lead in the final 50 meters and Bastian settled for second in a time of 4:21.11.

One other local girl also finished second and qualified for state. Glacier Peak senior Katie Higgins placed second in the discus with a throw of 111-1.

At Shoreline Stadium

Boys team scores—Shorecrest 50, Glacier Peak 30, Ferndale 28, Mt. Vernon 22.5, Everett 13.5, Meadowdale 10, Lynnwood 2

Wesco boys state qualifiers

High jump—1. Devon Kiser (GP) 6-0

Shot put—1. David Cannon (SC) 51-0

Long jump—1. Jordan Brown (SC) 21-0.5; 2. Sean Dever (SC) 20-10.5

1,600-—2. Jeff Bastian (Glacier Peak) 4:21.11.

Girls team scores—Shorecrest 43, Glacier Peak 39, Everett 27, Ferndale 19, Mt. Vernon 18, Sedro-Woolley 9, Lynnwood 1

Wesco girls state qualifiers

Discus—1. India Matheson (SC) 112-7; 2. Katie Higgins (GP) 111-1

Javelin—1. Monica Webber (E) 109-9

Long jump—1. Rachel Schrote (SC) 16-6.75; 2. Emily Corona (SC) 16-1.5