TACOMA — Racing his third championship event of the day, Mateo Ganje had to be tired. Finishing off his WIAA State Track & Field Championships slate at Mount Tahoma High School with the 4A boys 200 meters, the Glacier Peak senior burst around the curve and broke away from the middle pack down the straightaway to finish in second place at 21.36 behind Curtis’ Nicholas Altheimer, who set a state meet record 21.07.
Ganje was in a hurry. For someone competing in a championship 200-meter sprint, that might be an understatement, but Ganje actually was in a rush: He had to make it to prom.
“Avery, I’m sorry. I’m coming,” Ganje said into my phone’s microphone. I guess he hopes she’s reading this.
Ganje had already missed prom pictures, and after he was all set in Tacoma, his mother needed to drive him over an hour to make it in time for dinner and the dance. He didn’t leave empty-handed, driving away with top-three finishes in three different events for Glacier Peak. In addition to the 200, he placed third in the 100 and was part of the second-place 400-meter relay team.
“My process was just to go out there with God. He’s my everything at this point,” Ganje said. “But also just to have fun. It’s my last 100 as a Glacier Peak Grizzly, and Glacier Peak track has done so much for me, so it means the world to just give it my all on the biggest stage.”
In the 400 relay, Ganje teamed up with Isaiah Owens, Luke Bandy and Alieukama Badjie to place second at 41.60 behind Curtis (40.93). After Badjie crossed the finish line as the anchor, the four boys converged together in the infield. Ganje and Badjie ran towards each other and jumped into a shoulder bump, then Ganje and Bandy started shoving each other back and forth in excitement.
Owens led off the relay, springing Ganje into a good position down the back stretch.
“Just trying to get the best start I can,” Owens said. “It kind of starts the whole thing, so I gotta get the best start, I gotta get out. I got to try to catch the lane in front of me.”
Ganje passed it off to Bandy for the third leg, who only joined the relay team a week before the Wesco Championship due to his improving times as well as injuries to other teammates. A new addition to a relay so late in the season can sometimes lead to trouble in the handoffs, but not for the Grizzlies.
“It was a little work getting the handoffs right, but once we got it, it was perfect,” Bandy said. “Set up Alieukama perfectly for the end.”
Badjie closed things off by blazing down the final straightaway, holding off the other anchors trailing behind to stay firmly in second.
“Being the last leg, you know, just everything zones out completely blank,” Badjie said. “All you have to do is focus on your execution. … You get the baton, you just go. And then you really have to relax, so even if (there’s) a few people at your hip — because I felt somebody at my hip — I had to relax.”
Ganje accounted, at least in part, for all 22 points that the Glacier Peak boys scored in the state meet.
“It means so much to me, especially to put some points on the board for GP,” the University of Idaho commit said. “All my coaches and my teammates and my friends have done so much for me there, and I honestly can’t do enough back for them.”
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As soon as Brianna Tilghman crossed the finish line to close out the 4A Girls 400 relay for Lake Stevens (47.79), just 0.1 seconds behind Tahoma (47.69), the leadoff runner Haddyjatou Ceesay ran up and hugged her. Both girls were in tears. At first glance, one would assume they were disappointed by missing out on the state title by just a fraction of a second.
But Ceesay was quick to clarify.
“These are happy tears,” she said.
While walking to gather the rest of her teammates — sophomore Kaysa Banks and freshman Giselle Sarpong — Ceesay expressed concern about how she’d look crying on camera, but after learning the interview with The Herald would be audio-only, she quickly perked back up again.
Through all the hard work of the season, Ceesay, a senior, was proud of the effort that went into their performance. Especially with bookending it with a friend from the past few years.
“Me and (Tilghman, a junior) have been together since (my) sophomore year,” Ceesay said. “It’s just like we’ve been working so hard to get ourselves in this place, at state, to run this far. For us to even get second is just a blessing.”
After leading off, Ceesay handed the baton off to Banks for the second leg. With such strong belief in Sarpong on the third leg, Banks felt relaxed going down the back straightaway.
“I was just like, ‘I can’t hear those huffing, puffing girls behind me,’” Banks said. “I just gotta keep pushing and get it to third leg because I know Ginelle got it on that curve.”
Sarpong’s spot on the third leg is when the stagger tends to even out, making it difficult to tell where the team stands in the order before she gets the baton.
“I’m always, like, focused on catching the person on the outside,” Sarpong said. “And sending the race straight for the anchor just to bring it home.”
Tilghman received the baton in first place, and held on as long as she could before Tahoma barely overtook her, but all four Vikings left everything out on the track.
“Just hearing all the little roars and stuff (from the crowd),” Tilghman said about the excitement of her anchor leg. “And then afterwards I just had to go to my girl, ‘Haddy’ and just tell her that we did good. It was so amazing.”
The four girls scored eight points for Lake Stevens, which to that point had been carried by the Tupua sisters, Keira and Noelani.
“The Tupua sisters, they were saying like, ‘Guys, you gotta get those points though because we’re not far behind,’” Banks recalled.
In the end, Lake Stevens finished tied for 12th as a team. It was the last state meet for coach Jeff Page, who is retiring after 32 years as the head coach and 47 overall with the program.
“I’m just so glad,” Ceesay said. “And glad we added points to our team. And just more for the future.”
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In Girls 4A, Mount Si (58) won over Eastlake (39) and Tahoma (38). In Boys 4A, Kamiakin (53) won over Curtis (51) and Mead (38). Below are the rest of the results involving local teams.
Boys Team Scores— 5. Kamiak (36.5), 12. Glacier Peak (22), t-16. Lake Stevens (15), 20. Arlington (14), t-26. Mariner (10), t-40. Jackson (1).
Girls Team Scores— t-12. Lake Stevens (25), 24. Mariner (10), t-32. Jackson (4), t-37. Kamiak (2)
Top 8 Finishers on Saturday:
Boys 100— 3. Mateo Ganje (Glacier Peak) 10.81
Boys 200— 2. Ganje (GP) 21.36
Boys 300 hurdles— 3. Warme (K) 37.53; 4. Stephen Anderson (Mariner) 38.66
Boys 400— 8. Alexander Rabena (Jackson) 49.92
Boys 3200— 4. Ares Van Straaten (LS) 9:09.99
Boys 400 relay— 2. Glacier Peak (Isaiah Owens, Ganje, Luke Bandy, Alieukama Badjie) 41.60; 4. Kamiak (Ezra Davis, Miller Warme, Onkar Bhangu, T’Andre Waverly) 41.87
Boys high jump— 3. Teaghan Lawson (Lake Stevens) 6-04; 7. Royce Rabb (LS) 6-02.
Boys shot put— 3. Noah Haller (Kamiak) 58-08; 5. Dylan Scott (Arlington) 56-01.5; 8. Ilya Grabovsky (Mariner) 53-02.75.
Girls 300 hurdles— 7. Avery Goldwire (K) 45.71
Girls 400— 8. Banks (LS) 58.32
Girls 3200— 5. Selena Bangerter (J) 10:54.47
Girls 400 relay— 2. Lake Stevens (Ceesay, Banks, Ginelle Sarpong, Tilghman) 47.49
Girls 800 relay— 7. Lake Stevens (Shelby Clifton, Haddyjatou Ceesay, Kaysa Banks, Brianna Tilghman) 1:42.31
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