ARLINGTON — Lake Stevens track coach Jeff Page admits he has no idea how good talented freshman Brooke Pahukoa will be over the next three years.
But Pahukoa is plenty good enough already, and she proved it on Friday night by winning three events and anchoring a winning relay at the Western Conference North Division track and field championships at Arlington High School.
Pahukoa, who was a key member on Lake Stevens’ state tournament basketball team, won the 300-meter hurdles in 46.79 seconds, the 100 hurdles in 15.63 and the high jump at 5 feet, 4 inches. In the evening’s final event, she moved from second place to first on her final leg of the Vikings’ 1,600 relay team.
“This was a great performance by her,” said Lake Stevens coach Jeff Page. “I thought she was capable of it, but being capable of doing it and then doing it as a freshman are two different things.
“Everybody’s here and they’re seeing her, so I kind of look at this as her coming out party,” he said. Then with a laugh, he added, “I’m really glad her parents decided to live in Lake Stevens.”
Pahukoa was unsure what to expect before the meet because “I’m not expecting anything as a freshman,” she said. “I just want to (do well) really bad and I go to every event trying to win it.”
The funny thing is, she’s not the only talented freshman athlete in the family. Twin sister Brittany also had a productive night, placing fourth in the 400, sixth in the javelin and eighth in the long jump.
“By the time Brooke and Brittany graduate,” Page said with a smile, “people at all these other schools are going to be so tired of seeing them.”
Another ninth-grader who had a big night Friday was Oak Harbor’s Naomi Walker. She won the 100 and 200 meter dashes, and ran a leg on the Wildcats’ winning 400 relay team.
Among the boys, Marysville-Pilchuck’s Mark Pangilinan won back-to-back races in the boys 110 high hurdles and the 100 dash, and then came back later to place second in the 300 intermediate hurdles to Stanwood’s Robert Hanke.
Stanwood’s Kale Schmidt won the boys 400, which followed his victory in the long jump and a third place in the high jump, the latter two events on Wednesday. He then capped his meet on Friday by running the anchor leg on the Spartans’ 1,600 relay team, and he used an explosive come-from-behind lap to win.
The only disappointment in the two-day meet for Schmidt, a senior headed to the University of Washington track team, was a 6-0 high jump on Wednesday. “I had to run the 400 prelims and then go right to high jump after that,” he said. “I was hoping to get 6-4 or 6-5, but I went 6-0 and that was pretty much a bummer.”
The team titles went to the Arlington girls and the Lake Stevens boys.
Arlington’s girls had just two individual champions with Teresa Wadey in the 800 and Marissa Swegle in the shot put. But the Eagles won decisively with multiple placers in almost every event.
“And that’s how you win league championships, by having some depth,” said Arlington coach Judd Hunter.
“We knew we were kind of the favorite coming in to the meet,” he added. “We were undefeated in the league schedule, so we said, ‘Girls, go have fun and do what you’ve been doing all year long.’ And they sure did. They performed awesome.”
The Lake Stevens boys had no individual champions, but also used their depth to eke out a narrow victory over Cascade. The Vikings managed only a handful of points in the field events, but scored well on the track to claim their fifth consecutive boys league title.
“Usually you can’t win a league championship without some balance,” Page said, “so that’s pretty amazing. … This is truly a team victory. It’s incredible that they did this. They really pulled together and pulled through.”
As always in track and field, there were pleasant surprises and severe disappointments. Among the latter, the Marysville-Pilchuck boys 400 relay team came in with the top-seeded time and led at the last turn, but failed to execute the final handoff and did not finish.
At Arlington H.S.
Boys
Team scores—Lake Stevens 111, Cascade 109.2, Everett 105.2; Stanwood 97, Snohomish 91, Arlington 87, Marysville-Pilchuck 86, Monroe 57.2, Oak Harbor 36.4.
110 hurdles—Mark Pangilinan (M-P) 14.66; 100—Mark Pangilinan (M-P) 10.92; 1,600—Dylan Hopper (Cas) 4:26.04; 400 relay—Everett 43.81; 400—Kale Schmidt (Stan) 49.97; 300 hurdles—Robert Hanke (Stan) 39.46; 800—Dylan Hopper (Cas) 1:56.66; 200—Spencer McKinnon (Evt) 22.40; 3,200—Aaron Campbell (Cas) 9:37.05; 1,600 relay—Stanwood 3:27.74; High jump—Maxim Bryson (Arl) 6-2; Long jump—Kale Schmidt (Stan) 22-3; Triple jump—Tay’lor Eubanks (Cas) 46-7; Shot put—Timothy St. Marie (Cas) 53-4.5; Discus—Bobby Rodgers (Evt) 167-10; Javelin—Blake McPherson (Arl) 187-8; Pole vault—Connor Hemming (M-P) 13-6.
Girls
Team scores—Arlington 175.33, Oak Harbor 138, Stanwood 132, Marysville-Pilchuck 106.33, Lake Stevens 77, Cascade 70.33, Snohomish 64.5, Monroe 39, Everett 23.5.
100 hurdles—Brooke Pahukoa (LS) 15.63; 100—Naomi Walker (OH) 12.31; 1,600—Natasha Verma (Stan) 5:07.74; 400 relay—Oak Harbor 49.59; 400—Leiran Cornish (Sno) 58.60; 300 hurdles—Brooke Pahukoa (LS) 46.37; 800—Teresa Wadey (Arl) 2:19.03; 200—Naomi Walker (OH) 25.79; 3,200—Minna Fields (Stan) 11:06.69; 800 relay—Cascade 1:48.18; 1,600 relay—Lake Stevens 4:01.04; High jump—Brooke Pahukoa (LS) 5-4; Long jump—Shantae Young (OH) 17-4; Triple jump—Shantae Young (OH) 35-10; Shot put—Marissa Swegle (Arl) 37-1.5; Discus—Emily Wayland (Stan) 116-7; Javelin—Natasha Caldwell (Cas) 122-2; Pole vault—Alecia Longsine (Mon) 10-9.
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