Kamiak’s Warme, Arlington’s Scott take third in 4A Track

TACOMA — The eight hurdlers stood silently, staring at the scoreboard with nervous anticipation.

Miller Warme knew he didn’t win the 4A Boys 110-meter hurdles, but the Kamiak sophomore was hopeful to round out the top three.

“It’s extremely stressful,” Warme said. “The 110s are such a quick race. It’s like, you never know how well you did until you crossed the line. I mean, I knew there were two guys in front of me, but I was really hoping for that podium.”

The results took longer to load than the previous classification heats, and the extra seconds of waiting felt like minutes.

“It was that close,” a nearby official said to the hurdlers, each still catching their breath.

Finally, ‘Devin Crews – Kamiakin’ flashed into the first slot at 14.13 seconds. Crews silently raised both arms in the air as the Kamiakin cheered and walked towards the infield. Mead’s Jaeland Leman popped up second, his time just 0.01 seconds slower, and he slinked off the track in disappointment. Then came Warme’s name, officially slotted third at 14.46, 0.08 seconds ahead of fourth-place Haoran Lin from Redmond.

Warme closed his eyes and smiled, the joy and relief overtaking the nervousness. After failing to get out of the preliminaries last year, Warme took the step forward he was hoping for.

“I would just say confidence,” Warme said as the key to his progression. “These hurdles are really tall, but last year was more, just, I was scared of them, and this year I really wanted to get them. I wanted to control them. And that’s what I tried to do this year.”

Through repetition and practice, Warme started to feel more in control. He started to really feel his progress after running a 14.21 at the Eason Invitational on April 26, a new personal record.

With two years left in his high school career, Warme is excited for the future.

“To be able to stand up with those guys on the podium, it’s fantastic,” he said. “I’ve got two more years, and this is just a start.”

— — — — — —

Dylan Scott set the tone right away in the 4A boys discus, throwing a personal-record 161-06 on his first attempt. Beating 160 was what the Arlington senior set out to do in his last state meet. He also wanted to improve on his 10th-place finish from last year.

He decided to have fun and go for it in the subsequent attempts, having already locked in a spot in the final round, but they all fell short of his first toss. Kamiak’s Noah Haller (who finished in fourth with 166-11) and Moses Lake’s Hunter Blackman had jumped ahead of him in the scoring by the time he reached his fifth attempt.

“I need to pop something out of my mind,” Scott said. “I need to throw something. I need to do something better than I’ve done all year long, and I got in my head, I was like, ‘Alright, hey, let’s do this.’”

Arlington throws coach Carl Kulper told him to relax and let it fly, and Scott felt smooth enough in his approach that it felt good coming out of his hand. Kulper could tell it had real distance from the side, but wasn’t sure where it would land.

“You could tell it was a good throw,” Kulper said. “Where it was out there, there was a lot of kids in that mid-160s, so I was like, I was crossing my fingers and hoping that it was enough.”

It was. When the distance was announced at 167-04, the Arlington coaches went crazy. By the end of it, Scott had locked up third place, letting it fly in the last competition of his high school career.

“I was really happy because I finally popped one,” Scott said. “It’s been so long since I’ve done something. Last year, I went up by 30 feet out of nowhere, and so I needed something.”

Below is the full list of area athletes who scored by placing in the Top 8 of their event:

Field Finals:

Boys 4A pole vault: t-5. Jaron Harkness (Kamiak)

Boys 4A discus throw: 3. Dylan Scott (Arlington), 4. Noah Haller (K)

Boys 4A long jump: 4. Zachary Warren (K)

Girls 4A discus throw: 2. Keira Isabelle Tupua (Lake Stevens)

Track Finals:

Boys 4A 110 hurdles: 3. Miller Warme (K)

Girls 4A 110 hurdles: 8. Noelani Tupua (LS)