PREP GIRLS TRACK: Archbishop Murphy’s Schireman hustles to hurdles win

TACOMA — With an opponent creeping up behind her, threatening to take first place, Archbishop Murphy’s Sarah Schireman was having serious flashbacks.

“I just thought, this is not happening again,” Schireman said.

It didn’t.

The University of Washington-bound Schireman held off a challenge from Burlington-Edison’s Chelsea Genther in the 2A 100-meter hurdles Friday, finishing in 14.59 seconds for her first-ever state championship in the 2A/3A/4A state track and field championships at Mount Tahoma High School.

“It’s great,” said Schireman, who finished fifth last year in the 100 hurdles. “I thought I was going to win last year and I didn’t, and it makes it all the more (exciting) … Being able to beat Chelsea (who finished third in 2008) was something I didn’t think would be possible (at the start of the year).”

How did Schireman celebrate her victory? She had five minutes to hustle over to the triple jump, an event Archbishop Murphy jump coach Don McClure said she had competed in maybe a total of five times this year.

How did Schrieman do? She took second place with a jump of 36 feet, 5 inches. South Whidbey’s Cayla Calderwood placed third in the triple jump with a distance of 35-2.5. Both finished behind Brandi Thomas of Elma.

“She’s one of the best all around athletes I’ve ever had,” said McClure, who founded the Murphy track program before retiring in 2007.

“She didn’t get a good start,” Archbishop Murphy head coach Robert Gonzales added of Schireman’s performance in the 100 hurdles. “(When Genther started to catch up) I thought okay, now we’ll see what Sarah’s made of.”

All and all it was great day for Schireman, who scored 18 points all by herself, and who has a very real chance to be the first Murphy athlete to win more than one state event when the 2A/3A/4A state championship wraps up today.

Schireman still has the 300 hurdles and the long jump coming up today, and she’s ranked first in the state in both events. On Friday, Schireman won her preliminary 300 hurdles event in a time of 44.93, faster than second-place Niina Al-Hassan by 1.51 seconds to advance to the finals.

With two days-worth of events completed, Murphy leads the 2A team standings with and all of its 18 points coming from Schireman.

3A meet

Caroline Towles played baseball her freshman year at Shorecrest. On the boys team.

“(Clearly),” explained Shorecrest throws coach Mark Haner, “she’s got an arm.”

Towles, a senior, used that arm to place eighth at the 3A girls javelin with a throw of 116-11, despite just picking up the sport up a few months ago.

“I pretty happy with that,” said Towles, a first-time track competitor who has also played varsity fastpitch, basketball and soccer and who will play for the University of Idaho’s soccer team as a goalkeeper, “… They asked me to try javelin halfway through the season.”

Towles, who also runs the opening leg of Shorecrest’s state-qualifying 1,600 relay team, broke Shorecrest’s record for javelin in her very first meet this year.

She didn’t replicate her PR of 127-2 at state, but did enough to place and more than enough to impress Haner, in his ninth year coaching at Shorecrest.

“This year I didn’t think we’d have anyone place,” Haner said. “… Pretty lucky to have an athlete like that stumble into our sport. It makes us look good as coaches.”

In preliminary events, Shorecrest’s second-ranked in state 400 relay team of Marisa Brown, Lynleigh Oliver, Nicole Harris and Alexis Ramos turned in a time of 49.08 seconds to advance to the finals. That time was the fastest the group has posted this year, according to athletic.net, but Rainier Beach remained the overall favorite, posting a blistering 48.15. Lynnwood’s relay team also qualified.

4A meet

Ranked first in the state in the discus, Cascade senior Brittany Jones fell short of her best distance of 135-9, posting a 119-8 to take fifth place behind defending champion Gabi Dixson of Battle Ground (first place, 135-4).

Jones also competed in the shot put but did not place. Stanwood senior Trista Peterson, who went to state earlier in the year as a wrestler, took seventh place in the shot put with a distance of 38-02.5.