Shorewood’s Marlow earns two top-four places at state track

TACOMA — There’s “going out with a bang,” and then there’s what Jaden Marlow did in the 3A Boys Pole Vault at the WIAA Track & Field State Championships on Friday.

The Shorewood junior was down to his final attempt at Mount Tahoma High School, with the bar at 15 feet. Interlake’s Lawson Campbell and Cheney’s Alma Smith had already cleared it, and Marlow had one last chance to join them in the next round. After clearing each of his first four heights on the first attempt, he finally had a challenge.

“I haven’t had like, much adversity, so it was good to have a little bit of stuff battling through,” Marlow said.

And he went for it.

Putting all his strength and force into the vault, he got high enough but not far enough to clear it. As gravity pulled him down, he took the bar with him and collided with the right pole, knocking that over as well. He hit the mat below as the structure toppled around him. Luckily, he wasn’t hurt, and after getting checked out in the medical tent, was in the clear. After finishing fourth in the 3A Boys 110-meter hurdles earlier that morning, Marlow locked in his second top-four finish of the day by placing third in the pole vault. On top of that, he placed sixth in the long jump on Thursday.

“It was definitely good timing of all the events this year, so I was happy to have some rest in between. ” Marlow said. “But yeah, just one at a time. Just move onto the next when you’re done with it, no matter the outcome.”

Kellie Stich, one of the Shorewood coaches, praised Marlow’s dedication, pointing to the fact that he had the opportunity to skip 14-09 and go straight to 15-00, which is what Campbell and Smith did, but he wanted to do it anyway.

“How are your legs feeling?” Stich asked him.

“They’re feeling okay,” Marlow replied. “I really want to jump on this pole. I want to get a practice jump in.”

In his first try, he cleared 14-09 with ease, clapping his hands once on his way down to continue his streak. After starting the season between 13-09 and 14-00, Marlow made quick progress to get to this point. He hopes it will make a big difference in the decathlon at the Combined Events Championship in Lake Stevens next week. Stich estimates he will score around 1,000 more points with his improvement in the pole vault alone. Marlow is setting his goal at 7,000 points total.

Through two days, Shorewood was tied for third among Boys 3A with 18 points. 14 of those came from Marlow.

“He really was fighting today to just really do his best,” Stich said. “He came out, he performed what he needed to do. Jaden’s a really great athlete, and he just wants more. So if you talk to him right now, he may give you a different story, but no, he comes out, he fights, he listens, he just wants to do his best at every competition.”

Said Marlow: “I’m just gearing up for the decathlon next week, so I’m pumped for that.”

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Right after Brynlee Dubiel crossed the finish line in the 3A Girls 100-meter hurdles, the Mountlake Terrace junior wrapped up Mercer Island’s Eloise Newman in an embrace. The two have competed with and against each for years, at high school meets as well as for the GLS Speed Track Club. With Newman placing second at 14.88 and Dubiel coming in third at 14.89 seconds, it was a tight, emotional finish.

“I had no idea what place I was in, I was just trying to push,” Dubiel said. “I had Eloise in the lane next to me, and she’s definitely one of these competitors in this race. … I was definitely using her to push me to try to get ahead of her. She got second, I got third, but yeah, just pushing really hard to finish at the end, and it is what it is.”

The two didn’t say much as they hugged each other. Newman was the reigning champion in the event, so Dubiel could sense her disappointment. Dubiel also felt disappointment, entering preliminaries as the top seed, but felt hindered by an illness she had been dealing with for the past few days. Both runners have more events ahead — for Dubiel, the 400-meter relay and 300-meter hurdles — so the focus was on pushing forward.

“It’s kind of an interesting dynamic when you’re trying to encourage each other to do well, but you’re also competing against them,” Dubiel said. “We’re really, really great friends, but at the end of the day, we are each other’s competition. So just being really, really encouraging, but I think that’s honestly the beauty of track: You’re able to get so close with your teammates and still use them to push you and, you know, be happy for each other, whether you win or lose.”

Dubiel’s Mountlake Terrace teammate Allison Mervin placed second in the 3A girls triple jump. She lost in a second-best jump tiebreaker to Silas’ Addison Kelly, with both athletes jumping 38-06.5. Kelly’s second-best jump was 38-02.75, while Mervin’s was 37-08.25.

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

Field Finals:

Boys 3A high jump: 4. Jack Rotondo (Snohomish)

Girls 3A javelin: 5. Sierra Swan (Mountlake Terrace)

Boys 3A pole vault: 3. Jaden Marlow (Shorewood), 4. Brody Whetmore (Sno.)

Girls 3A triple jump: 2. Allison Mervin (MT), 5. Baella Stich (Sno.)

Track Finals:

Boys 3A 110 hurdles: 4. Marlow (SW), 8. Barric Danielson (Stanwood)

Girls 3A 110 Hurdles: 3. Brynlee Dubiel (MT)h