By Ryan Piersol
Herald Writer
EDMONDS — Marzell Jenkins was limping slightly when he left the track at Edmonds District Stadium for the last time.
His opponents, though, had to have been hurting much worse.
That’s because Jenkins was basically unbeatable during a thrilling three-sprint sweep at the Wesco South Divisional on Friday. The Mariner senior won the 100-, 200- and 400-meter dashes, while also running the anchor leg on a Marauder 400-meter relay team that finished first and was later disqualified.
While winning isn’t exactly a new concept to Jenkins, the opponents he defeated to get there this time around were. Edmonds-Woodway sprinter Antoinne Wafer hadn’t been bested head-to-head in the 400-meter dash all season, until Jenkins clipped him by less than two-tenths of a second.
It was one of the best races of the day on the boys side.
“That was a great race. Anytime you have someone like Antoine, who is confident and really fast, you know it’s going to be a good race with Marzell,” Mariner head coach Dave McFadden said. “It was ideal for Marzell, because he was in lane three and he could see Wafer and chase him the whole way.”
Jenkins first swiped the 100 in a time of 11.14, beating out the 11.36 clocked by Blaine Weber from Shorewood. Jenkins won the 200 in a time of 22.69, as Wafer was his best competition in that one as well with a 22.78.
Jenkins’ was expected to encounter the most resistance in the 400, but the senior turned in a personal best 49.88 to win that one. Even though it was his first time this season to face Wafer – the two were in separate heats in preliminaries – Jenkins was well aware of the challenge.
“I was just thinking about Wafer, because he’s so strong. I knew it was going to be close,” he said. “I tried to go out hard right away, relax a little without slowing down on the turn, then give it everything I had on the straight away.”
Jenkins’ terrific day was only enough to get his team into fourth place, as Jackson won the meet with 153 points. Kamiak was a close second with 138.
Jackson made it to first with a balanced attack, scoring points in nearly every event. The Timberwolves’ two lone event wins on the day came in the 3,200-meter run with Ben Lance’s time of 9:36.37 and the triple jump where Dan Truong had a leap of 42 feet, 8 ¼ inches. Truong also placed first in the long jump on Wednesday with a leap of 19 feet, 3 inches.
While Kamiak just missed catching Jackson in the team standings, the Knights did get a win from freshman Nari Sternen in the 300-meter hurdles and senior Jonathan Cooper in the 800-meter run. Kamiak’s 1,600-meter relay team also was first.
At Edmonds District Stadium
Team scores – Jackson 153, Kamiak 138, Edmonds-Woodway 119, Mariner 98, Shorewood 80, Shorecrest 67, Lynnwood 59, Mountlake Terrace 55, Meadowdale 12.
100 hurdles – Williams (L) 15.48
100 – Jenkins (M) 11.14
400 relay – Shorewood 44.82
400 – Jenkins (M) 49.88
300 hurdles – Sternen (K) 41.75
800 – Cooper (K) 1:56.31
200 – Jenkins (M) 22.69
3,200 – Lance (J) 9:36.37
1,600 relay – Kamiak 3:27.32
Javelin – Burnett-Lewis (L) 184-7
Discus – Domanski (SC) 164-0
Triple jump – Truong (J) 42-8¼
Pole vault – McElmurry (SC) 13-6
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