The Archbishop Thomas Murphy boys track team heads into next week’s Northwest 1A League championships with one of the its strongest teams in recent years.
The 50-plus member squad wrapped the regular season undefeated in dual meets and also figures to be a strong contender along with King’s and Tacoma Baptist for the Tri-district title in two weeks.
“We’ve had a real good season,” said Archbishop Murphy coach Don McClure. “It’s been a good year for improvement.”
A number of Wildcats have either tied or set school records and have recorded times among the top Class 1A marks in the state.
Junior Tony Slater set a new school record in the shot put with a throw of 44 feet, 1 inch, which bested the old record of teammate Doug VanderWel.
Junior Kyle Wilkins, one of the league’s top sprinters, tied the school record in the 100-meters with an 11.2. Wilkins also is a standout in the long jump.
Senior Steve Alkire is the top Class 1A 300 hurdler with a time of 41.5. Alkire and teammate Peter Sadowski have the third-best time in the state (16.0) in the 110 hurdles.
Sadowski’s triple jump of 42-5 is among the top leaps in the district and teammate Andy Hewitt’s time of 2:04.9 in the 800 is the sixth best in the state. Hewitt is only three seconds off where he finished last season.
The Wildcats’ 400 and 1,600 relay teams also are among the state leaders.
McClure expects Archbishop Murphy to do well at the league meet and challenge for the Tri-district crown.
“It could be King’s, Tacoma Baptist or us,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of good people in a lot of events. It’ll be who’s on that day.”
While the boys team has solid depth across all of the events — with the possible exception of some of the distance races — the girls squad is much younger, but does return state triple jump champion Brenna Rice.
The junior has been sidelined for most of the season due to knee problems, but recently returned to action. Rice’s teammate junior Amanda Clancy could challenge her for the title. Rice won state with a leap of 33-9 last year. Clancy’s top mark is 33.
Sophomore Kari Sandoval broke both of her previous school records in the 800 and 1,600 and is a state contender in both events.
A quartet of freshmen have had impressive seasons.
Katy Westlund and Emily McClure are excelling in both the 100 and 300 hurdles, while Sandra Sulewski is one of the team’s top jumpers. Lauren Jelinek also is doing well in the high jump.
“I would say we have at least 10 or 11 (boys) that have a good shot at going to state,” McClure said. “We have two or three girls that have a shot at state.”
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