E-W’s Greenwood defends high jump crown

SHORELINE

Edmonds-Woodway’s Eric Greenwood is back on track.

Less than a week after placing third in the high jump at the Western Conference South Division championships, Greenwood rebounded with a first-place finish at districts and a berth to the Class 4A state championships.

Greenwood cleared 6 feet, 2 inches to successfully defend his high jump title at the District 1 track and field championships May 16 at Shoreline Stadium.

“I was jumping well the whole day,” said Greenwood, who is headed to the University of Idaho on a football scholarship. “I didn’t have any misses until 6-4. I should have had 6-4. I barely nicked it. … It just felt great being out there being against the top of Wesco and winning it again.”

Timing undid Greenwood at the league championships, where he jumped 5-10. In the middle of the high jump, Greenwood rushed to run the 400. When he returned he couldn’t regain his focus.

“When I came back, I couldn’t even see straight,” Greenwood said.

So Greenwood scratched out of the 400 at districts in order to focus on the high jump.

The Edmonds-Woodway senior placed ninth in the event at last year’s state meet. Greenwood is looking to move up.

“I’ve jumped there (Edgar Brown Stadium) three times now,” he said. “As long as I come out and I jump my absolute best and I’m feeling good, I’ll be up on the podium.”

Greenwood’s goal is to at least match his personal best of 6-7, which he jumped in the first meet of the season. Greenwood is at his best when he’s excited as he was to start the season.

“I’ve just got to have the energy to say ‘Hey, I’ve got to win state,’” Greenwood said. “I’ll get myself fired up and I’ll be able to jump high.”

Another athlete who fired herself up to a first-place finish was Mountlake Terrace senior hurdler Dianna Hanson. Her string of bad luck at Shoreline Stadium, which included two falls, ended with a resounding win in the 100-meter high hurdles in the May 18 finals.

“I feel like the last four years have just finally come together for me because each year something just came up that hindered me and this year it all finally fell into place,” said Hanson, who clocked in with a time of 16.15, her second best career time. “I had a great race today. … I didn’t care that it was starting to rain. I just went for it. This is my year. It was magical.”

Hanson is aiming to make finals. What she’ll need to do is have a clean race, she said.

“I hit the last four hurdles in this race and it actually threw my shoulder forward at one point and that cost me going sub-16,” Hanson said. “If I get a clean race, I’ll go sub-16. I know it and I’ll be able to keep up with those girls and hopefully make finals.”

Joining Hanson at state is Edmonds-Woodway freshman Katie Tougas, who placed third (12.85) in the 100. Tougas also finished seventh (27.15) in the 200.

There are times when Edmonds-Woodway coach Rick Fillman forgets that Tougas is a freshman based on her calm demeanor in pressure situations.

“She is mature beyond her years,” he said. “She has handled everything this year with grace and you would think she was a junior or senior out there and has seen it all before.”

Tougas ran a personal record time of 12.74 in the preliminaries and was the top seed in Friday’s finals.

“Coming in from Wednesday with a new PR, that was really confidence boosting,” Tougas said. “So coming into today I had a lot of confidence and a lot of hope and I was able to do what I wanted to do.”

Tougas used her nervousness to her advantage in her first district meet.

“I think nerves kind of helped me because I was able to turn that kind of energy into adrenalin,” Tougas said. “I have no idea what’s going to happen next week. I’m so excited to be able to keep the season going and to be able to make it back to Pasco and to be able to run there again.”

Teammate Jordan Huegli nearly missed out on a berth to state but pulled through with a third-place finish in the 800. Huegli found herself at the back of the pack early in the race and had to weave her way through to the top four by the end of the first lap.

Huegli still was in fourth place coming into the home stretch. But a late surge enabled her to take third in 2:17.99 and just edge Snohomish’s Carly McBride, who finished in 2:18.12.

“The whole day I’ve been thinking about state,” Huegli said. “At the end, the lean saved me today.”

Fillman had a feeling Huegli was going to pull it off.

“Coming off that home stretch … you could see it in her eyes,” he said. “She wanted it so bad.”

Edmonds-Woodway junior Yon Yilma advanced in the boys 1,600 (third, 4:22.06) and the 3,200 (third, 9:26.48). He finished behind Lake Stevens’ Joey Bywater and Mariner’s Dak Riek, who placed first and second, respectively, in both races.

“I’m just excited to qualify for state,” Yilma said. “I’ve been running smart and just getting ready, saving up for state.”

The key for Yilma at state will be trying to close the gap with the frontrunners.

He will “try to hang with them as long as I can,” Yilma said. “Instead of taking the first part easy like I usually do, this time I’m going to push the first (mile) faster.”

Mountlake Terrace’s Chris Wells finished third (173-0) in the boys javelin and earned a trip to state.

The 4A state meet is set for May 25-26 at Edgar Brown Stadium in Pasco.