Last year they did it without a single first-place finish. This year, the King’s girls won another state track and field title with blue ribbons and record-setting relays.
The Knights captured a fourth straight Class 1A championship and their seventh in 10 years May 29 at Eastern Washington University.
“We had great performances left and right in events we weren’t expecting,” Knights coach Daunte Gouge said.
Kim Mayhle, Chira Louie, Tatianna Noel and Sarah Smart clocked a meet and school record time of 49.70 seconds in the 400-meter relay.
King’s was in second until Smart passed Seattle Academy on the final straightaway.
“She just powered away from everybody,” Gouge said. “I didn’t think we could run that fast. We’ve been tweaking the order and we finally found one we really like.”
The same foursome raced to first place in the 800 relay in a school record time of 1:46.13 and Louie finished third in the 100-meter dash in 13.13.
Sophomore Sara Mosiman scored in all four of her field events. Her winning javelin throw of 138 feet, 3 inches was more than 20 feet better than the second-place mark.
Mosiman placed second in the high jump by clearing 5 feet, 2 inches. She took fifth in the long jump with a leap of 16 feet, 1/4 inches and was eighth in the pole vault.
Freshman Danielle Clauson took third in both the javelin (113-4) and discus (106-5). Midway through the season, Gouge said Clauson was “in a rut” and considered giving up on track.
“She threw some huge marks early and sort of plateaued,” Gouge said. “For awhile she wasn’t sure if she’d continue. But she stuck to it and scored some big points for us.”
Breyanne Nordtvedt was third in the 100 high hurdles (16.40) and seventh in the 300 hurdles (48.33). She teamed with Melody Miles, Audrey Baker and Chelsea Snyder for a fifth-place effort in the 1,600 relay (4:13.58).
“In her four years, Brey has never lost a state meet,” Gouge said. “Not many kids can say that. She ranks up there with our top career point-scorers.”
Rounding out the top-eight finishers for the Knights were Alison West and Alex Keeney, who took seventh and eighth in the triple jump.
King’s collected 76 points to secure the team trophy. Three points separated the next five teams: Seattle Academy (45), University Prep (44), White Pass (43), Rainier and Bellevue Christian (42).
Behind two individual titles in the throws, the King’s boys finished fourth for the second year in a row.
“The throws really made the difference,” Gouge said.
Sophomore Michael Davis overcame a steady, 35-mph crosswind to win the javelin with a heave of 187-8 that ranked as the top throw at any of this year’s state meets.
“Everybody’s javs were blowing out of bounds,” Gouge said. “It was an amazing amount of wind.”
Calvin Fujii’s first-place toss of 51-4 in the shot put topped the rest of the field by roughly a foot and a half. Teammate Troy Mack finished fourth (48-1).
Chris Faidley was fifth in the 300 hurdles (41.92) and Ryan Dixon took seventh in both the 110 (16.89) and 300 hurdles (42.77).
Steven Miller placed fifth in the 3,200 (10:06.17) and eighth in the 1,600 (4:41.34).
Victor Quan, Faidley, Bryan Kotjan and Brent Woodham placed fifth in the 1,600 relay (3:34.34) and Woodham was eighth in the 3,200.
Tacoma Baptist took the team championship with 83 points, followed by Freeman (60), Charles Wright (53), King’s (43) and Archbishop Murphy (37).
With King’s moving up to the Class 2A ranks beginning in the fall, the state meet marked the private school’s final competition at the 1A level for the next two-year cycle.
“A lot of people will probably be happy to see the King’s contingent move away from 1A for at least a couple of years,” Gouge said.
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