EDMONDS — The Lynnwood boys track team gave head coach Duane Lewis a birthday present he won’t soon forget.
The Royals overcame the loss of one of their top athletes to win their first Edmonds District championship in four years May 7 at Edmonds Stadium.
“We’re back where we belong,” a beaming Lewis said minutes after the announcement of the narrow victory.
Lynnwood finished first with 146 points, ahead of Edmonds-Woodway (134) and Meadowdale (129). Mountlake Terrace (90) placed fourth.
Lewis was especially proud of the way his team responded to the loss of senior co-captain Chad Smith, who was unable to compete due to a hamstring injury. Smith was scheduled to run in the 100- and 200-meter dashes and run a leg of the 400 relay.
“We gave up two individual events and then the relays with him, but the kids picked it up in those areas,” Lewis said.
The Royals still ended up taking first in the 400 relay and Parys Fox won the 100 and placed second in the 200.
“We don’t have many guys but we’ve got a lot of talent,” senior Randall Eldridge said.
Eldridge won the long jump (20-91/2) feet, the triple jump (42-6) and finished second in the high jump (5-8) to teammate Vince Kinney, who won with leap of 6 feet.
“My meet was all right but I could have done a lot better with my high jump, long jump and the triple jump,” Eldridge said. “But the 4 by 1 I felt very good … I think I got my best time.”
Lynnwood’s 400 relay team (45.38) edged Meadowdale by 4/10 of a second for first.
Kinney followed up a strong performance at last week’s Shoreline Invitational with perhaps an even better effort, winning the 300 hurdles and the high jump and anchoring the 1,600 relay team to a win.
His time of 39.54 in the 300 hurdles was a meet record and a personal best. Kinney’s time of 15.96 in the 110 hurdles also was a personal best and was good enough for fourth place.
A major surprise for the Royals was sophomore Garrett Dill’s victory in the 110 hurdles (15.45), which was a sophomore school record.
Edmonds-Woodway easily captured the girls title, outdistancing second-place Meadowdale 180-133. Lynnwood finished third with 116 and Mountlake Terrace was fourth with 102.
The Warriors were led by Kate Southcote-Want, who won the 1,600 (5:29.3) and the 800 (2:31.46) and then helped lead the 1,600 relay team to a come-from-behind victory in the meet’s final event.
“I decided to put everything out there,” Southcote-Want said of the relay. “I just had enough track to catch her.”
Southcote-Want wasn’t thrilled with her times in both of her individual events but was pleased to come away with the wins.
“I feel like I could have run them faster but they were still pretty good races,” she said. “If you can win, it doesn’t matter how fast you run. It definitely helps to have someone in front of you. I just did what I could with what I had. I felt I had a pretty good day overall.”
Southcote-Want is eager to compete in this week’s Western Conference 4A South Division championships. The finals are scheduled to start at 5 p.m. tonight (Friday, May 14) at Shoreline Stadium.
“I’m really excited to run and see what I can do,” Southcote-Want said. “I’m loving the mile right now. I think I can run it a lot faster than I did today, so I’m excited to run it again.”
Lynnwood sophomore Caitlyn Bonney appears to be peaking at the right time. Bonney came from behind to win both the 100 hurdles (16.88) and the 300 hurdles (39.54).
“I like the home stretch,” Bonney said. “It’s my speciality.”
Bonney also scored a minor upset with a victory in the 200 (27.14) after coming into the meet seeded second in the event.
“I felt really challenged in all of (the events),” Bonney said. “I just want to get to state again, at least in the 300 hurdles and do better than I did last year.”
Bonney, who went to Edmonds-Woodway last year, was sixth in her preliminary heat at the 4A state meet and did not advance to the finals. Through last week, Bonney had the state’s fastest 3A time in the 300 hurdles.
“She’s had a great season,” Lewis said.
Another athlete who’s drawn a lot of attention this season is Edmonds-Woodway senior Tiana Roma, the defending 4A state champion in the high jump.
Roma easily won the event at the district meet with a jump of 5-2 but is struggling with her approach, a problem that only recently arose.
“I’m having trouble with my plant in the run-up,” she said. “It’s pretty much just a technical problem … at the moment I’m going through the bar rather than over the bar.
“About two or three weeks ago, it just kind of clicked out of place and I’m trying to put it back in place.”
Roma, who won state with a jump of 5-6, has cleared 5-5 twice this season at the Eason and Davis invitationals.
“I do a lot better when I have somebody to push me,” Roma said. “In the invitationals, you get people with really high heights.”
Her first-place finish at last year’s state meet means that people know who Roma is and have high expectations of her.
“I don’t like it,” Roma said. “I’d rather be the one that they don’t know about.”
Meadowdale has some individual successes last week but overall the Mavericks didn’t come out of the meet with the results they were hoping for, according to coach Aaron Cupp.
A couple of false starts, a botched handoff during a relay and some illnesses contributed to a less than memorable overall performance.
“It was a rough day,” Cupp said. “We ran hard and we tried hard. You really have to respect the effort.”
Meadowdale senior Duncan Hendrick, however, eased some of Cupp’s disappointment with a victory in the 3,200 (9:41.45) and a narrow second-place finish in the 800 (2:00.77), where he finished a 1/10 of a second behind Edmonds-Woodway’s Sean Doyle. Hendrick started his kick fairly early in both races.
“This year I’ve been working on speed a lot more,” he said. “I just have got a lot of speed for a longer amount of time, so I can start my kick earlier.”
Hendrick’s time in the 3,200 was only five seconds off his personal best of 9:36.
I’m feeling good,” Hendrick said. “I looked at some stats from up north and I’m third for 3A Northwest District (in the 3,200) and the top three go. I’m real happy about that.”
Another standout was Edmonds-Woodway’s Glenn Gallagher, who won the 200 (22.94) and 400 (52.08).
Gallagher appears to be fully recovered from a muscle strain he suffered at the Shoreline Invitational a week earlier.
“He seems to be feeling pretty strong,” said Edmonds-Woodway coach Rick Fillman. “He said his leg didn’t bother him. I was a little concerned. I talked to him today about making sure he warmed up well.”
Following his victory in the 400, Gallagher set a school record in the 200.
“I think that leg … is behind him,” Fillman said. “That’s real positive for him going into Wesco South.”
Mountlake Terrace had four individual winners — Benjamin Jerome in the boys javelin (156-10), Julie Bronson in the girls discus (90-10), Estelle Kills-Right in the 3,200 (11:46.72) and Kiley Deroche in the girls triple jump (32-02).
Other individual winners included Edmonds-Woodway’s Alex Hortin in the boys 1,600 (4:35.24), Meadowdale’s Gabe Hammond in the boys shot put (46-11), Meadowdale’s Jeff Epler in the boys discus (131-11/4), Lynnwood’s Jacob Spaeth in the boys pole vault (10-9), Meadowdale’s Jessica Duty in the girls 100 (12.95), Meadowdale’s Kanisha Draper in the 400 (1:01.39), Lynnwood’s Daylene Wilkie in the girls shot put (30-111/2)and Monika Gruszecki in the girls javelin (111-4), Edmonds-Woodway’s Susan Quick in the girls long jump (16-31/2) and Edmonds-Woodway’s Andrea Madison in the girls pole vault (9-1).
The Edmonds-Woodway girls swept the 400, 800 and 1,600 relays.
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