State contenders lead Warriors

  • By David Pan Enterprise sports editor
  • Tuesday, April 13, 2010 9:28pm

It hasn’t taken long for Edmonds-Woodway’s Alec Fellows to find his footing.

The junior track and field standout already has personal bests in the long jump and 110-meter hurdles and he currently sports the state’s fastest time in the hurdles.

“It’s going pretty good,” said Fellows, who finished third in the 110 high hurdles, sixth in the triple jump and eighth in the long jump at last year’s Class 4A state track and field championships. “Everything is coming together.”

Indeed.

At an April 8 meet, Fellows cleared 6 feet, 4 inches in the high jump, an inch below his personal best. Fellows made an attempt at 6-7.25 to set a school record but just missed it, barely brushing the bar.

“He’s having a great season so far,” Edmonds-Woodway coach Rick Fillman said.

Fillman expects Fellows to set a personal best in the high jump by the end of the season.

In late March, Fellows traveled to California to compete in the Stanford Invitational. The results certainly boosted Fellow’s confidence.

He took first in the long jump, seventh in the high jump and 11th in the hurdles.

“It was a good day,” Fellows said.

His long jump mark of 23-.5 is the second best in the state. Fellows is seventh in the high jump statewide so far this season. He ran a school record time of 14.56 seconds in the 110 hurdles in the April 8 meet.

“He had a good race,” said Fillman, noting that Fellows won by .8 seconds, a sizable margin.

Fellows plans to be a decathlete in college so he did some different events that are not a part of his routine. He took fourth in the javelin and won the 400, finishing about five seconds ahead of the runner-up.

Fellows spent the offseason working on the hurdles and long jump at the University of Washington. Fellows could see the progress he was making in the long jump as he was jumping in the 23 feet range indoors.

Fellows’ goals are to continue to set personal records and prepare for the postseason.

“I want to make sure I’m in the best shape I can be in,” he said.

Fellows might be the only Warrior to advance to state from the boys team.

“We’re so young,” Fillman said. “I think about 80 percent of our team is either freshmen or sophomores. … We have real good potential for the future. They still need another year or two to grow into that.”

The future, however, is now for senior Katie Tougas, a state returner in the 100 and 200. Tougas has won every race convincingly in 2010.

“She’s having a great early season,” Fillman said.

Tougas holds the school record in the 100 and 200 and may end up adding another individual event — the long jump.

This is the first year Tougas has competed in the event and she is well on her way to mastering it.

She took first place with a leap of 16-8.5 in an April 6 meet. That jump is the best in the league.

“We’re going to try and see how that goes but the early returns in the first meet are very promising,” Fillman said. “She’s so explosive. That’s a good event for her.”

Tougas’ times in the 100 are ahead of last year and she has the league’s fastest time.

Junior Amia Nash has the fastest time in the 400, while junior Victoria Berg is the league leader in the 100 and 300 hurdles. Other league leaders include Betsie Hopper (3,200) and Adama Marenah (triple jump).

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