SHORELINE — The King’s girls have recorded some ridiculously high team scores and enjoyed their share of runaway victories at the state track and field meet.
Last year they experienced a new thrill.
Winning by a nose.
The Knights squeaked by the Seattle Academy girls by a point to secure their third consecutive Class 1A state championship and sixth in nine seasons.
“The crazy thing was we won state without winning an event,” King’s coach Daunte Gouge said. “That’s a rarity.”
In lieu of individual champions, the Knights used three second-place finishes and an array of top-five placings to defend their team title.
That same sort of depth and versatility should propel King’s back to the podium in 2004. With a roster that features 20 girls who competed at state last season, the Knights appear poised to bring home a fourth 1A title in a row.
“We have more depth with the girls across the board than we’ve had since I’ve been around,” Gouge said. “There’s multiple sprinters, multiple throwers, multiple jumpers. The hardest thing is going to be finding events for everybody.”
The jumps should continue to be a consistent source of points for King’s. Junior Chira Louie and senior Alison West placed fifth and sixth at state in the long jump, sophomores Chelsea Snyder and Katherine DeJong tied for sixth in the high jump and junior Hayley Zevenbergen took seventh in the high jump and 10th in the triple jump.
Senior Breyanne Nordtvedt won a triple jump title as a sophomore, but was slowed by nagging ankle injuries last year and dropped to third.
“I feel pretty strong right now,” Nordtvedt said. “I’m going to be more careful. Last year I pushed myself too much. This year I’m going to take little steps at a time.”
Nordtvedt is also strong in both hurdles races. She finished ninth in the 300-meter hurdles at state a year ago and fifth in the 100 high hurdles. In the latter, senior Chloe Kieling edged Nordtvedt for fourth.
“Hurdles has always been my event,” Nordtvedt said. “I started (triple) jumping to see what would happen. It kind of started taking off.”
Sophomore Sara Mosiman registered King’s highest individual finish at the state meet by placing second in the javelin. Her marks in every field event ranked in the top 25 at the 1A level.
In the distance races the Knights will rely on a group of runners who paced King’s to a third straight state cross country title in the fall, led by juniors Melody Miles, Heidi Kieling and Anneliese Fruhling.
King’s returns its entire mile relay team that finished third at state and three members of its 400 and 800 relay teams that took second. The competition for those relay spots this spring has been fierce.
“We have eight or nine girls who are going to be vying for each relay,” Gouge said. “Making a relay team here this year is going to be tough. We could probably put two relay teams together that would place at state in all three relays.”
The King’s boys also return a large contingent of state qualifiers off last year’s fourth-place team, including a pair of throwers who are expected to contend for individual titles.
After taking sixth at state with an all-time best mark for a freshman at any classification, sophomore Michael Davis went on to earn a Junior Olympic title in the javelin over the summer.
Calvin Fujii placed fourth at state in the shot put as a sophomore and starts the season as the early favorite since the remaining finalists in the event last spring were all seniors.
The Knights have a chance to rack up even more points in the pole vault. Seniors Robb Waldburger, Dan Stueckle and Chris Faidley finished third, sixth and 12th at state after sweeping the top three places at the Tri-district meet.
On the track, the Knights are at their best in the distance events. Senior Steven Miller finished third at the state cross country meet in November and juniors Brent Woodham and Alex Croutworst took 15th and 16th.
King’s has claimed three straight Tri-district track titles, but hasn’t been able to reproduce that success at the state level. The past four years the Knights placed fourth, second, second and third.
“We’ve never quite had our best day and other teams have,” Miller said.
Gouge is hopeful that could change this year.
“There’s a possibility that we could score a lot of points at state,” he said. “Someone’s going to have to really go off to knock us out.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
