Cheney High School’s track and field teams found out that when it comes to state competition, things don’t always go by the book. While hoping for a high finish, even glimpsing the chance at getting on the trophy platform, the young Blackhawks boys and girls turned in worthy performances at the Star 2A/3A/4A track and field championships last Thursday – Saturday at Mount Tahoma High School near Tacoma.
Cheney athletes nabbed 10 top-eight finishes, enabling the boys to finish 12th with 19 points and the girls 16th with 18 points. Black Hills High School in the Tumwater School District took the boys’ team title while Shorecrest of Bellingham won the girls’ championship.
Peyton Putney and Isaiah Rigo were the top finishers for the Blackhawks overall. Putney turned in a time of 22.95 seconds for finish second in the boys’ 200-meter dash, with teammate Charles Johnson 7/100ths of a second behind in third. Johnson also took sixth in the 100 in 11.63.
Rigo was second in the 1,600-wheelchair race with a time of 4 minutes, 26.77 seconds. The sophomore finished third in the 800 in 2:16.56 and the 400 in 1:02.49, and was fourth in the 100 in 18.79.
Chase Reed was the only other Cheney boy to finish in the top eight. The junior had a throw of 138-09 feet to finish seventh in the discus.
Other placers for the Blackhawks’ boys were Drake Johnson, 14th in the 1,600 in 4:33.17 and 16th in the 3,200 in 10:07.51 and senior Gaige Felix, who closed out his high school career by finishing 14th in the long jump at 19-05.50 and 12th in the triple jump in 39-07.25.
Rylie Pease had the top finish for the girls, placing third in the javelin with a throw of 121-05. Alsatta Bakana was fifth in the 200 in 26.60 and sixth in the 100 in 13 seconds flat.
KD Skillingstad came up short in her bid to repeat as state champion in the 100 and 300 meter hurdles, finishing sixth in the former in 15.79 and eighth in the latter at 48.63. The 4x100 relay team of Ally Jones, Skillingstad, Bakana and Stephanie Assonken was eighth in 55.48 after running a 49.99 in the prelims.
Kelli Ford, Hanna Troy, Morgan McCorkle and Danielle Rose Monzon of Olympic captured the 4x100 championship in 48.56, with Shorecrest second in 50.06.
Other finishers for the Cheney girls were freshman Makayla Miller, 12th in the pole vault at 9-06, and Jones, 13th in the long jump at 15-09.25.
Besides Felix, the only other upper classmen for Cheney at state were juniors Drake Johnson and Reed for the boys along with Skillingstad and Jones for the girls.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
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