Alexis Van Horne sprints to catch East Valley's Taylor Sellers in the anchor leg of the girls' 4x200-meter relay at District 7 competition in Cheney last Friday. The Knights hung on by 17/100ths of a second to capture the district title in the event, with the Blackhawks team second to advance to this Friday's regional meet action.
While the overall team results may differ, the bottom line from last Friday's district competition for the Cheney High track and field teams is a good contingent of athletes is moving on to this Friday's regional meet - and a number of them have solid shots at advancing to state.
The Blackhawk girls added a District 7 title to go with their Great Northern League regular season championship, out scoring second-place Pullman 99-87 in competition held May 12 at Cheney High School. The boys finished fourth in a very competitive field with 76 points, 10 points back of district champion West Valley.
"A lot of good things went on," Cheney girls coach Tom Stralser said.
Alsatta Bakana led the Blackhawks with three first-place finishes. The junior won the 200-meter dash with a new personal record time of 25.13 seconds, finished first in the 400 in 58.70 and won the high jump with a mark of 5 feet, 1 inch.
Jolene Whiteley took first in the 800 in 2:27.80, while Alexia Batchelor set a new PR of 2:35.60 for second. All three relay teams advanced to regionals by placing in the top two, with the 4x400 team of Jocelyn Cone, Gabrielle Nguyen, Whiteley and Bakana winning a district title with a time of 4:16.98.
Rylie Pease and Zoe Lamb joined Bakana with district titles in field events. Pease won the javelin with a throw of 138-00 and Lamb took first in the pole vault at 10-06, with freshman Sophia Van Wormer second at 9 feet even.
Taishae Wallace advanced with a second-place finish in the discus, 106-07, and Stralser feels she has a good chance to make state out of regionals.
"It's anybody's game at this point," he added.
Carson Brown and Jacob McGourin notched the only district titles for the boys. Brown won the 400 in 51.33 while McGourin set a new PR of 139-03 to capture the discus. That throw moves the sophomore to 11th overall in the event in the state 2A classification, according to the website athletic.net.
The Blackhawks got four second-places finishes on the track. Charles Johnson continued his season-long duel with East Valley's Rodrick Fisher, getting edged by the Knights senior by 3/100ths of a second in the 100 (10.76) and 34/100ths in the 200 (21.68). Both are ranked 1–2 in those events in 2A state.
Drake Johnson set a new season record of 2:01.43 for second in the 800 while also finishing second in the 1,600. The senior is ranked ninth in 2A state in the latter.
Both relays advanced to regionals, with the 4x100 team of Zach Jongeward, Peyton Putney, Garret Hagel and Charles Johnson taking first in 43.10.
Brock Winegar was the only other field contestant to advance to regionals along with McGourin. The senior set a new PR of 170-10 for second in the javelin, finishing 6 inches behind West Valley's Dylan Farnham and moving him to eighth on the state 2A rankings, fourth overall among District 5/6/7 athletes.
Cheney's track and field complex will be busy again this Friday, hosting the District 5/6/7 regional meet with teams from the Central Washington Athletic Conference.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
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