ML's Rolan blazes to twin victories at state meet

Medical Lake won a few battles, but not even close to the war at last week's state 1A track championships at Eastern Washington University's Roos Field.

For a lot of reasons - the biggest being a pure lack of numbers - Cards' head coach Gene Blankenship was decidedly cautious not to issue predictions of glory for his boys' team.

They have had a string of impressive finishes - team champions in 2014, runners-up in 2015 and a third last year - unofficially finished eighth with 26 points. King's High School repeated as the team champs with 67 and Deer Park was second with 50.

But it was senior Lexi Rolan who sprinted to twin victories in the 100 and 200 meters, who stole the show for Medical Lake. Along the way she found the magic to finally put her nemesis, freshman Harlow Brumett-Dunn from Seattle Academy, in the rearview mirror as well as etching her name in school record books.

Rolan's margins of victory were tiny as would be expected, by 7/100ths of a second, 12.27 – 12.34 seconds in the 100 and a slimmer 2/100ths in the 200, 24.57 – 24.59.

The 200 meter final time, however, was a new Medical Lake school record for Rolan who announced on May 25 that she would further her track career on the same EWU track.

"She didn't like losing to a freshman in the first place," Blankenship said, referencing losses Rolan endured in earlier invitational meets. "She got out of the blocks quick and finished strong," he added.

Keyhon Ross authored another strong performance in his signature sprint events, the 100 and 200 with runner-up finishes. Ross lost twice to Caleb Perry of King's. Perry picked up a .38-second win in the 100 and by .23 in the 200.

But Ross had a more impressive finish in the final leg of the 4x100, his coach said.

"We were in last place at the last hand-off when Keyhon ran one of his best races ever," Blankenship said of Ross's effort in the 4x100 where Medical Lake was the defending state champion. "He brought us into fourth place just 2/100ths of a second away from third."

RJ Viloria, Urijah Taylor and Olijawan Smith ran the earlier legs in a race won by King's in a time of 43.38. Medical Lake clocked a 43.83 and trailed Deer Park's 43.81 by a whisker.

"Keyhon is a true competitor," Blankenship said, adding," I have a photograph of the last hand off and he is nowhere in sight - he started off in last place by a long ways.  His experience and determination brought us into a sold fourth." The finish was so close that Blankenship thought Ross had rallied his team to second place.

Smith finished fourth in the 110-meter hurdles, but had looked strong in the preliminaries, Blankenship said.

"Olijawan PR'd in the prelims and had a good start in the finals," Blankenship said. "He was in first place going over the third flight (of hurdles) when a competitor next to him accidentally hit him in the chest."

The most important thing running a smooth race is getting the precise timing between the hurdles, Blankenship explained. Hitting hurdles is allowed but penalizes the competitor in precious ticks of the clock. "Because of this incident, he hit several hurdles afterward and that slowed his time," Blankenship said.

The final Cardinal competitor was sophomore field event entrant, Jaxyn Farmen, who recorded a 34-foot, 5.25-inch effort, good for eighth place in the triple jump.

"Jaxyn is a sophomore and should improve in both the triple and long jumps in the next two state meets," Blankenship said.

Despite no notable team finish as in the past, everyone that went to the meet came home with a medal, Blankenship reported.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].