Cheney track and field gets a taste of competition at Whitworth

Cheney’s track and field teams finally got to do some running, jumping and throwing for real this past weekend, competing in a five-team mini-invitational meet at Whitworth University March 23.

The Blackhawk boys finished second with 154 points, besting squads from Gonzaga Prep, East Wenatchee’s Eastmont High School and Shadle Park. Central Valley won the meet with 215.3 points.

Cheney’s girls were third with 68 points, finishing ahead of Shadle Park and Eastmont. G-Prep was second while Central Valley’s 252 points were again enough to finish first.

The Blackhawks garnered eight first-place finishes, six coming in individual events and the other two in relays. The boys notched five first-place finishes, led by Camden VerStrate who won both the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes with respective times of 10.90 seconds and 22.57 seconds.

Jacob McGourin won the discus with a season-best toss of 159 feet, 7 inches. Ryan Riekmann captured first in the javelin with a throw of 161-10.

McGourin was second in the 100 with a season-best time of 11.56 and was third in the shot put. Julian Torres set a new personal record of 2:04.00 for second in the 800, while Tucker Cunningham also PRd for third in the 300-meter hurdles in a time of 45.87.

Jaheem Peele was fifth in the 100. Parker Rogers and Garrett Roettger both set new PRs of 57.20 and 57.60 for fifth and sixth respectively in the 400. Andres Margraf was fifth in the 3,200, Hyrum McCombie’s PR of 43-03 was good enough for fourth in the shot put while Vincent Terrile and Jeremy Blom were fourth in the javelin and pole vault. Cameron Villalobos was fifth in the pole vault with a season-best of 9-06.

The 4x100 relay team finished first, with Cheney teams taking second and third in the 4x400 relay.

Maddie Warren paced the Cheney girls by winning the 200 in 27.10. Sophia Van Wormer set a season-best mark of 11-01 to win the pole vault, with Makayla Miller third with a season-best vault of nine feet even.

Hunter Holsten set a season-best mark of 31-01 for fourth in the shot put while Kaitren Fisher’s season-best time of 52.26 earned her fourth in the 300 hurdles. Emma Pepperd was fifth in the long jump.

Cheney will pick up the pace a bit this week before a week-plus layoff over spring break. The Blackhawks travel to Connell on Friday for the Connell Instant Invitational, and then board buses Saturday for Yakima for the Holder Relays.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].