Cardinals send eight to state track and field meet

The Medical Lake High School track and field team advanced eight athletes out of District 7 competition last weekend to the State 1A track meet at Eastern Washington University in two weeks, May 23-25.

While the district meet isn’t scored, head coach Gene Blankenship wrote in an email that an unofficial team tally put the Cardinal boys second to Lakeside and the girls third behind Lakeside and Colville out of seven teams in the Northeast A League.

Jaxyn Farmen, Sophie Salinas-Sanders and Mayah Eberhardt led the girls by earning a trip to state. A senior, Farm captured district titles in the long and triple jumps, setting a new personal record of 36 feet, 10.50 inches in the latter and going 17-00.50 in the former.

Farmen’s mark in the triple jump broke not only her previous best but also the school record she set on March 29 at the Connell Instant Invite.

Salinas-Sanders won the 100-meter with a time of 12.82 seconds, having set a new PR of 12.73 in the prelims. Eberhardt was right behind her in second, going 13.07 in prelims and setting a new PR of 12.98 in the finals.

The Cardinal boys were led by first-place finishes from Colton Ellis and Ezekiel Lewis. Ellis had a toss of 139-08 for first in the discus while Lewis went six feet to take first in the high jump — with both marks being PRs for the duo. Pedro Sandre set a new PR of 3.07 for second in the 200, Nicholas Henry was second in the 1,600 in 4:34.83 and Quintin Collins set a new PR of 10:07.43 for second in the 3,200.

“Colton (Ellis) had the most amazing PR,” Blankenship said. “He improved his discus throw by 15 feet.”

In addition, Blankenship said Collins, Lewis and Ellis’ marks moved them all into the school’s top-10 list in those events.

“We qualified eight athletes in 10 events to state,” Blankenship said of district competition. “Also, we had 44 finish in the top 8 of their events.”

Farmen’s PR in the triple jump puts her second in the state 1A classification in the event. Farmen is also second in the state in the long jump while Salinas-Sanders PR in the 100 puts her at 10th., according to the website Athletics.net.

Lewis is in a seven-way tie for seventh in the high jump while Henry is 10th in state in the 1,600.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].