Medical Lake High School’s Jaxyn Farmen’s final Memorial Day weekend as a Cardinal proved to be a good one.
The senior hopped, skipped and jumped further than she had ever previously done to capture the 1A state triple jump title last Saturday at the 1B/2B/1A meet at Eastern Washington University in Cheney. Farmen not only set a new personal record of 37 feet, 4 inches, but also set the event’s highest mark for the season in girls’ competition — going an inch and a quarter further than Connell’s Alma Manzo did at the Pasco Invitational on April 13.
Farmen also ascended to the medal stand on Friday, finishing third in the long jump with a leap of 17-0.275. Manzo was first at 18-01.
“Jaxyn finished third in the long jump and first in the triple with a 37-4 jump, improving her own school record,” head coach Gene Blankenship said in an email.
Medical Lake’s other two girls entries, freshman Sophie Salinas-Sanders and sophomore Mayah Eberhardt, competed in the 100-meter dash but failed to advance to the finals. Salinas-Sanders was 10th overall with a time of 12.77 seconds, missing the finals by 4/100ths of a second while Eberhardt finished 17th in 13.09.
Led by Colton Ellis, the Medical Lake boys showed the promise of good things to come. A sophomore, Ellis had a PR toss of 144-07 to place fourth in the discus, breaking his previous best of 139-08 by almost four feet.
“Colton was the first thrower in nine years from Medical Lake to medal at state,” Blankenship said, adding his toss moves him into the fifth spot all time for the school.
Cedar Park Christian’s Samuel Van Peursem won the event. The senior from Bothell had a toss of 181-04.
Sophomore Quintin Collins and junior Ezekiel Lewis both placed 13th in their respective events for the Cardinals, Collins in the 3,200-meter run with a time of 10:16.16 and Lewis in the high jump in 5-08. Senior Nicholas Henry wrapped up his ML career with a 17th-place finish in the 1,600 meters in 4:55.10.
Blankenship added that junior Pedro Sandre, who qualified for state in the 100 and 200, was unable to compete due to an injury.
Farmen’s 16 points for first and third led the Cardinal girls to a 19th-place team finish out of 43 schools in the 1A meet. Medical Lake’s boys were 34th out of 41 teams.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
Reader Comments(0)