Verstrate wins two at state, Van Wormer brings home pole vault title

Cheney High School 2019 senior Camden Verstrate entered the 2A state meet at Mt. Tahoma High School last May with the state’s second-best times in the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes.

He left the school in Lakewood south of Tacoma still with the second-best times – but times good enough to beat former No. 1 Deven Brown of Lindbergh High and earn the former Blackhawk a pair of state titles. Helping Verstrate with Cheney’s eighth-place team finish with podium appearances were University of Montana-bound senior Jacob McGourin, fourth in the discus and sophomore Ryan Riekmann, eighth in the javelin.

On the girls side, junior Sophia Van Wormer went 11 feet, 6 inches to win the state title in the pole vault, leading the Blackhawks to a 14th-place team finish. Freshman Abigail Scott and junior Maddie Warren demonstrated Cheney’s field events cupboard is looking pretty full for the 2020 season, finishing fifth and sixth respectively in the javelin.

Cheney’s boys and girls teams earned seven District 7 titles in 2019, with Verstrate (100, 200), McGourin (discus) and Van Wormer (pole vault) also winning regional titles.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].

Author Bio

John McCallum, Retired editor

John McCallum is an award-winning journalist who retired from Cheney Free Press after more than 20 years. He received 10 Washington Newspaper Publisher Association awards for journalism and photography, including first place awards for Best Investigative, Best News and back-to-back awards in Best Breaking News categories.

 

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