Cardinal track chips off rust at Ike

MEDICAL LAKE — Leave it to Medical Lake’s track team to get the jump on other spring sports which have been shackled by a seemingly unrelenting winter.

The Cardinals had to travel to Yakima to run and jump, competing at the Eisenhower High School Jamboree, March 11, but doing so with some notable successes.

“Despite the fact that we have not been able to practice much outside, we had several excellent performances,” head coach Gene Blankenship wrote in a Facebook post.

The non-scoring event produced a pair of victories in distance events which is likely not a surprise. “My runners train all year,” Blankenship said, referencing wins by Reid Headrick and Kayla Ramsey in the 2,000-meter run.

Headrick turned in a 5 minute, 54.78 second time to easily finish ahead of Pasco’s Jose Banuelos at 6:05.77.

Ramsey clocked a 7:00.81 to defeat another Pasco runner, Valerie Siebol-DeRu with a 7:17.51. Ramsey was also second in the 600 meters.

Medical Lake’s Jenna Castro was third in a time of 7:29.76.

All times were personal records considering this is the first time that distance was offered a meet.

The boys’ sprint medly team of Milan Contreras, Hector Gomez, Garrett Montney and Headrick finished third place. The 4x400 team of Gomez, Montney, Contreras and Josh Henry finished fourth.

Freshman Kaylee Dennler was fourth in the 1,000 meters at 3:36.50.

Perhaps, a bigger surprise came in field events where Cardinal competitors had, for the most part, not yet have been able to work outside, yet came home with notable results.

Castro, who had already competed at a Podium event in Spokane, moved into the number two position in Medical Lake’s all-time performances in pole vault with 8-foot, 6-inch effort at Zaepfel Stadium.

Chiche Okemgbo landed into the number six position all-time at Medical Lake in shot put, throwing 33 feet, 4 inches, good for second in the meet. She was fifth in the shot put with an 85-foot, 6-inch toss and a school record.

The next event for the Cardinals is not until March 25 for the Ray Cockrum Relays at Wenatchee High School.