Cardinals qualify four to state 1A

There’s a longer than usual road trip coming for some members of the Medical Lake track and field team following their performances at District 7 championships last week at Riverside High School in Chattaroy.

For the past 25 years when the Cardinals who earned berths to the 1A state championships, that journey was all of about 20 minutes and 10 miles to Cheney and Eastern Washington University.

For this year’s group it’s a nearly three-hour and 200-mile trip to Yakima and Eisenhower High School. The ever-deteriorating state of the EWU track, which would be eliminated in possible future Roos Field renovations, meant the Spokane/Cheney area offered no viable alternate site and lost the event.

In preparation for the longer stay at state, and not sleeping in their own beds, the track team traveled to a variety of events this year, said Cardinals’ track and field head coach Gene Blankenship.

That included a trip to Eisenhower back in March for the Ike High School Jamboree so the territory is not entirely foreign.

“Medical Lake had excellent performances in our League’s qualifier for state,” Blankenship wrote in a Facebook post.

Medical Lake’s first place finishers were:

Reid Headrick in the 1,600 meters (4 minutes, 21.83 seconds) the 3,200 meters (9:49.30). His 1,600 win was by 11 seconds and the 32 by 21 seconds.

Liam Earl placed first in the Javelin (165 feet, 6 inches) with a PR.

Kayla Ramsey also had two first place wins in the 1,600 (5:17) 3,200 meters (11:36.93).

Chiche Okemgbo had two first place finishes in the shot put (39 feet, 1.50 inches), a six-foot edge and discus (122-10) by five feet. Okemgbo also finished second in two events, the javelin (116-09) and triple jump (33-06.75).

“She was the only one from Medical Lake to get four entries to state, and all of them were PRs,” Blankenship said of Okemgbo.

Those who just missed going to Yakima by finishing third, included both the boys 4X400 relay team of Elijah Scott, Cris Garza, Milan Contreras and Headrick. The

The girls 4X400 team includes Hazel Grubaugh, Jenna Castro, Kaylee Dennler and Ramsey. Also, Nakai Ornelas and Castro both finished third in the 3,200 and failed to qualify.

While reaching state was the ultimate goal, a number of Cardinal athletes, 25 in all — 16 boys and nine girls — established personal records.

Awards were given to the top eight in each event, medals for the top-three and ribbons for the others and Medical Lake had a number of those.

Paul Delaney is a retired Free Press Publishing reporter and can be reached at [email protected].