YAKIMA — Medical Lake track and field may not have earned any individual titles but they returned from the state 1A meet in Yakima with something else.
An experience for team members who could possibly return in 2025 but did not qualify in 2024.
“I took them because I want them to have state experience so that we be ready for next year,” head coach Gene Blankenship said. The Cardinals took five athletes to Eisenhower High School where senior Chiche Okemgbo landed the lone podium appearance with her third place in the shot put. Her 38 foot, 8.5 inch throw trailed the 44-11 by Jessica Polkinghorn from Columbia High ing White salmon.
Okemgbo, who Blankenship indicated competed with a sore knee, was 10th in the triple jump (32-08) and 13th in the discus (102 even).
The rest of the Cardinal contingent were first-timers at state in a pair of freshmen.
Makalia McKenny failed to make it out of the preliminaries in the 100-meter hurdles, finishing 12th with a 16.97 second time.
Autumn Trout was 14th in the 200-meters with a 27.28, but also did not it out of the preliminaries.
The Medical Lake boys didn’t fare much better with junior Chuks Okemgbo finishing 11th in the high jump at 5-10 while senior Hayden Luzier had a personal record 2:02.04 in the 800 meters but that was not good enough to exit the prelims.
As Blankenship planned ahead one of his concerns — other than building team numbers — is the falling membership in the Northeast A League. The NEA will shrink from seven to four schools in 2024-25.
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