Quick Start to Promising Weekend

Many of the state’s best have traditionally been at the 3A/4A Star Track Meet, Washington’s State Championships for the biggest classes in the state. This year is no except, as proven by the high number of DyeStat Elite marks – 28 – in the meets first day, comprised mostly of preliminary rounds of track events and half the field finals. With the biggest day yet to come, there have already been an event that, by itself, has produced 7 DyeStat Elite marks within 20 seconds, and another event that produced 5 marks through it’s four preliminary rounds. Along with the strong showing in DyeStat Elite caliber performances, there were also a number of new Region Leading marks: Andrea Nelson (Shadle Park) now leads the girls 3200 lists at 10:40.04 from the 4A race, and Christian Crane (West Seattle) now leads the boys Long Jump lists after his jump of 23-07.75 (0.1), Bianca Greene (Garfield) now leads the girls 200 lists at 24.29 from her 4A prelim race, and Lewis & Clark’s 4x200 relay squad lowered it’s Region-leading mark from 1:42.58 to 1:42.22 in their preliminary round.

Patience is … usually … key to Nicole Cochran’s success

First up was the 800 – Marysville-Pilchuck senior Haley Nemra takes the race out in 64, with Bellarmine Prep’s Nicole Cochran one among a handful of runners that stayed with the quick pace. Some runners will try to take the lead in one big move between 350-500m, but not Nicole, she kept waiting. Down the backstretch, she starts to move up slowly, getting herself in position. First she’s on Nemra’s shoulder, then she’s just ahead. She eases herself into the lead going into the last corner, and smoothly extends her lead as she starts to stride out, but Haley couldn’t keep up and Nicole came away with her first victory of the day, the first heat of the 800 preliminaries, in 2:13.09 over Nemra’s 2:13.83.

Then, some seven hours later, it was déjà vu for those in attendance at Pasco’s Edgar Brown Stadium: Nicole Cochran was showing just how poised she can be. The 3200 started out at a quick pace, Davis’ Sandra Martinez leading through the first lap in 77.2 seconds. Martinez kept pushing it, first 800 in 2:37, and went through the 1200 in just before the clock turned to 4:00. In the midst of all this, Ms. Martinez was only challenged by Gig Harbor’s Alyssa Andrews, who was sitting just off her shoulder in lane 2 all the way around each lap, a constant reminder that she was not alone in her efforts. Behind them was a group of 8 runners, and Cochran was hanging back in the middle of the pack, complacent to stay 3 seconds off the lead, knowing the pace was slowing and no one would yet be able to get away from her. Onward Martinez led, through 4 laps in 5:23 and through 2k in 6:46, and still no signs of challenge from Cochran – still, she was satisfied to stay in the midst of the sizeable chase-pack while Alyssa Andrews continued to hang on to Martinez’s shoulder, while the chase pack continued to compress tighter and tighter. Finally, with just over 600 left to go, Cochran starts to make her move along with the Redmond duo of Sarah Lord and Devin McMahon, with Cochran taking the lead for the first time on the home stretch of the 7^th lap. From there, Cochran torched the track and most of the rest of the field, closing her last 400 in 68 seconds, crossing the line in just past 10:36. Behind that was a very tight race, with Shadle Park’s Andrea Nelson just barely getting past Sarah Lord in 10:40, closing her last lap in 70 to Lord’s 72. The first 8 finishers all finished under 10:51, with hot hot battles down the line in an extremely competitive race. Cochran’s patience won it for her, striking like a viper at just the right time to ensure victory.

However, sometimes things don’t exactly work out as you hope – even if you do everything right to ensure you’re in the right position at the right time, some times it might just be best to take a chance and go for the lead, lest you find yourself also in the wrong position at the wrong time. Usually, that time is when the pack gets too tight, or too vicious, as it did during the 4A girls 3200 race. Despite Cochran’s perseverance to not get boxed in when it counted most, she was DQ’d for an incident during the middle laps when the pack was becoming quite condensed. With Martinez and Andrews shoulder to shoulder and reeling off 82-83’s lap after lap after the first 800, the rest of the pack that had once started to string out all came back together again, making it hard to find yourself in a position where you aren’t either jostling with other runners or the line. Apparently during this time, presumably the 5^th or 6^th laps in the race, Cochran caught the eye of one of the officials either crossing over the line due to the heavy traffic or perhaps doing a little pushing and shoving so she wouldn’t cross over the line. Either way, her win was unfortunately stripped, making her even more of a threat than the Region-leader normally would have been. Now, not only will the rest of 4A 800 and 1600 field have to deal with an extremely talented and experienced runner, but possibly one fueled by her disappointment, one on a mission to avenge her disqualification and bury her competition.

LeRoy and the usual suspects excel, march on to Finals

Showing that last week’s great mark wasn’t some fluke due to tail winds (there was no wind measurements last week when she went 14.65 at the WCD prelims), Gig Harbor’s Bree LeRoy cut off another hundredth with a whopping 0.1 m/s tail wind while winning her heat of the girls 100 hurdles to advance to Saturday’s finals. In 3A, Eastmont senior Morgan Clem turned in possibly the best hurdle performance of the day, winning her heat of the 300 hurdles in 43.70. 3A and 4A stars J Hopkins (Everett) and Stephone Jordan (Garfield) ensured their places in the finals with wins in their heats of both the 110 and 300 hurdles, Hopkins running 14.55/38.80 and Jordan running 14.43/38.46.

200 Meters a bright spot, including a new Northwest #1

In a similar story to Bree LeRoy, Union sophomore Kinsley Ojukwu’s breakthrough of last week at the WCD meet was shrouded in a doubt due to no wind instruments and a high number of huge performances. But, similar to LeRoy, Ojukwu showed that maybe the wind wasn’t so bad, as he took another 3 hundreths of a second off his 200 mark from last week, lowering his PR down to 21.89 while going up against a 0.1 m/s head wind, winning his heat to move on to Saturday’s final. In addition to Kinsley’s strong performance, three guys ran faster in 4A, and Garfield senior Bianca Greene set up a showdown between NW#1 and 2 sprinters in the 200, as she overtook fellow 4A competitor Kelly Jacka for the regional lead with a 24.29 performance. Lewis & Clark senior Eleanor Siler also had a great day, taking off almost half a second from her state-best 400 mark, running 56.04 to win her qualifying heat.

Relays ablaze, including state and region leading times

Lewis & Clark continued to impress, as they knocked off more than a quarter second from their previous season best and won their heat of the 4A 4x200 with a 1:42.22. Bellarmine Prep also turned in a great performance, going under 48 in the 4x100 once again to claim a 47.70 victory in their qualifying heat. On the boys side, top marks came from Todd Beamer’s state-best 42.30 clocking of the 4x100 relay, while in 3A there was a pair of teams priming for an unforgettable matchup in the finals as Everett and West Seattle both won their heats of the 4x100 in identical times of 42.49.

800 runners shine in different circumstances

The boys 800 saw many 400-type runners stepping up and having a good deal of success: Camas’ Spencer Head remained patient and poised within striking distance, sitting in fourth until 300 to go when he started picking off runners one by one. Eastlake’s Dan Sloat followed a similar tactic moments later, not moving into first until near the end of the backstretch of the second lap and holding off early leader Peter Gilbert of Pasco. And, before that race, Central Valley’s Brad Whitley did not make his move until the final 100 meters, when South Kitsap’s Jon Phillips started to fade after a very strong move at 250 and Joey Bywater (Lake Stevens) and Jonathan Cooper (Kamiak) were moving past Phillips. Whitley made up a ton of ground with a huge and devastating kick, blowing past those three in the final 70 meters like they were standing still, finishing over a half second ahead of his nearest competitor (Bywater) and more than a full second ahead of third place Jonathan Cooper. The only winner of the boys 800 heats that has not often ran the 400 was Mount Rainier’s Michael Miller, who barely outkicked Seattle Prep’s Erik Berg and West Valley’s Kyle Mellander (who tragically collapsed just meters from the finish, losing his bid to the finals on Saturday).

The girls 800 was equally as exciting, starting with the first heat of 3A with a certain West Valley (Yakima) junior. Lisa Olander, who started the day with the third best time in the state this year, briefly became the state leader after running 63.x-69.x and finishing in 2:13.17 and smoking defending-champion Sophie Curl from Squalicum. A matter of minutes later, in the first heat of 4A with a certain Bellarmine Prep superstar, the state lead changed hands once again as Marysville-Pilchuck’s Haley Nemra led through the first lap in 64 before Nicole Cochran took over on the backstretch and strided out to victory in 2:13.04, bumping Olander to second fastest in the state. Less than ten minutes later and that would change once again, as the leaders went through the second heat of 4A in 64 before Gig Harbor’s Anna Kalbrener and Oak Harbor’s Mietra Smollack made strong moves on the back stretch. Their battle continued down the homestretch until Mietra Smollack pulled away to win in 2:13.15, just two hundredths ahead of Olander’s now-third best time in the state, back to where the West Valley junior had started the day.