Boys have two athletes advance to meet

SOUTH BEND – The hometown South Bend Indians proved to be inhospitable hosts as they dominated the two-day, sub-district track meet which concluded Friday, May 14.

The Indians won the girls’ portion of the meet with 133 points while the Naselle Comets finished third with 61 points. In the boys’ half of the meet, the Indians won with 187 points as the Comets finished in eighth place with 12 points.

Girls team scores: South Bend 133, Willapa Valley 128, Naselle 61, Oakville 53, Northwest Christian 47, Wishkah Valley 42, Mary M. Knight 38, Taholah 21, North River 20.

The South Bend girls clinched the meet title by outscoring Willapa Valley 18-10 in the last two events, the two long relay races. The Indians won the 4×200 relay, while Valley finished fourth. Then in the final event of the day, the 4×400 relay, the Naselle Comets won, with South Bend finishing second and Valley fourth. That four point difference cinched the meet’s title for South Bend over Valley.

The Naselle girls had eight athletes qualify to advance to the district track meet, led by two first-place finishers. Freshman Erin Saari won the pole vault at 7-6, sharing a sub-district girls’ record in the new event; the 4×400 relay team of Saari, Katherine Herrold, Katie Klinger and Kelsey Fletcher won that event in a time of 4:50.7.

Other Naselle girls who advanced to district included: second – Jenny Klinger, 3200, 14:05.2; third – Jamie Bighill, pole vault, 6-6; Fletcher, 400, 70.5 (Personal Record); Kelli Revis, high jump, 4-8; fourth – Saari, 400, 72.4; and Jaimie Hines, high jump, 4-8.

Other Naselle girls who scored points, but did not advance to district in their event, included: fifth place – 4×100 relay, 61.0; sixth place – Bighill, 100, 15.0; Jenny Klinger, 1600, 7:08; Katie Klinger, 400, 75.0; Saari, high jump, 4-6; and the 4×200 relay (Revis, Bighill, Hines, J. Klinger), 2:15.

Boys team scores: South Bend 187, Willapa Valley 103, Northwest Christian 66, Wishkah Valley 46, Oakville 35, (Tie) North River 35, Mary M. Knight 19, Naselle 12, Taholah 7.

The Indians’ boys teams overwhelmed the other teams with their strong group of jumpers and hurdlers chalking up 106 points in five events, the long jump, triple jump, high jump, 100m hurdles and 300m hurdles. They swept the first three places in all three jumps. In the process, the Indians set the only new boys’ sub-district record, in the high jump, where Josh Lorton jumped 6-6 to establish the new record. He was followed closely by teammates Franky Pickernell at 6-5 and Justin Lorton at 6-4, also exceeding or tying the old record of 6-4. The Indians state-leading 4×100 relay team was disqualified by a false start, thus erasing a chance for even more South Bend points.

The only two Naselle boys competing in the meet both advanced to the district meet and included: second – Carl Fredrickson, pole vault, 9-0; and fourth – Tony Mendoza, shot put, 38-9 1/2.

The first four place finishers in each event now advance to the district track meet to be held at Napavine High School this Friday, May 21 beginning at noon with field events and at 1 p.m. with the first race, the girls 3200. The top three place finishers in each of the boys and girls events will qualify to move on to the State Track Meet to be held at Eastern Washington University in Cheney the following week.

Coach Debbie Denny said, “Some of our girls have a good chance to advance to the state meet. But in order to do so, they will have to turn in good efforts at district as the times and distances from our half of the district as well as the marks from the other half of the district puts them ‘on the bubble’ as far as advancing is concerned.”