NASELLE – The 8th Annual Comets Booster Classic track meet, held on Rueben Penttila Field at Naselle High School, Tuesday April 25, featured teams from 10 schools. The athletes came primarily from the Pacific League schools, but also from Oregon and other Southwest Washington schools. The met was held under clear sunny skies but with a chilly strong west wind blowing for the entire meet.

The Comets girls finished second in the meet with 98.5 points, behind Willapa Valley’s 128 points. The Naselle boys finished tied for sixth with 47 points.

For the Naselle girls, Mayu Takami with two firsts, in the triple jump (31’1/4″) and the long jump (14’6 1/4″) and Kelsey Fletcher, who won the 800 (2:48) and ran a sterling anchor leg for the second place Comets 4×400 relay team (4:48.6) led the way.

In the 4×400-relay, the team consisted of Haley Landis, Elsa Burchart, Narci Carlson and Kelsey Fletcher. Running the anchor leg, Fletcher took the baton trailing by more than 30 yards and closed the gap to about two yards as the Comets finished in second place in that race.

Another Naselle girls’ standout was Erin Saari, just back from an injury, with a school record in the pole vault (9’0″) for second place in that event. Saari also finished second in the high jump (4’6″).

Sylvia Herrold was still not able to participate due to an injury and there is some question of whether she will be able to participate for the rest of the season.

Ricky Johnson led the Naselle boys with a first in the high jump (6’0″) and Conor Smith finished third in the 800 (2:17). The Comets boys 47 team points earned them a sixth place tie with North Beach. Cathlamet won the boys meet with 111 points, ahead of South Bend with 104 points.

This big meet was a perfect training meet, mainly for the Naselle-area track meet staff who will run the huge District 4 B Track Meet on the same field on Thursday, May 18. That meet should have athletes from close to 20 B schools competing for the right to advance to the State Class B Track Meet at Eastern Washington University in Cheney the following week.

The Comet Booster Classic, now in its eighth year, was preceded for many years by the Naselle Lions Club Invitational. The records for this meet now only go back to 1999, however, the year of the first Comet Booster Classic, and there were several new records set in this meet.

The oldest girls’ Classic records, set in 1999 by Naselle’s Rachel Haataja in the discus (120’9″) and by Timpson of North Beach in the high jump (5’1″) and the oldest boys records, set in 2000 by Brian King of South Bend in the 1,600 (4:43.4), K. Clements of Valley in the shot (47’7 1/2″) and by Randy Riley of Cathlamet in the discus (162’9″) all held up.

This 2006 meet did not produce quite as many new records as the 2005 meet when 13 new meet records were set, four by the girls and nine by the boys. There were nine new meet records established in this meet, four in the boys’ meet and five by the girls. Willapa Valley’s Chelsi Friese won the Outstanding Girl Athlete of the Meet Award by taking four first place ribbons, setting meet records in all four of her events. Friese set a pole vault record of 10’0″, a 300 hurdles record of 48.66, a 100 hurdles record of 15’9″, and she ran a leg of the first place record setting 4×100-relay team (53.38). In addition, Cathlamet’s Janice Bigham set a new record of 12.8 in the 100.

Wishkah’s John Clevenger broke the boys’ javelin record with a state-leading toss of 187’3″, almost 14 feet better than the existing meet record. A new 3,200 mark of 10:28.47 was set by Cathlamet’s Walker Riley. Riley also won the 1,600 as well as running a leg of the winning 4×400 relay to earn the Outstanding Boy Athlete of the Meet Award.