CHEHALIS — Alex Kaino’s stunning 39.41-second 300-meter hurdles, the fastest time in Ilwaco High School history and the 12th fastest in the state of Washington this year, highlighted Ilwaco’s performance at the Friday, May 17 district track meet.

Kaino qualified for state in three individual events, Ebby McMullen and Erika Glenn each made it in three more, and Ilwaco sent eight athletes on to the state championships, held in Cheney on May 23-25.

Last season, Kaino broke his own school record in winning the state 300-meter hurdle 2B title, coming in at 40.03 seconds to edge Will Lane of Northwest Christian (Colbert) by a half second. Before Friday, Kaino had this year’s only sub-41 second times among Washington’s 2B competitors. Kalama’s Richard Beverage achieved the feat in Chehalis with a 40.43, as did Lane at his District competition the same day, where he had a 40.41. But Kaino showed he remains the man to beat by breaking the 40-second mark. That put him 12th in all classifications in Washington, within a fiftieth of a second of the top 10. South Kitsap’s Deyondre Davis has the state’s fastest time this season at 37.77 seconds.

Kaino also continued the best month of his career in the 100-meter sprint. Kaino began consistently getting sub-12-second times at the end of last year and the beginning of this year, but in recent weeks has reached the 11.4-11.5 range for the first time. At Chehalis he took fourth with an 11.53, trailing the second and third place finishers by a 100th of a second, while Morton-White Pass’s Tristen Storey took first at 11.33 seconds. Kaino kept up that same pace in the 200, taking third at 23.31, with Storey again winning in 22.86 seconds.

Glenn sliced a second and a half from her personal record in the 400-meter run, taking second at 1:02.29, the seventh-best time in 2B this year. She was fourth in the 200 at 27.49 seconds.

McMullen took second in the 100-meter hurdles at 16.44 seconds, trailing a 16.08 by Willapa Valley’s Hannah Cook, and added a fourth-place long jump of 15’2.25”.

The girls triple-jump field in Chehalis included many of the best in 2B. McMullen at one point held the 2B season-high at 35’5” before Raymond’s Kyra Gardner moved ahead of her at 35’9” earlier this month, while Glenn joined them in the top five. These competitors probably didn’t know it, but the same day, La Conner’s Matty Lagerway raised the bar for everyone with a 36’3” at her district meet in Coupeville.

But in Chehalis, Napavine’s Chloe Stewart stole the show with a personal-best 34’4.25, edging Gardner by 3.25 inches. Glenn took third at an even 34 feet. McMullen’s 33’4.75” was fifth, trailing Cook slightly and qualifying for State. Ilwaco’s Abby Knopski, who still has the ninth-best personal-record triple jump in 2B this season, missed out on State by a foot against the very tough field, posting a 31’3.25” mark.

Daniel Quintana qualified with a second-place 1600-meter run of 4:36.48 and an eighth-place 800-meter run of 2:04.3. Tristan Trudell missed out by eight seconds in the 1600-meter race (4:49.68, eighth-place) while in the 3200 Daniel Whiting (10:21.52) lost out on the sixth and final berth by 3.29 seconds to Toledo’s Nicholas Marty.

Brandon Kuhn broke the previous week’s personal record with a 53.01-second 400-meter run, taking sixth place to qualify by two-thirds of a second. He took fourth with a 40’2” triple jump, while Parker Kaech was second at 40’8.5”.

Sophia Marsh had a fourth-place 103-foot javelin throw. Estella Sheldon had a 4’8” high jump and qualified for state on tiebreakers.

Kuhn, Kaech, Colton McNabb and Kaino were second in the 4×400 relay at 3:33.63, 54/100s behind Adna.

Tazlina Thomas, Elle Personius, Abby Knopski and Tiana Ramsey were fourth in the girls’ 4×100, in the middle of a group of four teams that finished within a quarter second in the nine-team race. In the 4×2, Knopski, Personius, Alyssa Marsh and Ramsey just made it on to State with a 1:55.28. Ramsey, Marsh, Sheldon and McMullen were sixth in the 4×4 at 4:26.42.

Ilwaco’s boys and girls teams were both fourth in team scoring out of 19 teams at the event.