YAKIMA — Gus Burkhalter says he loves the precision of track.
The Naselle freshman triple jumped his way to a medal at the WIAA 1B state championships Friday.
In baking-hot central Washington, he leaped 39:8.25 to place fifth. The event was won by Harrison Arnold of Valley Christian, who had a jump of 40:11.25.
He expressed mixed feelings, having set a personal record (PR) beyond 40 feet during the season.
“It was not a bad meet, but it wasn’t a PR jump — not where I was sitting on paper, but I was happy with it. I skipped up six places from last year, so next year maybe a win!”
Two other Comets won medals. Junior Jason Gardner placed fifth in the pole vault and sophomore Bo Dunagan placed sixth. Both cleared 10 feet. The winner, Max Follmar from Evergreen Luthran, cleared 12.3.
Both said they enjoyed pushing each other to improve through the season. “It was really fun for my first year, I did better than I thought,” said Dunagan. “I started out the season jumping 7.6!”
Gardner was philosophical. “I am glad I made it, but I wish I could have gone further,” he said.
Naselle girls put themselves in contention for more applause. Freshman June Miller won her heat in the 400 meters in the fastest time of the day of 1:00.55. She was trailing going into the first straight, but made up significant ground on the final turn.
In the 200m, she qualified with the fourth fastest time of 26.69, which broke the Naselle school record (of 26.7)
Freshman Halle Miller qualified in the 100m hurdles, finishing with the sixth best time of 17.05. Sophomore Sophia Colombo’s time of 18.35 in the other heat wasn’t fast enough to advance.
The 4x100m relay team of the Millers, Colombo and junior Mylee Dunagan won their heat in 52.77 to qualify for the finals; Odessa won the other heat in 52.63.
Also in action was a Comet 4x400m squad of Dunagan, Halle Miller, freshman Karsen Green and eighth-grader Kenzie Larson.
Action concludes Saturday.
• Look for full coverage of the meet in Wednesday’s edition of the Chinook Observer.