RENTON — The Sequim boys and girls track and field teams collected eight District 2/3 individual and relay championships, while the Port Angeles boys got two district championships from distance runner Jack Gladfelter.
Sequim’s Andrew Brown won three individual district titles this weekend while Jolene Vaara for the Wolves girls’ team collected two individual titles and was part of the championship 4×400 relay team. Several times and heights set by Sequim and Port Angeles track athletes are among the top 10 statewide as personal records were set left and right. The state track and field championships begin Thursday.
The Sequim girls were tied for first place as a team as late as Saturday mid-afternoon. The Wolves finished a solid third with 61 points. Orting won the district championship with 75, while Olympic was second at 65.33 points. The Port Angeles girls were 14th with 20 points.
The Port Angeles boys finished fourth at district with 50 points, while Sequim was ninth with 33.
Brown won the 110-meter hurdles in a personal-record time of 15.63 seconds, took first in the 300 hurdles in 41.80 seconds and won the high jump with a personal-record height of 6 feet, 1 inch.
Vaara won the high jump with a season-record leap of 5-2 and won the long jump with a personal-record distance of 17-2½. Vaara’s high jump is second-best in the state, short of the top jump by just one inch, and her long jump is No. 3 in the state.
The Sequim 4×400 team, the defending state champion relay team — though three of the four runners from last year graduated — won the district title again in a time of 4:10.61. The team consists of Kaitlyn Bloomenrader, part of the state championship relay team, Vaara, Katie Morris and Ivy Barrett.
Barrett also won the 400-meter run championship with a personal-record time of 59.50. That is the second-fastest 400 time in the state.
Also winning a district championship was Mirek Skov in the pole vault with a height of 14-7, a personal record and the No. 1 pole vault in the state. That vault was seven inches higher than Skov’s previous best.
Also qualifying for state was Sequim’s Brody Andersen, who was fourth in the pole fault at 10-6, and Sean Southard, who was sixth in the 400 meters (52.57).
Other Sequim girls qualifying for state include:
800 meters — Bloomenrader, second, 2:24.45.
4×200 relay — Morris, Bloomenrader, Barrett, Vaara, second, 1:47.92.
400 meters — Bloomenrader, fourth, 1:01.13 (personal record).
Pole vault — Ahrya Klinger, fifth, 8-0.
Port Angeles
Gladfelter put up a season-record time in the 3,200 at 9:22.32, among the top 10 state times. He ran the 1,600 in 4:25.83 to take first.
Parker Nickerson also had a good district showing for the Roughriders. He finished second in the 300 hurdles in a time of 41.88, a personal record and only 0.08 of a second behind the winner Brown. He also finished fourth in the triple jump with a personal-record distance of 41-11 and fifth in the long jump with a leap of 20-4. Nickerson will go to state in all three events, plus the 4×400 relay.
The Port Angeles boys 4×400 relay team (Easton Dempsey, Tymur Lytvak, Jason Hawes, Nickerson) came in sixth with a time of 3:36.77.
Lytvak also qualified for state by finishing fifth in the 800 (1:59.71, personal record), while Dallas Dunning qualified for state in the high jump with a leap of 5-10, good for sixth.
The girls’ best showing was by Faerin Tait, who qualified for state by finishing fourth in the 300 hurdles (49.83). Leia Larson, just a freshman, qualified for state in the 3,200 with a personal-record time of 12:30.44, good for fifth.
Samara Holshouser was sixth in the 400 (1:03.84, personal record), good enough for state.
The Riders’ 4×400 relay team (Holshouser, Ernst, Larson, Tait) finished sixth in 4:27.46 to move on to state.
Sequim track and field athletes, from left, Andrew Brown, Mirek Skov and Jolene Vaara are all district champions.
