TACOMA — The Port Angeles girls and the Sequim boys both ended up ninth in the state at the 2A Track and Field Championships at Mount Tahoma High School this weekend.
The Rider girls, behind the exploits of the Long sisters, Gracie and Millie, finished with 24 team points, while the Sequim boys, with six top-8 finishes, finished with 22 team points.
Fife won the 2A girls championship with 45 points, while Cheney won the 2A boys championship with 55 points.
Both the Sequim boys and Port Angeles girls were the top performing teams out of the Olympic League 2A Division.
Disbelief
Port Angeles’ Gracie Long won the 1,600 meters with a school record time of 4 minutes, 58.72 seconds, her first time cracking 5 minutes and her personal-best time.
She set another personal record of 11:00.89 in the 3,200, also a Port Angeles school record, to finish second in that event.
Long said she was going through a wide range of emotions during the meet, the final track meet of her high school career. She will be running track and cross country for Corban University in Salem, Ore., next year.
“I was happy, but really sad it was my last time running track in high school,” she said.
Long said she came in to the 1,600 seeded about five seconds behind Kristen Garcia, the No. 1 seed out of Sedro-Woolley. She just tried to pace her and anotehr high seed Heather Hanson of Anacortes.
“I just wanted to stay with them for the last lap,” she said. Garcia had actually beaten Long before, in middle school, on the same exact track at Mount Tahoma, using a final kick to outdistance her. This time, Long made her move in the final 400 meters. “She used the same tactics on me I tried to use on her this time,” Long said.
Long said after the race was over, she was flooded with emotions when she looked up at the clock and saw she had finally cracked 5 minutes and had beaten Garcia by 0.37 of a second.
“It was wonderful. I felt disbelief, happiness and pain … lots of pain,” she said.
Two days later in the 3,200, Long had another duel with Garcia.
“I’m not as confident in the 3,200. I just wanted a PR [personal record] and a place,” Long said.
She was in sixth place on the final lap according to Port Angeles head track coach Robert Sheedy.
”Kristin won the 3200 but Gracie stole the show. [Long] was in 6th place with 300m to go and seemingly out of a top three finish 40m behind third place. She stated a tremendous kick at about 250 meters and reeled in the fifth and sixth runners on the final curve. She was flying and caught the number two and three runners at the tape to finish second with a 20 second PR and a new school record. 11:00.89. Wow,” Sheedy said.
“I didn’t think I could catch them,” Long said. “And then I ended up second.”
After all that drama, Long ended up less than 2 seconds behind her Sedro-Woolley rival. The two champions traded places in this race.
Meanwhile, her freshman sister Millie Long set a personal record in the 300 hurdles, finishing third in a time of 45.57.
“That was one of the coolest things,” Gracie said, having her sister do well at the meet, too.
“I’ve really loved playing sports with my sister,” Long said. She thinks Millie has fallen in love with the hurdles and she thinks she can accomplish a lot in track over the next three years.
Other top finishes
Sequim’s best finishes were by Riley Martin, who came in third in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 15.30 and fourth in the javelin by Riley Cowan, with a personal-record throw of 182 feet, 6 inches.
Top finishes late Saturday include:
2A
Elizabeth Sweet, Sequim, sixth in the pole vault with a height of 11 feet, 0 inches (personal record).
Alec Shingleton, Sequim, sixth, 50.71 second (personal record).
Sequim 4×400 relay (Logan Laxson, Murray Bingham, Darren Salazar, Shingleton), seventh, 3:26.99.
1A
Cole Baysinger, Forks, third with a height of 6 feet, 2 inches. Earlier in the day, Baysinger also finished fifth in the 100-meter dash.
1B
Neah Bay 4×400 relay (Mateo Garcia, Robert Richardson, Isaac Jay Brunk, Keith Johnson), seventh, 3:45.39.
Miriam Wonderly, Clallam Bay, 200-meter dash, eighth, 29.12.
Complete Results:
State 2A Track and Field Championships
Mount Tahoma High School, Tacoma
Boys
400 Meters — Alec Shingleton, Sequim, sixth, 50.71.
4×400 Relay — Sequim (Logan Laxson, Murray Bingham, Darren Salazar, Shingleton), seventh, 3:26.99
Pole Vault — Liam Byrne, Sequim, 12th, 12-6
Javelin — Riley Cowan, Sequim, fourth, 182-6½; Payton Glasser, Sequim, 15th, 149-11.
1,600-Meter Run — Murray Bingham, Sequim, 15th, 4:36.15.
High Jump — Liam Clark, PA, 15th, 5-8; Grady Bourm, PA, 16th, 5-6.
110-Meter Hurdles — Riley Martin, Sequim, third, 15.30.
800-Meter Run — Bingham, Sequim, seventh, 1:57.52.
300-Meter Hurdles — Fischer Jensen, Sequim, fifth, 41.03.
Triple Jump — Clark, PA, 39-8½.
Girls
High Jump — Gracie Long, PA, 11th, 4-10.00; Delaney Wenzl, PA, 11th, 4-10.
1,600-Meter Run — Gracie Long, PA, first, 4:58.72; Maddie Dougherty, PA, 11th, 5:11.64.
3,200-Meter Run — Gracie Long, PA, second, 11:00.89; Dougherty, PA, 10th, 11:27.91.
300-Meter Hurdles — Millie Long, PA, third, 45.57.
State 1A Track and Field Championships
Eastern Washington University, Cheney
Boys
3,200 Meters — Nathan Cantrell, Port Townsend, 17th, 10:18.65
High Jump — Cole Baysinger, Forks, third, 6-2.
Discus — Luke Dahlgren, Forks, 10th, 126-1; Dylan Tracer, Port Townsend, 13th, 110-4.
100-Meter Run — Baysinger, Forks, fifth, 11.90.
Girls
3,200 Meters — Enid Ensastegui, Forks, 19th, 13:36.08.
Triple Jump — Aubry Botkin, PT, 12th, 32-3½.
100-Meter Hurdles — Botkin, PT, sixth, 16.04.
Javelin — Jadeah Nordberg-Williams, Chimacum, ninth, 109-3.
State 1B Track and Field Championships
Boys
4×400 Relay — Neah Bay (Mateo Garcia, Robert Richardson, Isaac Jay Brunk, Keith Johnson), seventh, 3:45.39.
Triple Jump — Isaac Jay Brunk, Neah Bay, 11th, 36-10.
110-Meter Hurdles — Mateo Garcia, NB, seventh, 18.01.
100-Meter Dash — Ryan Strid, Clallam Bay, seventh, 12.31.
Girls
200 Meters — Miriam Wonderly, CB, eighth, 29.12.
Discus — Raine Westfall, Crescent, 13th, 87-5; Kayla Winck, NB, 16th, 76-2.
Javelin — Jaclyn Parker, NB, 13th, 89-6; Kaitlynn Tyree, CB, 14th, 87-4; Hannah Olson, CB, 15th, 81-5.
Triple Jump — Shilaily Woodruff, NB, 15th, 28-5; Ruth Greene, NB, 18th, 24-6¾.
High Jump — Kaylin Signor, CB, sixth, 4-6.
Shot Put — Kayla Winck, NB, seventh, 33-2¾ Raine Westfall, Crescent, 10th, 31-2¾.
4×200 Relay — Clallam Bay (Kendra Anderson, Signor, Hannah Olson, Miriam Wonderly), eighth, 1:58.69.
3,200-Meter Run — Sidney Smith, CB, 13th, 14:09.36.
Sequim’s Liam Byrne competes in the pole vault at the 2A State Track and Field Championships on Thursday. Byrne finished 12th in the state with a height of 12 feet, 6 inches. (Michael Dashiell/Olympic Peninsula News Group)
Sequim’s Alec Shingleton, far right, finishes sixth in the state in the 400-meter run.
