CHENEY — The future is bright, but things are pretty shiny right now for Clallam Bay’s track and field team.
The Bruins qualified 12 athletes for the Class 1B state championships. Three of those athletes are seniors. The rest are sophomores, freshmen or eighth-graders.
That youth hasn’t tempered expectations this season. Especially since many Bruins gained state experience at the 2014 state championships.
Chasing glory
“That’s what we’re kind of looking for. We’re just trying to bring home some hardware,” Clallam Bay coach Aaron Burdette said.
“Last year, we didn’t have a real successful time at state.
“This year, we’re not going to go, we’re going to score points.”
And maybe earn the school’s first state champion since Jay Mendoza won the 100-meter dash in 2008.
The 1B state meet begins for Clallam Bay, Crescent and Neah Bay today and runs through Friday at Eastern Washington University.
This year, the number of participants in each event has grown from eight to 16.
The Clallam Bay girls’ 4×100-meter relay team owns the top seed heading into the state meet with a time of 54.72 seconds.
On that relay are senior Marissa May, freshman Kendra Anderson, eighth-grader Miriam Wonderly, freshman Atokena Abe, senior Inga Erickson and sophomore Jennica Maines.
“They’ve been building on that for quite a while,” Burdette said of the relay team.
“We have a lot of fast young girls, but they’ve worked really hard on that.
“The 4×100 has a good chance to win, a really good chance to win. It’s going to be a great race.”
It’s not just the Clallam Bay girls. Eighth-grader Clayton Willis qualified for state in the boys 100, long jump and high jump.
He appears to be peaking at the right time, too, having set personal records at the Tri-District meet last week in the 100 and the high jump.
“He’s done real well,” Burdette said. “He’s got a chance to medal.”
Sophomore Justin Messinger also qualified for the Clallam Bay boys. He enters seeded 10th in the discus but has had a nice week of practice.
“He’s been working on his disc today and he’s had some huge throws,” Burdette said Tuesday night.
“I won’t get into how huge, but he could disappoint some of his competition by coming on strong.”
The Clallam Bay girls qualified the 4×200 (May, Maines, Mariah LaChester, Abe, Wonderly and Anderson) and 4×400 (May, Anderson, Erickson, Molly McCoy, Wonderly and Kaylin Signor) relays.
They also have eight girls competing in 13 individual events.
McCoy, only a sophomore, is making her third state appearance in the high jump and second in the 300-meter hurdles.
Her height of 4 feet, 8 inches put her in a four-way tie for eighth place in the high jump, but that is deceiving because all that is above her is a seven-way tie for first at 4 feet, 10 inches.
Clallam Bay’s other individual qualifiers are Signor in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200; Abe in the long jump and 200; Maines in the triple jump and high jump; Anderson in the 200; Erickson in the 400; May in the 100; and senior Sami Metcalf in the shot put.
Neah Bay
The Red Devils enter state with two top seeds.
The 4×100 relay (Cameron Buzzell, Chris Martinez, Cole Svec and Elisha Winck) won a Tri-District championship by edging Evergreen Lutheran 45.01 seconds to 45.02 seconds, to earn the No. 1 seed at state.
“They’re peaking at the right moment, that’s for sure,” Red Devils coach Andrew Winck said.
“I think they left a little on the table last week with some of their handoffs.
“They could get in the 44s at state.”
Elisha Winck, a senior, is seeking his third consecutive top-four finish in the triple jump. He placed fourth in 2013 and second in 2014, and enters this year ranked first.
He’ll also compete for his second straight top-four in the long jump.
Faye Chartraw is seeded third in the shot put but had the best mark in 1B this season (36-03.5). She’ll also compete in the discus.
It will be her third state appearance in the shot put — she placed third last year — and first in the discus.
“She definitely has the potential to win both of those if she has her A-game,” Andrew Winck said.
The Neah Bay girls also qualified in the 4×100 (Vonte Aguirre, Hannah Olson, Cheyanna Svec, Amanda Gagnon and Tiffany Smith) and 4×200 (Aguirre, Gagnon, Cheyanna Svec, Olson, Smith and Kayla Winck) relays.
The boys had two additional individual qualifiers: Buzzell in the 100 and 200, and Cole Svec in the high jump.
Crescent
Paul Frantz will bring home valuable experience from his first state meet.
And with that experience may come some medals.
The Loggers freshman is seeded first in the 800 and fourth in the 1,600. He only started running the latter at the North Olympic League championships in early May.
Senior captain Martin Waldrip qualified for state in three individual events, the 1,600, 3,200 and triple jump.
Frantz and Waldrip also will team up with Jacob Baillargeon, Jordan Scott, Cody Wolfer and Zach Fletcher in the 4×400 relay.
Scott qualified individually for state in the 110-meter hurdles.
The Crescent boys also have three throwers at state.
Wolfer qualified in the javelin. His brother, Quenton, won state in the javelin last year.
Neil Peppard and Wyatt McNeese each made state in the shot put and discus.
Peppard is seeded eighth in the discus and ninth in the shot put, while McNeese is seeded 11th in discus and 12th in shot.
For the Crescent girls, junior Ryan Lester is again a multi-event state qualifier.
In 2014, she went to state in four individual events, this year, she’ll compete in three individual events and a relay.
Lester is coming off personal-record setting performances at Tri-Districts in the 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles.
She’ll also go for medals in the triple jump and 4×100 relay, in which she will team with Kristen Frantz, Hannah Lee and Kayla Olsen.
Olsen also made state in the 800.
In the field events, Ashara Dodson, only a sophomore, is competing at state in the uncommon combination of discus, javelin, high jump and triple jump.
Shannon Williams, a senior, qualified for state in the discus and shot put. She made a state appearance in the shot put in 2013, placing eighth.
Sophomore McKenzie Brannan made state in the javelin in her first year of track and field at Crescent.
________
Sports Editor Lee Horton can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
