BREMERTON — Port Angeles Teanna Clark and Sequim’s Clare Turella will both be going to the state 2A track and field championships this week as District 3 champions in their events and both are serious contenders to medal at state.
Clark won the javelin with a throw of 124 feet, 4 inches, while Turella won the high jump with a leap of 5 feet, 3 inches, a season record for her.
Clark has the top javelin throw in the state this year at 134-2. Turella’s high jump was the fifth-best in the state and three inches off the top height. Clark was district champion in the javelin and finished third at state last year, while Turella was district champion and state champion in the high jump last year. Her state championship jump last year was 5-2, an inch lower than what she did at district this year.
A total of eight individuals from Sequim and Port Angeles qualified for the state 2A meet that begins Thursday at Mount Tahoma High School in Tacoma. Also qualifying were two girls’ relay teams from Sequim and Port Angeles.
The Port Angeles girls finished seventh at district with 37 points, while Sequim was eighth with 30. Winning the girls district title was Bainbridge with 107 points. For the boys, Port Angeles finished 11th with 20 points, while Sequim was 13th with 13. Steilcoom won the district title with 77 points.
Other top finishes at district include Dawn Hulstedt of Sequim in the 800 meters. She finished second with a time of 2 minutes, 18.81 seconds. Hulstedt also qualified for state in the 1,600, where she finished fourth in a time of 5:20.02.
Port Angeles’ Leia Larson was second in the 3,200 meters in a time of 12:00.81, good for state.
Port Angeles’ Faerin Tait qualified for state in three events — the 400 (1:00.38, personal record), the 100-meter hurdles (16.83 seconds) and the 300 hurdles (48.45). She was fourth in all three events.
The Sequim 4×200 girls relay team (Bridget Pyeatt, Kylie Peters, Hulstedt and Ruby Moxley-Horgan) finished second with a time of 1:49.86. Port Angeles’ 4×400 relay team (Brooke Pierce, Storey Schmidt, Larson, Tait) finished fourth in a time of 4:12.64, qualifying for state.
The top boys’ finish was by Brody Pierce, who finished third in the triple jump with a distance of 43-10¾, and by Reid Randall of Sequim in the 400, who also came in third with a time of 50.27 seconds, a personal record.
Sequim’s Sean Southard also qualified for state by finishing fourth in the javelin with a throw of 154-6, a season record.
Both Clark and Turella compete early in the meet. Clark compete in the javelin Thursday and Turella in the high jump Friday.
Boys tennis Flodstrom, Basden at state
SEATTLE — Did Luke Flodstrom and Nathan Basden ever have a busy weekend.
The Port Angeles duo not only played in two games Saturday in the state 2A baseball tournament in Selah, they played in the state boys tennis tournament at the University of Washington in Seattle on Friday and Saturday morning.
Though boys tennis is played in the fall, the state tournament is held in the spring at the same time as the girls state tennis tournament. This can cause conflicts for some athletes who play spring sports, but Basden and Flodstrom, a solid doubles team, were able to do both.
Flodstrom and Basden were first-team all-Olympic League in tennis and the District 3 champions.
In their opening match, the Port Angeles duo beat Michael Hoagland and Hudson Baker from Burlington-Edison 7-5, 7-5.
In the state quarterfinals, the Riders’ duo fell 6-3, 6-4 to Nate Little and Noah Coakes from Columbia River. That duo finished third in the state.
“We gave ourselves a lot of chances and just didn’t take advantage of enough of them,” coach Brian Gundersen said.
Flodstrom and Basden took the court Saturday morning and faced Reed Newell and Mir Park from Pullman in an elimination match, with the Pullman duo coming out on top 2-6, 6-4 6-3. The Port Angeles duo then had to hop in a car and make the 2½-hour, 140-mile drive to join their baseball teammates in Selah. They ended up contributing a combined eight hits for the Riders baseball team.
“I can’t say enough about the young men that Nathan and Luke are. Their contribution to Port Angeles High School athletics, and the tennis program specifically, cannot be overstated. What they were able to accomplish in a single weekend tells you about the work ethic and talent they possess,” Gundersen said.
