JOYCE — The month of May is all about survival in high school track and field.
The first round of cuts came Tuesday afternoon at the Class 1B North Olympic League subdistrict meet at Crescent High School.
Crescent’s boys and girls once again led the way, claiming both meets behind some impressive individual efforts one week after winning their respective North Olympic League crowns.
Not that team scores matter all that much right now, according to Loggers coach Darrell Yount.
“This was all about advancing athletes to Tri-Districts,” he said. “We weren’t really competing kids in events just for the sake of scoring points.
“If I didn’t think we had a chance to compete at that, they weren’t in it.”
The top three in each event qualified for the 1B Tri-District meet at King’s High School on May 21.
From there, only the top two will move on to the state meet in Cheney.
The Crescent boys and girls — both of whom scored the most points in their meets — had the most first-place finishes.
The boys claimed nine of 16 events, while the girls came away with 10 of 16.
(Results are on Page B3.)
“Athletes from all three teams really stepped up and competed,” said Yount, also referring to Clallam Bay and Neah Bay.
“[There were] PRs all over the track from all three schools. It looks like as a whole league we’ll go off to Tri-Districts and represent the league well.”
Crescent’s boys swept the throwing events and had four double winners.
Among them were Mike Zapien (discus and shot put), Dylan Christie (200 meters and triple jump), Matthew Waldrip (110 hurdles and 300 hurdles) and Joel Williams (800 and javelin).
No Neah Bay or Clallam Bay male athletes won more than one event.
DeShawn Halltt did finish first in the 100 and second in the 400 to lead the Red Devils, while teammate Joshua Monette was first in the 1,600 and second in the 800.
Clallam Bay’s Jesse Wonderly (400) and Ryan Willis (high jump) each won one event for the Bruins.
As for the girls, the Logger contingent was led by double winners Kellie Bellford (200 and 300 hurdles) and Rashaya Donnell (shot put and javelin).
Courtney Winck stole the show for the Red Devils, winning a trio of events (100 hurdles, long jump and triple jump).
Kirsten Erickson was the top female Bruin performer with a first-place mark in the discus and second-place mark in the shot.
“There were just outstanding marks across the board,” Yount said.
“I thought that was the highlight of the meet, watching [the other teams’] success as well as our own.”
