PORT ANGELES — Crescent track and field had another banner day at the Quad-District track and field meet at Port Angeles High School.
The Logger boys added another championship to their 2013 resume, and the girls had another solid showing with a third-place finish in the 17-team event.
The top three placers in each event advanced to the 1B state championships Friday and Saturday at Eastern Washington University in Cheney.
The North Olympic Peninsula will be represented by 18 athletes at the 1B meet.
Crescent had 12 individuals, five boys and seven girls, qualify. Clallam Bay is sending four, and Neah Bay two.
“This meet is always filled with so much excitement,” Crescent coach Darrell Yount said.
“You can literally feel the anticipation and competitiveness building as the meet progresses, with so much on the line.”
The Clallam Bay boys placed eighth while the Bruins girls team finished 10th. Neah Bay’s boys took 15th, and its girls finished ninth.
Super-sprinter Justin Welever was a double winner for Clallam Bay. He ran the 100-meter dash in 11.75 seconds and the 200 in 23.96 seconds.
He is ranked fourth in 1B in the 100 and sixth in the 200.
By beating state powers Wishkah Valley and Mount Rainier Lutheran, the Crescent boys find themselves in the familiar position of entering the state championships as one of the title favorites.
Expect a great battle between Crescent, Wellpinit, Republic, Wishkah Valley and last year’s defending champion, Valley Christian of Spokane.
But the Loggers, who finished second at state in 2012 — losing out to Valley Christian by just two points — return to state with a much different kind of team.
Last year, Crescent relied on the dominant twosome of Joel Williams and Matt Waldrip, who finished first and second in the 300-meter hurdles, second and fourth in the 110 hurdles and were half of the runner-up 4×100-meter relay and third-place 4×400 relay.
This year, the Loggers will look to a trio of throwers for points.
Josh Sowder placed second at the Quad meet in both the shot put (42 feet, 8 inches) and the discus (124-06).
Gene Peppard was third in the shot put with a heave of 42-07, one inch short of Sowder.
Derrick Findley was second in the javelin with a throw that surpassed 152 feet.
Yount said all three have a legitimate chance to place in the top three at state.
Findley also had a second-place finish in the long jump with a 19-02. Clallam Bay’s Casey Randall was right behind him with a 19-01.
Donovan Christie won the high jump with a leap of 5 feet, 9 inches. He took second in the event at last year’s state championships.
The final Crescent boys qualifier is sophomore Martin Waldrip, who shattered his personal record in the 3,200-meter run with a time of 10 minutes, 34 seconds.
“Martin ran superb. He had the mindset to stay attached to Solomon Bill from Lopez, last year’s second-place finisher at state,” Yount said.
“[Waldrip] simply kept him in his sight, refused to let him break completely away. By utilizing the veteran as a pacer, Martin just eased himself away from the rest of the field.
“Just a very smart and comfortable race.”
Neah Bay’s Elisha Winck finished second in the triple jump with a distance of 40-08.
Jesse Wonderly of Clallam Bay qualified by placing third in the 400-meter run.
The day wasn’t without disappointment for the Crescent boys.
“Watching our boys 4×100 relay finish in a non-advancing fourth position, after running a great race, is kind of hard to take,” Yount said.
“We will get to state in a week and see teams with very inferior times to our relay [team’s time] competing, and that will just add to the sting of it.
“But that’s track.”
The Crescent girls team was led again by its sprinters.
Jandi Frantz, Nycole McNaughton, Ryan Lester and Kellie Belford teamed to storm the track to a very fast third place in the days’ first race, the 4×200 relay.
That helped fuel the fire of the always wicked-fast Logger hurdlers, Lester and Devanie Christie, as they ran a competitive race and took second and third to easily advance.
In the 4×100 relay, Belford, Frantz, Lester and Christie flew around the track in one of quartet’s fastest times of the season — back into the 54-second range — to easily advance.
Devanie Christie also qualified for state in the javelin by winning against an ultra-competitive field.
She found herself securely in third place, with a spot at state wrapped up, before her final throw.
“Devanie took one big breath to prepare for her final throw, flew down the javelin runway, set herself up with a big powerful plant and launched the throw of her life,” Yount said.
The javelin jumped off her hand and sailed out past the 111-foot line, the second-best mark in the state this year.
Meagan Shamp set a new personal record and notched a second-place showing for the Loggers with a hurl of 98 feet, 11 inches.
Neah Bay’s Faye Chartraw placed second in the shot put with a 31-06, followed by Crescent’s Shannon Williams in third place.
Clallam Bay eighth-grader Molly McCoy qualified for the state meet by finishing third in the high jump with a 4-06.
Yount lamented the fact that many 1B athletes won’t be moving on because not as many qualify for state as in other classifications.
“We 1B coaches kind of feel that if the WIAA will give us the 16 athletes to state, as do all the other classifications, then we can feel better about having the best athletes represented at the [state] meet,” Yount said.
“These championship meets . . . do a great job of identifying a champion; not so great at identifying second, third, fourth and so on.
“But, we’re excited. The state meet has a degree of magic to it. The kids catch on to it, and every year we get some athletes who simply make it the meet of their lives.
“Always great to be a part of that.”
