JOYCE — The field was smaller than normal, but there was still plenty of competition at the Crescent Invitational track and field meet Saturday.
One school record fell, and plenty of personal bests were submitted in an eight-school event that saw host Crescent and Port Angeles each place its boys and girls teams in the top three.
The Class 2A Port Angeles girls contingent of mostly junior varsity athletes claimed four different events and scored 115 points to finish ahead of 2B LaConner (104) and 1B Crescent (94).
Meanwhile, Crescent’s boys placed second as the area’s best male team at the invite; bested only by a sizeable LaConner squad that won eight of 16 events.
Complete team results are listed on Page B2.
“We got some good horses on the boys team, that’s for sure,” Logger coach Darrell Yount said.
Joel Williams, who won a pair of events and anchored a second-place relay effort, was the Loggers’ lead horse on Saturday.
The long-striding 6-foot-1 junior claimed both the 400- and 800-meter races with personal-best times of 53.83 seconds and 2 minutes, 13.44 seconds, respectively.
And on the boys’ final race of the day, the 4-by-400 relay, Williams tracked down and passed Forks’ anchor runner in the final 20 meters to push the Loggers to a second-place mark (3:53.92) behind LaConner.
“That’s a difficult double, and he had quality times in both [the 400 and 800],” Yount said.
“He said at the end of the 800 that he felt like he had a lot left, because he had never run it before except in practice. As soon as he finished the race he said ‘I can go way faster than that.’
“We expect big things from him.”
Williams wasn’t the only double-winner of the day.
Neah Bay junior Courtney Winck won the girls triple jump (29 feet, 7 inches) and long jump (14-2), and came oh-so-close to a third individual crown with a second-place mark in the 100 hurdles.
Meanwhile, Forks sophomore Shane WhiteEagle repeated his effort from last spring by sweeping the boys 100 and 200 sprints for the second straight year.
WhiteEagle bested both of his marks from 2010, crossing the finish line in 11.59 seconds in the 100 and 23.90 in the 200.
Yet his wasn’t even the most notable effort of the day for the Spartans.
That distinction belonged to senior Sebastian Ramos, who set a new school record in the javelin with a throw of 164-0.
Ramos’ mark trumped the old Forks record held by 2004 graduate Shawn Cole by 4½ feet but just edged out another exceptional throw from Chimacum’s Daryn Settlemire (163-3) for the meet title.
“[Ramos got] just a few pointers from Darrell [Yount] today, and he calms right down and throws,” Forks coach Pam Gale said.
“He thinks he’s going to throw 180 before the season is over.”
Said Yount, “He was coming in with open hips. So I said, ‘Close your hips before the plant and then move,’ and he did and boom . . . school record.”
Settlemire did get his own taste of victory in the long jump, beating out Neah Bay’s Titus Pascua (18-6) with a personal-best leap of 19-9½.
The Cowboys finished fifth in the boys competition.
Up-and-coming Port Angeles distance runner Michael Ahrens led the third-place Roughrider boys with a victory in the 1,600 meters (4:56.50).
The Riders made a lot of noise in winning the overall girls meet.
Jolene Millsap came within a hair of becoming a double-winner after claiming the 200 (29.04) and finishing second to teammate Kathryn Moseley in the 100. The difference in the latter: .01 seconds.
Elizabeth Stevenson won the 1,600 for the Riders (5:57.83), just edging out Forks’ Kristen Larsen (5:59.83).
Larsen had one of the Spartan girls’ two individual victories, taking the 3,200 in 13:05.25.
Freshman teammate Sydney Christenson won the shot put (31-10) as the only thrower to pop a throw past 30 feet.
“We got some really good things today,” Gale said of her Spartans. “We did really well.”
The Crescent girls also had a pair of individual winners after taking both hurdles event.
Kellie Belford led a 1-2 effort in the 300 hurdles, finishing ahead of Anne Grover (53.48) in 53.25 seconds. Grover won the 100 hurdles in 18.33.
Those two were also on the first-place Logger 4-by-400 relay, which featured Devanie Christie and Jandi Franz as well.
“Our girls are good, that’s a good team,” said Yount, whose Logger girls finished third behind Port Angeles (115) and LaConner (104) with 94 points.
Clallam Bay also had a pair of individual winners, with Kirstin Erickson claiming the discus (84-8) and Melissa Willis the high jump (4-4).
The Bruin girls finished sixth, just behind Forks (fifth with 52 points) and well ahead of Neah Bay (seventh with 31).
