RAINIER — Success in cross country may not always translate to success in track and field at the high school level.
But for the Rainier Mountaineers, it might.
One-third of their varsity track roster is made up of athletes who are four months removed from a 2B/1B cross country state championship in Pasco. Their championship experience, with plenty of state track familiarity to boot, is proving to be making a difference early in the spring of 2025.
The Mountaineers, 90.5 points, placed first in the annual Rainier Icebreaker Invitational at Rainier High School Saturday, March 22. Three seniors took home event victories, including Janess Blackburn in discus, Acacia Murphy in high jump and Ella Marvin in pole vault.
“I was surprised when I looked at the results. I was reasonably surprised. We’ve just got a lot of depth,” head coach Rob Henry said.
Rainier had a top-10 finisher in 13 of the 16 events it competed in on its home track. The cross country athletes picked up where they left off in Pasco, as senior Madison Ingram earned second in the mile with a time of 5:38.50, her best time since transferring to Rainier from Northwest Christian.
Sophomore Rayanna Wisner and freshman Alexis Myers showed significant improvement in their second crack at their respective events; Myers improved her mile time by over 12 seconds and Wisner took nearly 15 seconds off of her 800-meter mark. Sophomore Kinsley Barlow broke her personal record in the two-mile run to take sixth place, giving Rainier two finishers in the top six along with third-placer Komaire Robles, a freshman.
Junior Jazzlyn Shumate earned top-10 times in the 200 meters, seventh, 400 meters, third, and 100-meter hurdles, sixth.
Murphy, the 2023 2B queen in the high jump, cleared the pole at 4 feet, 8 inches to take first, and Marvin, the back-to-back pole vault state champion, easily won the event at 10 feet.
Blackburn continued last season’s surge in the discus cage Saturday with a first-place throw of 116’4”. Last spring in Yakima, she broke her personal best by 18 feet at the state championship meet, and Henry credits her confidence for her rising numbers.
“She’s figuring out that she can do it. Last year, we had to convince her to turn out, and she started to slowly grow,” he said. “She’s got quite the confidence now.”
Robles, who stormed onto the athletic scene by winning an individual district title in November, has adjusted handsomely to the rigors of track, thanks in large part to the help of her teammates.
“We’ve built a really great team community,” she said. “I have a lot of great teammates that also run long distance [races], and I’ve really enjoyed doing it with them. The terrain is definitely more difficult, in my opinion. I find it more mentally challenging.”
Speaking of mentally challenging, Toledo sophomore Haylee Wolfe has come a long way since starting track in eighth grade with little confidence coming from a cheer background. She set a school record in the mile as a freshman at state last spring, but her expectations for her sophomore year were low as many teammates told her that they plateaued their sophomore year.
Instead, as Wolfe caught her breath from a second-place 800-meter run Saturday, her coach Don Schaplow told her that her performance was the best out of any 2B runner in Washington state so far this season. She set a new personal mark at 2:31.15, better than her state time last May.
“That definitely brings lots of joy to me,” she said seconds after learning the news. “I was not expecting to run faster than I did at state. I thought I was gonna do really bad this year. I was telling people, ‘I’m gonna get last place,’ but it’s crazy the things your mind can do.”
Wolfe has always been driven by the voices of support that ring out above the rest of the noise at her track meets, namely her mother and her cousin, as well as her coaches and teammates.
“I’ve learned that when you’re running, it doesn’t feel real. Sometimes when you’re running, you can’t hear anything at all, but the voices that you’re looking for will stand out more than anything,” she said. “I listen for familiar voices in my head. The reason I’m doing this is for the people who have pushed me.”
Wolfe also placed sixth in the mile run at 5:44.87, about 12 seconds better than her season-opening run on Thursday. But she told Schaplow that the time was still a disappointment, which her coach said “lit a fire under her” for the 800 race. He said Saturday was her day, simply put.
“It’s amazing how many days are her days, if that makes sense. She’s got a competitive drive. She broke her school record in the mile as a freshman last year and she’s not satisfied,” Schaplow said. “She’s got a couple other school records in her sights.”
Wolfe wasn’t the only Riverhawk who found success Saturday; freshmen Olivia Boss and Lilly Cooper both improved on their 100-meter times, and Ava Good and Onica Chase finished fifth in the 300-meter hurdles and the 400-meter race, respectively. Cooper also tied for fourth in the long jump at 4’4”. As a team, Toledo finished 11th out of 21 teams with 29 points.
With 34.5 points, Napavine narrowly clinched eighth led by a big day by senior Emily Kang. Her 30-foot, 3-inch triple jump was enough for second place and a new PR, and she demolished her first javelin attempt by six feet.
Kang is focused on javelin, pole vault and triple jump to start her final track season, but she expects to compete in the 4x100 relay and 300-meter hurdles later in the campaign.
“I’ve been working out a lot more, and I think that’s helped me a lot. I’m not running right now, so I think putting my focus on certain events has helped me too,” she said. “Not having as many events to worry about is important, but I’ll make sure to rest [once I’m running].”
Tigers junior Maddie Dickinson placed fifth in both the 100 meters and 200 meters, as did Winlock junior Victoria Sancho.
Rochester tied for 11th at the Rainier Icebreaker with 29 points led by senior Mercedies Dupont’s two second-place finishes in the 200 meters and 400 meters. Senior Kailyn Black set a PR in the 100-meter hurdles and took home third in the 300-meter hurdles.
Onalaska, 23 points, squeezed into the top 15 past Winlock’s 22.5 points. Sophomore thrower Kiley Talley dazzled in the shot put and discus, finishing behind Blackburn in discus and narrowly missing out on the shot put title by two inches.
Tenino, seven points, and Pe Ell, five, finished 18th and 20, respectively.
