The Rainier High School track and field team dominated its competition on its home field in a 1B/2B/1A league meet on Thursday, March 21. Competing against Eatonville, Adna, Morton-White Pass and Toutle Lake, the Mountaineers girls took first place overall, clinching six individual first-place finishes, while the boys earned third with four first-place finishers.
The ladies scored 110 points — 15 more than second-place Eatonville’s 95 — and the boys finished with 73 points behind Eatonville’s 98 and Adna’s 90.
Madison Ingram and Angelica Askey each scored two first-place wins, as Ingram took first in the 400-meter and 3200-meter events and Askey won the 800-meter and 1600-meter events. Matthew Kenney dominated both throwing competitions with wins in the shot put (40 feet, 8 inches) and discus (134 feet, 7 inches).
Reigning high jump state champion Acacia Murphy secured the first-place title with a 4-foot, 6-inch jump. She also took second in both the 100-meter and 200-meter events, while Jazzlyn Shumate earned top-five finishes in both and set a personal best in the 100-meter hurdles in her fifth-place finish.
Senior Haleigh Hanson set a personal record in the discus with a 112-foot, 8-inch toss to finish second in that competition, while she took first in the shot put.
“There were some really good performances. Haleigh with 112 in the discus was a huge personal best for her,” girls head coach Rob Henry said.
Junior Josh Meldrum set a personal record with a 19-foot, 7-inch long jump that clinched the first-place spot. To add to his day, he took third in the 100-meter and helped the Mountaineers earn second in the 4x100 relay behind Eatonville.
Zander Peck earned the javelin crown with a 158-foot, 1-inch throw. He finished behind Kenney in the shot put and placed in the top 10 in discus.
“Our kids came out today and competed. It was a good meet with pretty good competition. Josh had a great jump, which was awesome for him,” boys coach Josh Frunz said.
Henry said that his group is a hard-working bunch and that their competitive spirit carries over from sport to sport, as many of the student athletes are multi-sport athletes.
“They work hard, they listen and they’re competitive. You can see it from volleyball to cross country to basketball. They’re busting their butts,” he said.
The Mountaineers head to Eatonville High School for another 1B/2B/1A league meet on Thursday, March 28 at 3:30 p.m. Their next, and final, home meet before league championships will take place on Thursday, May 2.
The Adna boys finished second with 90 points behind Eatonville’s 98, while the girls placed third with 76 points behind Rainier’s 110 and Eatonville’s 95. Tyler Price won first place in the 200-meter and second in the 100-meter, while Jordan Stout took first in the 800-meter and helped Adna to a first-place victory in the 4x400 relay. Kolton Moon and Gavan Muller snatched the top two spots of the 110-meter hurdles, and Moon also earned the 300-meter crown. Freshman Grayson Humphrey set a personal record with his first-place high jump performance of 5 feet and 4 inches.
On the girls side, Karsyn Freeman won the 300-meter hurdles over second-place Lainey Dean from Toutle Lake by more than a second, and she took first place in the discus.
While Morton-White Pass’ boys took fourth with 63 points and the girls finished fifth with 22 points, the Timberwolves boys earned three first-place finishers. Tony Belgiorno won the 400-meter, Hunter Brackett took first in the 3200-meter, and Max Lowe earned the triple jump crown by over a foot and a half.
