SHELTON — For roughly 10 minutes, Luke Barrick got a chance to catch his breath. While the pole vault crew adjusted the standards, and since the Onalaska High School senior was using the longest pole he’s ever had, it was a necessity.
Per usual, he started by the time everyone else finished. His starting height was 15 feet, 6 inches and he missed his first two attempts. Just like that, Barrick was on the verge of not recording a height for the second time this season.
“I just sat there and thought ‘It all comes down to this,’” Barrick admitted. “Am I really going to no height here, or am I going to take that next height and attempt these meet record bars?”
So after he was on his back doing some bridge stretches, he hopped up and left the tent while uttering a standard phrase amongst the youth of 2026.
“Time to lock in,” he stated.
Locked and loaded.
The Idaho State recruit easily cleared the 15-06 bar and on his last attempt at 16-02, cleared it as well and let out a massive scream, becoming the new record holder in the pole vault at Saturday’s 66th running of the Shelton Invite.
It breaks the previous best of 16-feet even set by Joey Weiler from R.A. Long 10 years ago. Barrick made sure to give the crowd an applause as he stood on the landing mat.
“It just felt like a lot of relief,” Barrick said. “It has been just a battle these last couple of meets. Sixteen has been my average since the indoor season. It is not annoying, it is consistent.”
Two weeks after missing all of his chances at the Chehalis Activators, the Loggers senior has won his signature event three consecutive meets. His performance in Lewis County came after re-setting his outdoor PR of 16-06 in Kalama.
It was the first time he didn’t win since a fourth place finish during the indoor season at the UCS Spirit National Pole Vault Summit.
Still, Barrick didn’t sulk. It’s been a season of learning lessons from one meet and applying it to the next.
“I rested really well, and I've been working to help my body work for me, not against me,” Barrick said. “Today I was extremely fast (on the runway). Essentially, my meets are my practices.”
The all-time mark in Washington State is 17-even and Barrick had three chances at 17-01. He was short on his first and last attempt and slipped on his second. Yet he left the runway feeling fine.
“I’m good with that,” he said.
Ethan Thayer, the other Onalaska field star, swept the shot put and discus once again against a similar-type field he battled with at Activators. The lone difference was going toe-to-toe with a premier 4A thrower in Olympia’s Carson Godfrey, a Montana recruit.
To Thayer, he doesn’t see a classification next to a competitor. All he sees is someone to beat.
“Definitely going to better meets helps me get better competition and I think I’m improving in shot put well, discus (has been) decent. Just got to get that peak at the end of the season,” the junior said. “It is just like competing with anybody else.”
He won the discus with a toss of 184-11, exactly four feet short of the meet record set by former Rainier stalwart and NCAA qualifier Jeremiah Nubbe. It’s the fourth time Thayer’s best throw eclipsed 180 feet.
Then in the shot, he was consistently over 54 feet except for his third throw which ended up as the winner of 60-09.25.
“It is a mental game at this point,” Thayer said. “If I was how I was freshman year (mentally), I’d choke and throw like 50 feet.”
From the success of a state title last spring to now four consecutive weekends of pulling the double victory, Thayer has developed a love for track and field. He stated it is the sport he wants to compete in at the next level.
“It is my favorite sport,” Thayer said. “I love working everyday on my technique.”
In the team race, the cream of the crop from the area was Tumwater. It tallied 75 points to place third behind Olympia (82.5) and league rival Aberdeen (79). The T-Birds did have the Athlete of the Meet in senior sprinter Blake Kirkpatrick.
Kirkpatrick set a new PR in the open 200, triumphing in 21.59 seconds. He was .10 seconds away from setting a new meet record, which he stated wanted, but was satisfied with a PR. It marked the first time since the Pasco invite Kirkpatrick ran the 200.
The returning double state medalist in the two fastest events confirmed he will do them again this month at state in Tacoma.
“The ultimate goal is to win state in (the 200) and after today, I really feel like it is a real possibility for me,” Kirkpatrick said. “I’m looking forward to seeing what I can do in the last little bit of the season.”
He led from gun to finish line in both the 100 and 200. A week after a 10.57 finish, Kirkpatrick stayed consistent on Saturday with a 10.79. And he was the anchor leg in the T-Birds winning 400 relay that also included Grady Wall, Jaxon Budd and Logan Budd.
The quartet’s time of 42.42 is the second-fastest in school history. Now, they’ll aim to set the school record for the second year in a row.
“That’s going to be the goal come state and today was a huge step towards that,” Kirkpatrick said.
Elsewhere for Tumwater, Cody Hayes (javelin) and Jaxon Budd (long jump) both took third with new career-best marks. Its 800 and 1,600-meter relays nabbed runner-up performances. Tenino, the other South Thurston County school on the boys side, saw Tucker Matheson place eighth in the high jump and long jump.
Sam Volavola of Centralia placed third in the shot put and discus while Zander Corwin cleared the high jump bar at 5-10 for a new PR and a fourth place performance. Also in the field events, Oakville’s Lewis Koser finished fifth in the discus.
Winlock’s Freddy Patching became the school record holder in the open 800 with a time of 2:01.57, good for eighth place. Napavine’s highest event was its 1,600-meter relay that ran 3:37.60 for a new season-best and 10th place finish.
