YAKIMA — Eighth grade was the first introduction to triple jump for Emalie Jacoby. It wasn’t her cup of tea.
“It is kind of an awkward event,” she stated. “It is a little wonky. I just didn’t understand how to do it.”
Yet she needed a fourth event to compete in once the three most important meets were coming up. Could it have been the pole vault? Not an option. Maybe the javelin? Not quite. What about the shot put? Eh, probably not.
Welcome to triple jump, Ms. Jacoby.
“I want to see if I can do this,” the Onalaska High School star said.
Point proven.
Jacoby leaped 39 feet, 9.5 inches on her penultimate jump to take the lead and eventually hang on to pick up her second state title of the weekend on Saturday night near the end of the final day of the state meet at Zaepfel Stadium.
To go with her eighth place finish in the high jump, the junior exits her first four-event state experience with four medals and a pair of firsts.
“I don’t even know how to put it into words,” Jacoby said. “I’m just going to go out there and jump and not think about it.”
Even the thought of doing triple jump was at first a foreign concept. Then one day in practice, Jacoby decided to partake in a leap just to see what would happen.
She proceeded to pop a 35-foot jump. At a league meet in Napavine, Jacoby won with a mark of 35-05.50. She went north of 35-feet again at the C2BL meet and was near 34 at districts.
“Well, looks like I’m going to do this,” Jacoby said after her practice jump. “It was really awesome, felt really good.”
Jacoby was third after the preliminary jumps and moved into second by landing in the pit in 35-03.25. Her winning mark was a four-inch career-best and was just enough to fend off Cle Elum-Roslyn’s Gracie Glondo by two inches.
In four triple jump events, Jacoby finished 4-0.
She heads into an offseason where her love of track and field has risen to keep training and developing, while still evolving in volleyball and basketball.
“Sometimes I don’t realize what I can actually be good at until I do it,” Jacoby said. “I’ve been doing three sports my whole life, balancing it has become normal to me.”
Although she didn’t nab four medals of her own, Rainier’s Jazzy Shumate left with a third place medal in the open 400 and a sixth place finish in the 300-meter hurdles. In fact, she had the same time as Chewelah’s Rin Parsons in the 400, 1:00.541.
Despite not breaking 60 seconds, a goal Shumate has set from the start of the season, she left the field with her head held high. Her time in the 300 hurdles was 48.44 seconds.
“In the best way, it was successful,” Shumate said. “I gave it everything I possibly could. You think about it, the 400 and 300 hurdles, anytime someone finds that out, they’re like ‘Oh my gosh, that’s crazy. How do you do it?’
“The truth is, I don’t know. People believe in me, so it gives me the goal to believe in myself.”
The grind of doing four events – three of them in close quarters to one another on the schedule – was a battle. What kept the senior going was talks and texts with Mountaineers head coach Rob Henry, Shumate’s family member as well.
“I didn't think I was going to be able to do it,” Shumate said. “Having (Henry) in my corner every step of the way… Having that close bond has been an incredible blessing.”
Shumate is off to Oregon State in the fall, where her chapter of competitive running will come to a close. She’s leaving the possibility of joining a club team open, but for now, she is thankful to be a Rainier Mountaineer.
“That’s how I want to be seen,” she said.
Pe Ell’s Karli Phelps ended her track debut season with a fourth place performance in the 100 hurdles and a PR to boot of 16.74 seconds. After being a softball player for PWV, her faith guided her to the track.
And she never looked back.
“My coaches helped me get there,” Phelps said. “Softball, the environment just wasn’t fitting (what) I wanted to be around. God was really telling me to step out of my comfort zone; I relied on Him a lot.”
Phelps had been eight-stepping to her first hurdle, but she nine-stepped at districts and on Saturday. She made a quick recovery and still found her way into the top-five. She heads into an offseason where she’ll prepare for volleyball and basketball, but find room to incorporate her new sport.
“I never thought I would be able to hurdle and be here, I'm just so thankful,” Phelps said. “I’m going to be training for track, doing a lot of summer meets.”
Tenino’s Kendall Bowe came out of the first flight and placed fifth with a career-best toss of 116-01. It was an eye-popping 12-foot PR and just the seventh time the junior has eclipsed triple digits as her top throw.
“It has more to do with what I do before and how I prepare,” Bowe said. “It was more-so the pep talk and reassurance from my coaches. As far as the physical aspect (of the throw), I have no idea.”
It’s been a slow progress for the junior, not doing javelin at the league meet as a freshman to placing eighth at districts last season. Bowe still feels she hasn’t scratched the surface of her potential and gets one final offseason to aim higher.
“It is so surreal,” she said. “If I pulled that 116 out of nowhere, I can go farther.”
Other medalists for the girls included Winlock’s Victoria Sancho in the 100 and 200-meter dashes, capping her career with nine state medals. Rainier had three others stand on the podium in Komaire Robles (3,200), Alexis Myers (800) and Emma Mankowski (pole vault).
Adna’s 400 and 800-meter relays each finished top-eight, as did Megan Price in the 200. Toledo’s Braelyn Nyberg (3,200) also took sixth in 12:14.89.
