A peculiar week for the Tumwater Thunderbirds concluded with a dazzling show en route to a team championship in the Chehalis Activators at W.F. West High School Saturday afternoon.
The team competed at the Pasco Invite last Saturday, and upon returning home on Sunday, their bus broke down and they were stranded on the side of the road for three hours.
Despite the exhausting night, they got right back to work on Monday for a tough workout and a meet Tuesday, followed by a lift session Wednesday and another hard workout Thursday.
It’s hard to expect anything less from a team with goals of glory. A scenario that would have thrown other teams for a loop fueled Tumwater, which dominated the Chehalis Activators with a staggering 128 points, 45 above second-place Rainier.
“It shows just how much hard work pays off. We had the hardest week ever, but it shows that we’re always working hard to get our goals,” senior Reece Heryford said. “Our team is together and connected.”
Perhaps no group is more connected in the state than Tumwater’s relay team of Heryford, Ashlyn Hufana, Cassidy Hedin and Ava Jones. The T-Birds’ 4x200 squad is seeking a fourth straight state championship, with seniors Heryford and Jones serving as the most veteran members of the crew. In their pursuit of greatness, the quartet set a Chehalis Activators meet record in both the 4x100 and 4x200 relays to win both titles.
The 4x200 team finished nearly three seconds ahead of anyone else with a time of 1 minute and 44.30 seconds, good for the third-best time in the state so far this season, and the 4x100 sprinters clocked in at 50.37.
Tumwater sprinters coach Mark Sullivan said the two seniors, Jones and Heryford, are the anchors of not only the team’s continued success on the track but in practice and the offseason.
“I saw it last year but I’m seeing it to a bigger degree this year that they are the team leaders. They will bring in that next generation,” he said. “They have done a great job bringing in new girls, coaching them up, building up their confidence and encouraging and helping new people. That leadership is what you see in some of these performances.”
Heryford and Hedin also won individual titles in the 400 meters and the 300-meter hurdles, respectively. Heryford’s 400 time was just a tick off her PR of 59.91 set last April. Jones placed second in both the 100-meter sprint and the 200-meter race.
At least one T-Bird finished in the top 10 in all seven of their track events Saturday, including three in the top 10 of the 1,600 meters with Raegan Smith, third, Harper Hicks, sixth, and Autumn Hubbard, eighth. Additionally, at least one T-Bird earned a top-10 finish in all seven of their field events.
Senior McKayla Clary obliterated her previous PR in javelin by well over two feet to place second at 126-10. Only W.F. West senior Amanda Bennett topped her at 126-11. After Bennett threw 126-11 on her third throw, Clary was just an inch off on her final attempt of the day. The two own the sixth and seventh best throws in the state so far this season.
Junior Paige Henderson and senior Summer Coleman PRed in the discus and the high jump, respectively, as they each notched a third-place medal. Hufana, long jump, and Abigail Krause, shot put, also were runners-up in their events.
It took a mammoth team effort by Tumwater to overshadow a strong day by the Rainier Mountaineers. As is school tradition, senior Janess Blackburn will have a chance to break a physical record of her choice as she topped Bella Holmes’ four-year-old discus record with a throw of 129-1. Not only did it break the school record by over a foot, Blackburn’s throw destroyed her previous PR of 121-7 set at state last year.
“She’s still got a ways she can go. She shoots around 130 in practice, and she keeps building time and putting the work in,” Rainier head coach Rob Henry said of Blackburn. “There’s definitely more in the tank with her.”
Freshman Komaire Robles put together one of the more dominant performances of the weekend in the 3,200 meters. In just her fourth run of her career, she blew past the competition in 12 minutes and 39 seconds, crossing the finish line 52 seconds ahead of any other runner and lapped several of her opponents.
While it may have looked like a breeze for the youngster, Robles said each lap was more difficult than the previous as she tried not to let herself relax. On her final lap, Henry yelled to her that it would be her toughest lap, but her last trip around the track was the second fastest out of her eight.
“I have to stay consistent. When I’m so far ahead, I tell myself, ‘You work really hard for this. Don’t let it go to waste.’ I just listen to what my coaches say and try to do my best,” Robles said.
If it wasn’t for Aberdeen sophomore Ailyn Haggard, Rainier senior Madison Ingram would have first-place medals in both the 800 meters and the 1,600 meters.
Senior Acacia Murphy added another high jump title to her resume with a season-best jump of 5-2. For only the second time since her first state championship as a sophomore in 2023, senior Ella Marvin did not win the pole vault as W.F. West’s Bennett beat her and set a PR at 10 feet. Marvin nailed her only attempt of 9-6 but could not cleanly clear the pole at 10 feet.
Bennett was the catalyst for W.F. West’s fourth-place team finish with wins in the javelin and the pole vault. The 4x400 relay team of Lauren Kelley, Trinity Gist, Emily Mallonee and Ashlen Gruginski was the only squad to defeat a Tumwater girls relay team Saturday, crossing the finish line three seconds ahead of the T-Birds to win the day’s final event. Gruginski tacked on a third-place medal in the 800 meters to her day, as well.
In her first career meet on March 19, Bearcats freshman Isabelle Teeter threw the javelin 81 feet and 1 inch but could not match the throw in her next two meets. After throwing 73-4 on April 2, she returned from spring break with vengeance, logging launches of 92-2 and 95-5 since then, the latter coming on Saturday for a fifth-place finish.
Rochester, eighth with 32 points, was led by senior sprinter Mercedies Dupont’s first-place 200-meter win. She placed seventh in the event at the Activators last year and picked up her second win this week.
Winlock junior Victoria Sancho continued her hot start to the season with a win in the triple jump at 33-6.5 and a new PR in the 100 meters. She finished fourth in both the 100 and 200 meters.
Onalaska sophomore Kiley Talley broke her PR in discus by 12.5 feet but still finished 10 feet behind Blackburn’s winning throw to place second.
Black Hills had a strong day on the track, with top-10 runs by five different runners, including two each by Anneliese Dale in the 100 meters and 200 meters and by Jane Birchard in the mile and two-mile runs. Birchard set PRs in both events.
