5-23 State Track

Chelan’s 13 track and field athletes turned in stellar performances at the State Track meet this past weekend. Photos by Lisa Talley.

Chelan track & field athletes turn in good performances

Reported by Coach Greg Griffiths (All photos courtesy of Lisa Talley)

State Track

Mt Tahoma High School, Tacoma, WA

The 2008 Track and Field season came to a successful end on Friday and Saturday at the State Meet held at Mt. Tahoma High School in Tacoma.

The two-day event, featuring the State’s best 2A and 1A competitors, is a mixture of finals and preliminaries depending on event.   On Friday, the boys and girl’s relays competed in prelims, as did Sydney Austin (400 meter Dash) and Derrick Talley (100 meter Dash), while Sam Sydloski-Tesch (Long Jump) and Gabriela Guillen (3200 meter Run) competed in finals.

The girl’s 4 X 200 relay team Katelyn Peer, Jaicee Harris, Darby Jenkins, and Sydney Austin started the morning off for the Goats, finishing 2^nd in their heat with a time of 1:49.01.  Because there were 3 heats in this event, the top 2 finishers from each heat and the next 2 fastest times would qualify for finals on Saturday.

Next up for Chelan was sophomore Gabriela Guillen in her specialty, the 3200 meter Run.  Gaby, although slowed by a respiratory infection, battled her way to a 15^th place finish.  Sam Sydloski-Tesch also competed in a final on Friday, finishing in 10^th place in the Long Jump with a jump of 19 feet, 7 inches.

The boy’s and girl’s 4 X 100 relay preliminaries were next.  The boys team of Sam Sydloski-Tesch, Brett Linehan, Luke Laughlin, and Derric Talley, found themselves paired in the prelims with three teams who would go on to finish 1^st, 2^nd, and 4^th in State. 

In order to make it to the finals on Saturday they would have to finish in the top 3 in their heat or have one of the next 2 fastest times.  Although they didn’t finish in the top 3, their time of 44.98 was good enough to advance.

The number of teams that qualified for State in the girls 4 X 100 warranted 3 heats rather than 2.  That meant that like the 4 X 200 relay, the top 2 from each heat and the next 2 fastest would advance.  Chelan’s girls (Peer, Harris, Jenkins, and Austin) ran in the 3^rd heat and watched as Chewelah and Lakeside, the teams who finished 1^st and 2^nd in our Regional meet the previous week, finished in the top two of their heats.  In winning their heat, Chewelah set a new State record and would go on to win the State title as well.  But the Goats could finish no better than 4^th in their heat with a time of 51.95.  As it turned out, however, their 4^th place time was actually better than the 3^rd place finishers of heats 1 and 2 so they qualified for Saturday’s final.

Derrick Talley (100 meter) and Sydney Austin (400 meter) also ran preliminary races in their events.  Although Derrick finished in 5^th place in his heat, with a time of 11.52 seconds, only the top 4 advanced to the finals.  Syd finished in 3^rd place in her prelim (1:01.49) and advanced.

Making it to State is the goal of many high school athletes and earning a trip to the podium to collect a medal given to the top 8 finishers in all events is a crowning achievement.  All three relay teams that qualified for the tournament earned their trip to the podium on Saturday.  The boys collected medals for their 8^th place finish in the 4 X 100 (44.75 seconds), and the girls placed 7^th in the 4 X 100 (52.07 seconds) and 6^th in the 4 X 200 (1:48.7 seconds).

Syd Austin and Jaicee Harris also went to the podium on Saturday to receive medals for their 7^th place finishes in the 400 meter run and Javelin, respectively. 

Harris, as a freshman competing in her first State meet, came in to the competition seeded 16^th out of 16 competitors and the only thrower under 100 feet.  She erased that with the first throw of the event by surpassing her personal best by close to 10 feet with a toss of 112 feet, 7 inches.  Of her six throws, 3 were better than she had thrown all year.  She moved from 16^th up to 7^th and earned her medal.

Next year’s State Meet will be held in Cheney on the campus of Eastern Washington University and with the experience gained by Chelan’s athletes they look forward to another strong showing.