For the first time in my memory, the three west coast states are hosting their high school state meets on the same weekend. I know I am crazy, but I will be at all three meets. I drive up to Tacoma Thursday for the Washington State Meet. Then on Friday, drive down to Eugene for the Oregon State Meet. Then Friday night I will fly to Fresno to take pictures for Saturday. Look for photo galleries for all three meets.
Washington State Meet – May 25 – 27
Mt. Tahoma Stadium – Tacoma, WA
1600
The 1600 is contested on Thursday and the top contenders in the 3A include Kalea Hills of Bellevue (4:48.09) and Julia Couch of Auburn Riverside (4:55.43). The 4A 1600 will be a showdown between Skyline teammates Rebecca O’Keefe (4:41.37) and Anna Callahan (4:45.29). The race to watch in the boy’s 1600 will be the loaded 3A race with Brody Hartley (4:09.58) of Walla Walla, Owen Powell (4:12.30) of Mercer Island, Kellen Langford (4:12.30) of Arlington, Cruize Corvin (4:12.66) of Lakes, Vincent Recupero (4:12.62) of Bishop Blanchet and Kade Brownell (4:12.92) of Mt Spokane.
800
Athletes need to qualify out of Friday’s prelim to Saturday’s final. The top girls in the 3A division are Alexa Matora (2:10.99) of Lake Washington, Charlotte Cullen (2:11.93) of Mead and Julia Couch (2:12.03) of Auburn Riverside. Anna Callahan (2:10.41) of Skyline and Isabela Alvarado (2:13.68) of Eisenhower will be the top draws on the 4A 800 with six girls entered with 2:14 PRs. The fastest boy in Washington, Amare Fields (1:52.39) of Bush, will be racing in Yakima in the 1A race. Zach Munson of Sehome leads the 2A field with a 1:53.61 time. Kellen Langsford (1:52.40) of Arlington looks to be the class of the 3A field. The 4A race will be tight with Connor Hom (1:52.87) of Eastlake, Justin Hom (1:53.42) of Eastlake and Max Hutton (1:53.42) of West Valley leading the way.
3200
The girl’s 3200 stars are in different divisions from 1A athlete Alexis Leone (10:33.70) of Seton Catholic who will be racing in Yakima to Jessica Frydenlund (10:37.97) of Anacortes in the 2A division in Tacoma. The 3A 3200 will duel between Kalea Hill (10:31.47) of Bellevue and Latham West (10:39.10) of Bonney Lake. The 4A girls will provide a deep race that includes Rebecca O’Keefe (10:22.30) of Skyline, Sydney Collier (10:42.32) of Skyline, Charlotte Wilson (10:44.14) of Union and Nicole Bissell (10:51.44) of Central Valley. Much like the boys 3A 1600, the 3A 3200 is filled with outstanding distance runners like Vincent Recupero (8:47.60) of Bishop Blanchet, Brody Hartley (8:52.81) of Walla Walla, Cruize Corvin (8:57.19) of Lakes, Jack Henzke (9:03.83) of Seattle Prep, Parker Westermann (9:06.85) of Mt. Spokane and Owen Powell (9:08.20) of Mercer Island. Ethan Pederson of Eastlake has the season best of 9:06.85 in the 4A division.
Look for the photo gallery of the meet!
Oregon State Meet – May 25 – May 27
Hayward Field – Eugene, OR
3000
At the Oregon State Meet, the 3000 finals are contested on the first day of competition. The 5A division has some of the faster Oregon athletes. Emily Wisniewski (9:38.54) of Crescent Valley won last year and returns with challengers Kenzie Bigej (9:54.64) of Canby and Ella Thorsett (10:07.34) of Summit in the race. The 6A race will be competitive with Lauren Ayers (9:57.17) of Tualatin, Erin Cosgrove (10:00.96) of Southridge, Liliana Hudnut (10:01.48) of Jesuit, Ana Peters (10:02.92) of Lake Oswego and Maggie Bennett (10:04.01).
The top Oregon 3000 runners are spread out in different divisions like Alexander Garcia-Silver (8:27.72) of Marshfield in the 4A division. The 5A division is led by Tyrone Gorze (8:11.95) of Crater who may break the 5A state meet record of 8:13 on Friday. Logan Law (8:24.71) of Milwaukie and Josiah Tostenson (8:24.88) enter the 5A 3000 and will try to stay with Gorze. Jacob Nenow (8:17.00) of Jesuit is the favorite in the 6A 3000 and Josh Augustine (8:23.55) of Jesuit, Gus Clevenger (8:23.75) of Jesuit, Wes Shipsey (8:25.79) of Central Catholic, Kai Mitchell-Reiss (8:26.15) of Ida B Wells and Antony Giesch (8:27.72) of Newberg will make for a competitive 6A 3000.
1500
The second day are the 1500-meter finals. The top girls in the 5A race are Emily Wisniewski (4:34.43) Crescent Valley, Haley Blaine (4:35.43) of West Albany, Barrett Justema (4:36.27) of Summit and Kenzie Bigej (4:37.99) of Canby. Emma Bennett (4:31.88) of Jesuit is the favorite in the girls 6A 1500 race. Lauren Ayers (4:34.80) of Tualatin, Sophia Malinoski (4:35.62) of Lincoln, Ella McGillis (4:36.27) of Central Catholic and Ana Peters (4:27.53) of Lake Oswego will also be racing with Bennet for the 6A title.
The 5A state meet record is 3:51 and that is in danger with Tyrone Gorze (3:49.70) of Crater, Carter Cutting (3:50.99) of Wilsonville, Logan Law (3:52.80) of Milwaukie and defending 1500-meter champion Josiah Tostenson (3:51.12) of Crater in the race. Wes Shipsey (3:51.12) of Central Catholic, Kai Mitchell-Reiss (3:52.14) of Ida B Wells, William Heslam (3:52.69) of Roosevelt and Joshua Augustine (3:52.83) of Jesuit are among the favorites in the 6A division.
800
The 800 competes in prelims the day before the finals and the following athletes are some of the favorites if the prelims go well. Freshman Sophie Schoolmeester of Banks is the 3A favorite thanks to her 2:14.71 PR. Lindsay Siebert of Crater is the favorite in the 5A 800 with a personal best of 2:14.71. Emma Bennett of Jesuit is hoping to have a double win on Saturday with the 1500 and 800. Her personal best of 2:10.73 makes Bennett the favorite. Amalie Beil (2:12.68) of Jesuit and Kaia Schmidt (2:13.44) of West Linn are challengers. Carter Cutting (1:50.07) of Wilsonville looks to be the favorite in the 5A 800. William Heslam (1:49.79) of Roosevelt, Brady Bliven (1:52.72) of West Salem, Braydon Lee (1:53.03) of Barlow and Mario Oblad (1:53.11) of Mountainside are the contenders of the 6A 800-meter race.
Look for the photo gallery of the meet!
California State Meet – May 26 - May 27
Buchanan High School – Clovis, CA
1600
Sadie Engelhardt of Ventura is the class of the field has a 4:34.50 time this season. Freshman Chiara Dailey (4:42.57) of La Jolla, Allura Markow (4:42.79) of Dana Hills, Grace Hutchison (4:45.10) of Buchanan and Ashlyn Boothby (4:45.95) are other athletes to watch. Ryan Thomas (4:07.90) of Torrey Pines, Anthony Fast Horse (4:08.48) of Ventura, Micah Grossman (4:09.39) of Ventura and Andreas Dybdahl (4:09.75) of Santa Barbara, Manuel Correia (4:09.83) of Point Loma and Lucas Cohen (4:09.97) of Albany will be in a competitive boy’s race.
800
MacKenzie Browne (2:03.07) of John W North is the reigning champion in the 800 and the favorite. Sadie Engelhardt (2:06.69) will race the 800 after racing the 1600 earlier in the meet. Tessa Buswell (2:08.30) of Poway, Keaton Robar (2:09.13) of Newport Harbor, L’Mio Edwards (2:09.45) of Claremont, Georgia Jeanneret (2:09.55) of JSerra and Samira Kennedy (2:09.82) of Castilleja are other contenders. Tarron Johnson (1:50.93) of Vista Murrieta has the fastest 800-meter time. Ambodai Ligons (1:51.15) of Cathedral, Lamarr Kirk Jr (1:51.37) of Long Beach Poly, Manuel Correia (1:51.44) of Point Loma, Marcel Mitchell-Francis (1:51.75) of Long Beach Wilson, Joseph Lighthall (1:51.95) of Hughson and Noah Ray (1:51.97) of Buchanan will make for a fantastic 800 final (they need to get through prelims first).
3200
Hanne Thomson (9:55.31) of Montgomery will attempt to defend her 3200-meter title. Payton Godsey (9:57.77) of Oaks Christian, Gioana Lopizzo (9:59.08) of La Costa Canyon, Jaelyn Williams (10:12.76) of Eastlake, Holly Barker (10:20.90) of Laguna Hills and Rylee Blade (10:21.08) of Santiago (Corona) will make for a great race. The boy’s 3200 has a number of runners who can win this race including Jason Parra (8:46.50) of Millikan, Evan Noonan (8:49.38) of Dana Hills, Carter Spradling (8:50.79) of Clovis East, Matthew Donis (8:52.91) of Highland (SS), Manny Perez (8:53.07) of Cathedral and Parker Simmons (8:53.77) of Crescenta Valley.
4 X 800
For the first time in the history of the meet, teams will compete in the 4 X 800. Based on the seed times, the top girl’s teams are Claremont, JSerra and Chino Hills. The top boy seeds are San Clemente, Long Beach Wilson and Long Beach Poly.
Look for the photo gallery of the meet!