East Jefferson (EJ) track-and-field athletes traveled to the Dave Snyder’s Lil’ Norway Invitational at North Kitsap High School on Saturday, April 19. The competition included 20 schools in mild conditions with overcast skies and no wind. Entries were limited to two athletes per event from each school.

The Rivals’ top finisher and only medalist of the day was sophomore Arden Moore in the 300-meter hurdles. She ran a season-best to capture third place in a time of 47.84 seconds. Fellow sophomore Kadence Plotner came up just shy of medalling in the 100-meter hurdles, but ran a personal record of 17.41 seconds for a fourth place finish.

The meet opened with field events where EJ had several competitors. Senior Mason Iverson threw both the shot put and the javelin, finishing 19th (32 feet, 10.25 inches) and 18th (89 feet, 9 inches) respectively. Sophomore Charly Schweitzer threw the disc and placed 28th with a 75 feet, 6 inches. In the jumps, senior Morgan Hanson cleared 4 feet, 10 inches in the high jump for 20th place while sophomore Nico Errichetti jumped a 34-foot, 4-inch personal record in the triple for 18th.

On the girls side, junior Averie Graves was the only EJ thrower to get a personal record, taking 29th place in the shot put with an effort of 19 feet, 4.25 inches. Freshman Isla Emerson placed 15th in the discus with a throw of 64 feet and 13th in the javelin with a toss of 73 feet, 6 inches. Senior Sienna Emerson placed ninth in the same event with a 78-foot throw. 

In the sprints, senior Nikolas Erickson placed 21st in the 100-meter dash with a season best of 12.2 seconds, with Hanson placing 27th with a personal record of 12.88 seconds. In the 400-meter run, junior Dillon Page Castillo’s hard work this season paid off when he set a personal record (56.7 seconds) and took 21st place. Senior John Mercado raced the 300-meter hurdles in 50.5 seconds, also for 21st place. The unusual event of a boys 4-by-200-meter relay was contested at this meet and the EJ team of Erickson, Mercado, Page Castillo and senior Traycen Brown placed sixth with a time of 1 minute, 41.38 seconds. The boys also fielded a 4-by-400-meter relay team at the close of the meet, which placed 10th. This foursome of Page Castillo, freshman Zeke Banks, Brown and sophomore Joshua Yearian ran a time of 3 minutes, 54.1 seconds.

The top 100-meter girls finisher from EJ was sophomore Carina Shiflett who placed 17th in 13.89 seconds. Sophomore Clara Camp ran the 200 meter in a season-best time of 27.88 seconds for 12th place. The 400-meter run saw sophomore Abby O’Keefe set a personal record of 1 minute, 6.09 seconds and take 8th place overall. The girls 4-by-100-meter relay team of Sienna Emerson, Moore, Shiflett and Camp placed sixth in a time of 52.36 seconds and the 4-by-400-meter team of O’Keefe, Plotner, Camp and Moore was eighth in 4 minutes, 36.02 seconds.

With conditions favorable for the longer events, the EJ distance runners achieved multiple personal records. Junior Dustin Hines shaved 5 seconds off his previous best in the 800-meter to set a personal record by running 2 minutes, 16.79 seconds for 20th place. In the 1600-meter run, Yearian also ran a personal record to capture sixth place in 4 minutes, 31.33 seconds. In the boys 3200-meter run, all but one of the 33 runners set either a personal record or season best, with senior Soare Johnston placing ninth in (a season best of 10 minutes, 27.58 seconds) and Errichetti 10th with a 17-second personal record of 10 minutes, 28.51 seconds. The EJ boys also ran in the distance medley relay consisting of legs of 1,200 meters, 400 meters, 800 meters and 1,600 meters. Hines led off, passing to freshman Biorn Brostrom, then Banks, and finishing with sophomore Kepler Edmundson, who set a personal record in the 1,600 of 5 minutes 27 seconds. Their overall time was 12 minutes, 25.45 seconds, and they placed sixth.

The girls distance events only had two Rivals competitors. Junior Hilina Taylor-Lenz ran a focused 1,600-meter to set a 10 second personal record of 5 minutes, 47.27 seconds and take eighth place. In the longest event of the day, junior Michael Gregg also set a 10 second personal record in the 3,200-meter to take 10th place in 13 minutes, 12.77 seconds.

The track and field team next competes at North Kitsap High School on Thursday, April 24, and again on Saturday, April 26, at the Coupeville Classic Invite.

Alice Fraser is the head cross country coach and assistant track and field coach for the East Jefferson Rivals.