On Saturday May 11, the East Jefferson Track & Field Team traveled to Vashon Island to compete in day one of the 1A Nisqually District Championship Meet.

Other schools in attendance were Vashon, Seattle Christian, Life Christian Academy, Bellevue Christian, Klahowya, Annie Wright, Charles Wright Academy, and Cascade Christian. The weather was unseasonably warm with temperatures reaching the low 80s in the course of the competition.

The finals for the girls javelin, girls discus, girls triple jump, boys and girls 1600 meter (m) run, boys shot put, and boys long jump were contested while all other track events (excluding the 3200 m run) had preliminaries. The top 2 athletes from finals move on to the 1A State Championships and the top 8 in prelims moved on to the second day of competition on May 14th, also at Vashon HS.

In the throws, senior Ellise Gardner easily won the javelin toss with a throw of 113’ 06” and will move on to the state championships. Sophomore Sienna Emerson took 4th overall with a throw of 86’ 05”, while Senior rookie Mi Amada Lanphear Ramirez added over 12 feet to her best ever throw to place 7th at 81’. Chimacum freshman Emma Joy was EJ’s top placer in the discus with a 12th place finish and a throw of 62’ 09”. Freshman Grace Ayer finished her season with a personal record (PR) effort of 58’ 08” and 14th place overall. On the boys side, junior Adam Weaver placed 10th in the shot put with a throw of 33’ 5.5” and freshman Ethan Perovich was 18th with a 29’ 9” effort.

Freshman Kaida Rodrigues had a remarkable competition in the triple jump in an effort to obtain a state berth. She leaped 33’ 4.5”, a PR of nearly 2 feet but took third place to two Bellevue Christian athletes. Her mark is currently the 11th best in the state for 1A.  Freshman Bella Ferland also set a PR in the event with a jump of 27’ 11.5” to finish 6th. In the boys long jump, senior Henri Huber was the only Rivals competitor. He took 6th place overall in the competition with a jump of 18’ 1.75”.

On the track junior Nik Erickson again delivered impressive performances in both the 100 and 200 m dashes. He ran PRs in both races (and by nearly a full second in the 200 m) placing 4th in the 100 m (11.90) and 7th in the 200 (24.36) and moving on to finals in both. Junior Jasper Dances also moved on to 100 m finals with a 6th place finish in the prelims (12.12) and narrowly missed moving on in the 200 with a 9th place finish PR of 25.13. Sophomore Dillion Page Castillo ran his final open 400 m race of the season in a PR of 57.20 taking 9th place in the field. Junior John Mercado will also be moving on to Tuesday finals in the 300 hurdles. After a slow start to the season, Mercado has been steadily improving and ran a PR of 48.72 for 5th place in the competition.

In the girls sprints, two EJ freshmen also moved on to finals. Carina Shifflet and Clara Camp both ran PRs of 13.34 and 13.5 respectively to take 6th and 8th places overall. Both athletes also competed in the 200 m with Camp blazing her way to a PR 27.46  4th place finish and Shifflet just behind in 27.93 to take 7th. Also moving on to finals is freshman Abby O’Keefe in the 400m where she set a 2 second PR to take 7th in 1:08.8. Just out of finals was senior Mi Amada Lanphear Ramirez who placed 9th in a PR of 1:12.13. The 300 hurdles will also have two EJ competitors in the finals. Freshmen Arden Moore and Kaida Rodrigues took 3rd (49.45) and 6th (55.24) places and were the top two freshmen in the race. Head coach Ian Fraser noted that the current freshmen girl sprinters are by far the most talented class group of sprinters the program has seen since the 1970s.

Despite temperatures peaking around 82 degrees, the Rivals had some impressive performances in the longer distances. In the boys 1600 m run, senior Indigo Gould was the top finisher for EJ with a 6th place finish in 4:37.75. He was followed by freshmen Joshua Yearian (9th, 4:42.70), Noah Isenberg (10th, 4:49.6), and sophomore Dustin Hines (11th, 4:58.9). Yearian came back to run the 800 m and finish 8th in 2:12.69 for a spot in the finals. Also competing in the 800 was freshman Luci Sarti who finished 20th in 2:34.4.

In the girls middle distance events, senior Aliyah Yearian again dominated her races taking first place in the 1600 and securing herself a spot to the State Championships. She led the race from start to finish cruising to a 5:12.89. She ran with teammate Fiona Fraser for a good portion of the race as Fraser struggled to shake off Klahowya opponent Natalie Oathout. In a nail biting finish Fraser powered by Oathout in the final 60 m to take second place in a PR of 5:16.24 to Outhout’s 5:16.90 and become EJ’s 3rd State qualifier of the day. Junior Leah Ferland also had a PR race of 5:50.12 to place 7th in the race. Yearian returned to win the 800 m easily in a time of 2:25.02 and moved on to finals. Sophomore Hilina Taylor-Lenz also competed in the 800 finishing in 3:06.06 for a 16th place finish.

Day 2 of competition was significantly cooler with temperatures only reaching the low 70s and a breeze adding additional cooling effect. All finals in boys javelin, boys discus, boys triple jump, girls shot put, girls long jump, and both boys and girls 3200 meters, as well as finals for all relays and all running events in the 800 m and shorter were contested.

In the throws, senior Reid Martin took 3rd in the javelin (148’ 01”) and 4th in the disc with a PR toss of 113’ 2.5”. In the girls shot put Emma Joy and Abby O’Keefe placed 12th (PR 22’ 03’) and 13th (21’ 10.5”) respectively to finish their seasons. In the jumps, Henri Huber placed 2nd securing a state berth with a jump of 38’ 4.5”. Bella Ferland was the only EJ competitor in the girls long jump and took 7th place overall with a PR leap of 13’ 7.0”

The 3200 meter boys run was one of the highlights of day 2 with Rivals teammates Indigo Gould and Soare Johnston working in tandem to pull off a somewhat surprising 1-2 finish and taking both State Championship berths. They fended off the other contenders and pulled free of the competition running their final 400 together with Johnson finishing 1st in 9:59.80 and Gould 2nd (10:01.63). In the girls race, Fiona Fraser led from gun to finish, easily winning with a time of 11:21.70, 48 seconds ahead of the 2nd place finisher. 

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