The East Jefferson Rivals track and field teams have had a busy past several days, competing in the Twilight in the ‘Ham Invitational last Friday and attending a Nisqually League meet last Tuesday.

Heading to Bellingham on March 24, the Rivals athletes faced nine other 2A and 3A division schools for the Twilight at the ‘Ham Invitational. Despite being the only 1A school in attendance and faring cold, wet, and windy weather, the EJ competitors more than held their own.

EJ junior Reid Martin won the javelin event with his second-best-ever throw at 147 2.

Sophomore Soare Johnston notched the other EJ event win, topping the field in the underclassmen 1600-meter run with a 5-second personal best time of 4:46.46.

Other top Rivals performers included junior Aliyah Yearian, second in the 1600 meter (personal best of 5:15.13 and top 1A time in the state), second in the 800 meter (PB 2:25.21); senior Camryn Hines, third in the 800 meter (2:30.65); senior Sebastian Manza, third in the 1600 meter (4:38.43); junior Fiona Fraser, sixth in the 1600 meter (5:31.69); junior Adelynn Johnson, sixth in discus (79 3); senior Kaylen Pray, sixth in the 200 meter (29.17), eighth in the 100 meter (13.97); and senior Connor Paterson, ninth in triple jump (35 3.5).

Outside the top 10, EJ coaching staff were particularly impressed with sophomore Jasper Dances’ 100-meter race, where he convincingly won his heat with a time of 12.39, nearly 1.5 seconds faster than his best as a freshman.

Following the Twilight in the ‘Ham Invitational, the Rivals runners and athletes traveled south to Vashon Island March 28 for a Nisqually League matchup with Bellevue Christian School, Klahowya Secondary School, Seattle Christian School, Vashon Island High School, and Life Christian Academy.

The EJ squads took advantage of great weather conditions to earn a large raft of personal bests across the team. While the team is largely made up of rookies and near-rookies this year, they’ve competed well and appear to be able to field very competitive teams against the rest of the league, coaching staff said.

Bellevue Christian’s teams look to be top of the pack on the boys and girls sides, but the EJ teams are likely the second or third best on each side at this point, according to the Rivals’ coaching staff.

Top three Rivals track performers at the Vashon Island meet included Pray, first in the 100 meter (13.91); Hines, first in the 1600 meter (5:42.87); Yearian, first in the 3200 meter (11:12.48); Paterson, first in the triple jump (35 5.25); Martin, second in the javelin (142 1); Manza, second in the 3200 meter (10:08.66); senior Toby Fulton, third in discus (115 3); freshman Manaseh Lanphear Ramirez, third in the long jump (17 3.75); junior Indigo Gould, third in the triple jump (32 2.5); Johnston, third in the 3200 meter (10:31.18); Hines, third in the 400 meter (1:07.84); Fraser, third in the 3200 meter (12:12.60); and Johnson, third in discus (77 7).

Also, both the boys and girls relay teams put together their best performances of the year, with the boys team (Austen Hammer, Dances, Lanphear Ramirez, and Gary Zambor) taking second place (48.81) behind Bellevue Christian.

The girls relay team (Kay Botkin, Pray, Audrey Matthes, and Stephanie Sanchez) took third (54.12) behind Vashon Island and Bellevue Christian in a highly competitive race.

After Spring Break, a subset from both EJ teams are headed to Bellingham once again for the highly competitive Birger Solberg Invitational, with 55 other teams from Washington, Alaska, and British Columbia, Canada.

The Birger Solberg Invitational is set for Saturday, April 8 in Bellingham’s Civic Stadium.