Rivals start season on Bainbridge Island

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The East Jefferson Rivals beat feet in their first 2023 track and field competition at the Logan Relays, hosted Saturday by Bainbridge High School.

East Jefferson Head Coach Ian Fraser said the jamboree on Bainbridge Island was a nice opener for the team.

“The competition was fun and companionable for mostly everyone, and served as a nice introduction/re-introduction to competition for the teams,” Fraser noted.

East Jefferson was the sole 1A school at the meet, which was packed with six teams from the 2A/3A Olympic League; Bainbridge High, Port Angeles, Sequim, Kingston, Olympic, and North Kitsap.

As an opening jamboree, official scores were not compiled, but event winners were announced, and East Jefferson came up with a few.

In the field events, EJ junior Reid Martin won the boys javelin event with a toss of 139-2, eclipsing his previous best by more than 5 feet.  

Senior Toby Fulton took the boys discus at 97-8, and junior Paige Govia had the best throw of the girls javelin competition at 53-2 1/2.

The first track event of the day ended up a walkaway victory for the East Jefferson co-ed distance medley relay team of Soare Johnston, Camryn Hines, Sebastian Manza, and Aliyah Yearian.  

After a tight race over Johnston’s opening 1200-meter leg, Camryn Hines cracked open a significant lead over her 400-meter carry.

Manza put to bed any doubts, storming away from the chase pack over the first 200 of his 800-meter leg. Once the baton was put into Yearian’s hand for the 1600-meter anchor, it was pure exhibition. Yearian got out very aggressively, chasing down teams to lap, and finishing about 300 meters ahead of the second-pace team.

Yearian’s 1600-meter split was 5:17, more than 10 seconds better than her previous best at the distance.

The final East Jefferson victory came in the “open mile” race, which was actually a 1600-meter race.

Run as a mixed-gender race, junior Fiona Fraser took advantage of having boys to race against, winning the girls division by 20 seconds in a time of 5:33 — 11 seconds better than her best at the distance last year.

The Rivals host their one-and-only home meet of the season Thursday, March 16 at the Blue Heron Middle School track.

The meet starts at 3:30 p.m. Visiting teams scheduled to compete include Klahowya, Cascade Christian, and Life Christian.