TACOMA — When Centralia High School senior thrower Sam Volavola unleashed his penultimate throw of the 2A shot put finals, Aberdeen throws coach Todd Bridge turned to Centralia throws coach Perry Winkle and made a declaration before the officials could even calculate the distance.
“Congrats on a state champ.”
Volavola’s behemoth throw landed 56 feet and 7 inches into the dirt, setting a new personal best for the senior and launching him into first place past Aberdeen’s Landon Hamblin. But, Bridge’s verbal waving of the checkered flag still very well could have ended up being premature, as there were still 10 throws to be made.
After those 10 throws, the result remained the same, and Bridge was proven correct. Volavola became the first Centralia High School shot put champion in 76 years, winning the 2A crown in his first trip to the state meet Friday at Mount Tahoma High School. He finished in the top two in both of his events, as he was the runner-up in discus Thursday.
“It’s unbelievable. Not qualifying for districts last year motivated me to train harder, and coming out here with a gold medal in my first time at state is just unbelievable,” Volavola said.
Volavola was locked in at the start of the meet, uncorking throws of 55-8 and 55-9.75 on his first two attempts. He was perched in second place for the majority of the competition, as Hamblin posted 56-5.75 with his first throw, but the top of the rankings hit a standstill as both throwers couldn’t find the mark.
Hamblin fouled four attempts in a row, including his first two of the finals, and Volavola fouled his last toss of the second flight and the first of the final round.
“I was just so tight. I had to relax my body, not overthink it and just stay focused on my technique,” Volavola said.
When he released that second-to-last throw, not only did Bridge know it would shake up the order on the podium, but so did Volavola and Winkle. In fact, Volavola thought it landed around 58 feet or 59 feet, but 56-7 was enough to get the job done.
He’s the first Centralia male athlete to win a state title in track since Matt Read won the 3A 1,600 meters and 800 meters in 1994 and is the first shot put champ since Frank Brown won the 4A title in 1950. Centralia’s last male state champion thrower before Volavola was Ray Kinnamon, who earned the second of his two 4A discus titles in 1956. Volavola is the third state shot put champion in school history.
Volavola is the first state champion that Winkle has coached in his decade at Centralia. It’s not just the gold medal that separates Volavola from the rest of the throwers Winkle has coached, but it’s also his competitive drive and work ethic.
“He likes to compete. He’s a competitor. When there’s great competition like this and there’s a lot of great throwers, it brings him to another level,” Winkle said. “He just rises to the top. As a coach, you love that competitiveness of a kid.”
Many throwers would find themselves shrinking under the pressure of their first state meet despite reaching medal-worthy marks in practice. Not Volavola, however. He admitted he barely hits 50 feet in practice, but the adrenaline of a high-stakes meet produces a different beast.
“The crowd gives me a lot of energy. They just get me hyped up,” he said. “At practice, there’s no crowd to hype me up. Ever since my sophomore year, when I see a lot of people watching me, I just throw far. It gets me lit up.”
After his first year in track two years ago, Volavola was close to leaving track altogether to pursue rugby. Through encouragement from his coaches and his parents, he chose to stay in a decision that rewrote the history books of the Centralia track program.
“I saw the potential of Sam when he first arrived. He’s a thrower. He loves rugby, but he’s a thrower,” Winkle said. “He stuck with it, and good things happen when you stick with things. He’s one of the best that I’ve had an opportunity to coach.”
Volavola was one of two area state champions on the second day of the state meet, joining Tumwater junior Owen Reamer, who secured the 2A title in high jump. The only thing that could slow Reamer down was a one-hour delay at the start of the day as rainy weather briefly passed through Tacoma.
Once the cover came off of the high jump pit and the competition began, Reamer reached a level he hadn’t previously, and then went a peg higher. He started the day a perfect 6 for 6, clearing 5-8, 5-10 and 6-0 with ease. Reamer was the only jumper without a blemish when he cleared 6-2 on his first attempt, and he notched 6-3 on the first try to entrench himself into the final four.
He chose to pass at 6-4, while two of his three competitors cleared that height. On Reamer’s first attempt at 6-5, a height he had never attempted in a meet, he soared over the bar, which didn’t even wiggle.
The hard part was done, or so he thought. Now, Reamer had to watch the other two finalists take three attempts to stay alive in the hunt for a state title. He flipped between staying physically prepared for a potential shot at 6-7 and watching his challengers anxiously.
“It was such a nervous feeling, but there was so much excitement. Seeing that last bar go down and realizing that I won state was an amazing feeling,” recalled Reamer, who attempted 6-7 with a state title already in hand.
Reamer was inspired by the record-breaking performance of teammate Jaxon Budd in the long jump Thursday, as Budd broke the 2A state meet record at 24-2 to win the state title.
“J-Budd PRed by 2 feet and won state. I was like, ‘Dang, I can’t be the only one of [Tumwater throws coach] Trent’s [Kibler] jumpers to not PR, so I had to get it done. I had to match him,” Reamer said. “I love [Budd]. Being able to both succeed in our events is such an awesome feeling.”
Like Budd, Reamer didn’t enter the state meet with a ton of experience under his belt in his winning event. The junior dabbled in high jump as a freshman but left as the program didn’t have a throwing coach, he said.
Reamer picked it back up just four weeks ago, and in his first meet of the season on April 30, he reached 6-4, a PR that stood until Friday. He only competed in the high jump in six meets this season and cleared a height in five. That was enough for the first state title by a Tumwater male high jumper since Joey Kirkpatrick in 1996.
“I just want to give a shoutout to my coach. I hopped in high jump four weeks ago, and he really built me up from there,” Reamer said.
The Tumwater girls team recorded three top-five finishes in the preliminary races, including junior Alexandra Broome’s fourth-place run in the 800-meter prelims at 2:16.78 to qualify for the finals. Senior Cassidy Hedin punched her ticket to the 300-meter hurdles finals for the second year in a row, coming in fourth in the prelims at 45.50 seconds. She also helped the 4x100 relay team notch a fourth-place time of 49.16 seconds to secure a spot in the finals.
Broome also finished eighth in the 400-meter prelims at 59.55, setting up a busy day for her on Saturday as she’ll be involved in four finals.
Tumwater junior Laurent Opoku will make his return to the 200-meter state finals as he ran 22.61 to finish eighth in the prelims. While at Ellensburg last year, he earned a seventh-place medal in the event.
Two W.F. West boys collected state medals Friday, as senior Maddox Sampson registered a fifth-place finish in the 110-meter hurdles finals at 15.31 seconds and junior Mason Ruiz took fifth in the pole vault at 13-6.
Centralia senior Desiray Crockett capped off her final season with a seventh-place medal in the 100-meter hurdles finals. After setting a PR of 15.28 in the prelims Thursday, she ran 17.70 Friday.
