Five local track and field athletes etched their names in the history books as district champions at the 3A/4A District 3/4 Championships at French Field in Kent Friday.
Two of them — Timberline senior Carmelo Roper and Olympia senior Carson Godfrey — earned a sweep of their two events this week. Roper, who won the district title in the long jump on Wednesday, took home the top prize in the triple jump with a personal-record jump of 47 feet, 5 inches. His leap now ranks second in school history.
Godfrey collected his third career shot put title, throwing 58 feet, 8 inches, to claim first for the 4A district title-winning Olympia Bears, who scored 103 points. No other 4A team had more than 61 points. Godfrey also won his first district title in discus on Wednesday.
Timberline senior Devin Rohrbach picked up his first career district title in javelin with a top throw of 163-11. He will head to state for the first time.
Rounding out the district champion boys is Olympia senior Sam Rigg, who triumphed in javelin at 179-10, beating out teammate Tucker Downing’s top throw of 176-7.
Timberline senior Paityn Gagnon earned her second district title of the week, following up a 3A high jump championship by dazzling in the long jump. Her PR leap of 18-2 is the third-best in Timberline history and was enough to cap off an impressive debut season in the event for Gagnon. She also qualified for state in the triple jump.
Another day, another national record for Olympia freshman Quenton Lanese. He reset his own national freshman record in the 3,200 meters at 8:47.53 to finish as the runner-up in the event. Olympia senior Caden Durocher was the runner-up in the 4A 800 meters at 1:52.79, less than half a second off the school record.
Three Olympia high jumpers — Kam Kronmeyer, Aaron Oakland and Rowan Powers — will head to state after earning fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively, in the event. Kronmeyer’s top jump of 6-3 was a new PR, while Oakland and Powers each cleared 6-1.
Ashton Myrick will represent Oly in the 300-meter hurdles at state, finishing sixth at 40.90 seconds. The Bears’ boys and girls 4x400 relay teams also qualified for state, with the boys finishing in fourth and the girls taking sixth.
Three Capital boys punched their tickets to state in their respective events, led by Jae Walz’s third-place finish in the 800 meters with a time of 1:55.45. Landis Bryan, fourth at 40.32 seconds, and Quinn Sebring, fifth at 40.55 seconds, both PRed in the 300-meter hurdles to qualify for state.
Yelm senior Madelyn Lawson, who had never made the trip to Tacoma for state in her track career, qualified for two events in her final prep season. Two days after qualifying in shot put, Lawson finished in third place in the 4A discus at 110-1, a new PR. Yelm senior Samuel DeJiacomo took fourth in the boys shot put at 50-3.5.
River Ridge senior Desmond James shined in the 3A 300-meter hurdles to clinch his first state trip. He took seventh but met the automatic qualifying time to qualify, running a time of 40.74 seconds for a new PR and the second-best time in school history.
Fellow River Ridge senior Shanyce Hamilton will also head to state for the first time after she placed fourth in the discus at 92-8.
Two Timberline runners, Brady Moe and Kwame Walters, finished in seventh place in their respective races but met the automatic qualifiers for state. Moe crossed the finish line in the 800 meters in 1:57.25, while Walters just barely made the cut at 22.43 seconds in the 200 meters for a new PR. The needed time to qualify was 22.44 seconds.
Timberline’s boys 4x400 relay finished in fourth at 3:27.76 for the third-best time in program history. Sophomore Joyce Izuagbe secured her first trip to state in the long jump by setting a new PR at 16-9.5 to finish in fifth. Senior Hannah Jackson will compete for a state medal in the 200 meters after taking sixth in districts at 25.67 seconds.
Olympia freshman Leah Hennen, sixth in the 3,200 meters at 11:06.13, and junior Carolina Schilter, sixth in the 800 meters at 2:18.32, made the cut for state in their events. In a photo finish, Schilter barely beat out teammate Sofia Dunlap for the final spot for state, as Dunlap finished half a millisecond behind her.
Speaking of photo finishes, North Thurston sophomore Sebastian Olson was 0.01 seconds away from a trip to state in the 3,200 meters, taking seventh at 9:37.69 while the sixth-place runner crossed the finish line in 9:37.68.
The 4A/3A/2A state championships at Mount Tahoma High School will begin Thursday, May 28 and run through Saturday, May 30.
