TACOMA — First try: 22 feet, 5 inches.
Immediately, a new personal record for Tumwater senior long jumper Jaxon Budd Thursday at the 2A/3A/4A state championships at Mount Tahoma High School. Far better than his district title-winning jump of 22-0.25 last week. Only one other competitor had a seed mark that far.
That mark was good enough to keep Budd in first place until the last set of the finals.
Good enough to win it all? He thought it had a chance, but he scratched his next five attempts, including the first two in the finals. After his fifth attempt of six, still in first place, Budd rushed away from the sand pit to check into the boys 4x400 relay, which was about an hour away from the start of the first heat.
When he returned to the runway, he was in third place.
Aberdeen’s Isaac Garcia, 22-6.75, and Washougal’s Deacon Nichols, 22-8.75, both surpassed him, leaving Budd with one final jump to win a state championship.
His jumps coach Trent Kibler told him, “Let’s go big or go home,” and Budd went big.
Historically big.
Budd soared through the air for what seemed like three seconds, landing in the sand pit and immediately hearing a roar from the Tumwater faithful behind the fence to his right. In his mind, he was certain that his goals of a school record and a state championship were well in hand.
A jump of 22-9.75 would’ve been enough for both of those. Instead, he obliterated an 11-year-old state meet record by jumping 24 feet, 2 inches, to win the state championship. The previous state meet record was 23-4.5 set by Olympic’s Keshun McGee in 2015.
“I knew it was coming down to the last jump, and it was all or nothing right there. I told myself at the beginning of the year that I wanted to break the school record and win state in the long jump,” Budd, a first-year long jumper, said. “I just wasn’t ready to let that dream slip away. I looked to make sure I didn’t scratch, and when they started measuring it, I heard them say 24. I was just hoping they didn’t mean 20 feet, 4 inches. Once it was confirmed, it was just amazing. I didn’t think the state record was going to be possible.”
The taste of state championship glory was a long time coming for Budd. As the starting quarterback for Tumwater, he and his team fell short in three consecutive state championship games at Husky Stadium, settling for a runner-up finish each time. He was also a member of the Tumwater boys track team that finished second in 2025.
Budd hadn’t even planned on competing in track this season. He wanted to get a job to save some money for when he went off to college at Pacific Lutheran University after graduating from Tumwater. But the desire to experience winning it all in a state environment lingered.
“It’s my last chance at winning something. I just decided to put it all out there and try to win something,” he said. “It’s awesome. That’s all I could ask for. Finally, I’m at the top of the state in something, and even cooler to get the school record and the state record.”
Kibler is in his second season as the jumps coach at Tumwater, and he’s a perfect 2 for 2 at coaching a state champion as Xavier Bunn won the triple jump state title last spring. After Budd’s first jump of 22-5, Kibler said the wind was affecting his acceleration. So Kibler decided to scoot his starting point back four or five inches.
More scratches. Then, they moved Budd back another five inches. Still, Budd was overshooting. On his final jump, Budd started 3.5 feet back from where he started his first jump of the day.
“He has the juice in him to go, and we just sent it. The results speak for themselves,” Kibler said. “I’ve never seen his pop like he had today.”
Immediately after Budd finished celebrating his historic performance in the long jump, he ran over to the infield to warm up for the 4x400 relay. He, along with Logan Budd, Owen Reamer and Blake Kirkpatrick, finished first in the third heat and will enter the finals carrying the second-best time at 3:21.89, less than half a second shy of a school record.
“It feels really good. It was awesome to see Blake running a good time,” Jaxon Budd said. “A lot of people thought we weren’t gonna touch that time again, but it’s awesome to see.”
Budd also advanced to the state finals for the 100-meter dash as he finished second overall in the preliminary race at 10.89 seconds in his first state run.
Budd wasn’t the only successful jumper from Tumwater on the first day of the state meet. Juniors Ashlyn Hufana and Amahle Foster earned their second consecutive trips to the podium in the long jump. They both earned PRs on their first attempts, with Foster at 17-7.25 and Hufana at 17-10. Foster’s first jump was enough to send her to the finals, where she finished seventh, and Hufana hit her PR twice more, notching 18-1 on her second attempt and 18-3 on her fourth to take third.
“We knew that we could do it. We knew that PRs were waiting for us,” Hufana said. “We’ve definitely had a good season, but it hasn’t been our best. It’s been a long time coming [for 18 feet]. The weather was nice, and the vibes of everybody were perfect. Amahle getting a PR pushed me, as well.”
Hufana later helped the Tumwater 4x200 relay team qualify for the finals out of the second heat at 1:45.42 as the squad will look to win its fifth consecutive state championship. Hufana has been a part of two of those titles and is now one of the veterans of the crew.
“It’s very special. Winning it last year was the greatest feeling ever, and I’m so happy that I’m back to do it with my best friends again,” Hufana said.
Hufana also punched her ticket to the 100-meter finals with a sixth-place time of 12.57 seconds. It’s her first trip to the finals after finishing 18th last year and 15th in 2024. The Tumwater girls 4x400 relay team also clinched a final berth, taking fifth in the prelims at 4:03.83.
Centralia senior thrower Sam Volavola capped off an excellent final season with a runner-up finish in the 2A discus. His best throw of 178-8 came on his final attempt in the finals, and while he was disappointed he didn’t break his own school record of 179-10, he was still proud of place second in his first trip to state.
“It feels very good. It wasn’t my best day, but I’m happy with it. I stayed focused,” Volavola said. “Last year, I didn’t qualify for state, and it pushed me to do better. My coaches motivated me to train harder and stay mentally tough.”
Tumwater senior Vincent Giuntoli stood on the 2A discus podium alongside Volavola, finishing sixth at 152-2. Tumwater seniors Abigail Krause and Paige Henderson also earned podium finishes in the girls discus. Krause threw 112-6 to finish seventh, while Henderson picked up her second straight state medal with an eighth-place throw of 112-2.
W.F. West senior Maddox Sampson qualified for the finals in the 110-meter hurdles, taking seventh in the prelims at 15.23 seconds. Centralia’s Desiray Crockett will head to the finals for the 100-meter hurdles as she finished with the fourth-fastest time in prelims at 15.28 seconds, a new PR.
W.F. West junior Joy Cushman improved on her 1,600-meter time from districts but fell short of a podium finish, taking 13th at 5:20.47 in her state debut.
