TACOMA — April showers bring May flowers.
In the case of Yelm senior Isabelle Arena, early-April showers bring mid-April superpowers.
Arena, a javelin thrower since the eighth grade, entered Saturday’s Mount Tahoma Track Festival with a career-high of 103 feet and 4 inches.
That throw, accomplished on March 19, 2025, on her home field in a duel against Spanaway Lake, now stands as her fifth-best throw of her career.
Arena matched her personal record on her first attempt Saturday before unwinding a throw of 110-10 to shatter her PR. As if that weren’t enough, she hit 110-5 on her third attempt and 104-4 on her fourth. She finished in second place for the first time this season after four straight first-place marks to start her final prep campaign, but that was far from a concern given the show she put on.
After all, Arena now sits as one of five Yelm girls to ever surpass 110 feet in javelin and is the first in seven years to join that rarified air.
Speaking of rarified air, the climate of Saturday’s meet was dramatically different from what Arena has dealt with all season. Rain, hail, sleet, wind, cold. Nothing but inopportune conditions.
But on Saturday? Sunny, blue skies and temperatures nearing 70 degrees. Perfect weather to let it rip.
“It feels great. Hitting 110, I thought I was gonna cry,” Arena said. “I’ve been chasing that for two years now. I’ve been doing javelin for five years, and I’ve been in track for 10 years. This is my final year. To finally hit those PRs, it feels really good. I have only thrown in the rain and hail every meet [this season]. It’s finally a nice day. I took a couple of rest days beforehand. I’m feeling good, I guess.”
Arena, who celebrated her big day with a popsicle in the shape of Bubbles from “The Powerpuff Girls,” consistently threw in the upper-90s even with the poor weather conditions so far this season. With the help of new coach Armin Basic, she believes her performance Saturday will be far from her best by season’s end.
“He’s brought a lot of new techniques and new ways of training, and he’s really brought consistency to my javelin throws,” Arena said of Basic. “I’ve had three different coaches in the last four years. It’s really been a different take on javelin itself. He’s really opened my eyes to the possibilities that can come with javelin.”
After Saturday’s spectacle, Arena has two goals in mind: throw 120 feet and return to Mount Tahoma in late May for the state meet. It would be the first trip to state for the javelin veteran.
“I want to keep hitting PRs. Every meet, I’ve hit mark after mark, going a little bit higher every time,” Arena said. “I have a big goal set to hit 120 and at least go to state. If I don’t place at state, that’s OK. I at least want to go there and have that experience for my last year.”
Arena wasn’t the only Yelm thrower to have a strong day at Mount Tahoma. Senior Madelyn Lawson topped her best mark in shot put, finishing seventh at 35-5, and she earned fifth place in discus at 99-2, just three inches from tying her PR.
For the boys, senior Samuel DeJiacomo joined the 50-foot club in shot put, becoming the eighth Yelm Tornado to do so. His final throw of the day traveled 51 feet and 11 inches, good for second place in the meet and fourth all-time at Yelm.
“I could feel it when I released it off my fingertips. I got a really good push on it at the end,” DeJiacomo said of his best throw. “I got across the ring well and finished closer to the toe board, which I’ve been struggling with in practice. I put it all together, and it ended up working out.”
He also clinched a third-place mark in discus, bouncing back from two fouls on his first two throws and launching his final attempt at 143-3. It seemed halfway through the flight that a top-three finish would not be in the cards for DeJiacomo, but he flushed his poor start from his mind.
“I think I was just in my head a little too much,” DeJiacomo said of his first two tries. “I just took some laps and cleared my head. I went in there acting like a goldfish. I floated the last two and ended up with a decent mark.”
Yelm runners were aplenty in Tacoma across most of the individual events. Senior Patrick Walsh and junior Marcos Andujar finished second and third, respectively, in the 1,600-meter elite race, with Andujar earning a new PR at 4:26.32. In the regular varsity mile race, senior Nicholas Cox took second at 4:51.70.
Junior Peter Robbins, at a season-best time of 9:58.87, came in seventh in the 3,200-meter elite race, while junior Mitchell McGreevy finished in fourth in the regular 3,200-meter race at a PR of 10:40.20.
The Tornados were heavily represented in the two hurdles events, with five top-20 finishers in the 110-meter hurdles and three top-10 placers in the 300-meter hurdles. Senior Collin Davis led Yelm in the 110-meter hurdles, finishing in fifth at 15.88 seconds, while junior Mason Alves was the highest finisher in the 300-meter hurdles in third place at a PR of 42.21 seconds.
Senior Eliana Lewis secured a season-best run in the 100-meter hurdles at 16.04 seconds, finishing in fourth. Junior Deejay Taylor and senior Kailey Slevin competed in the 1,600-meter elite race, taking sixth and 11th, respectively.
Junior Alissa Alvarado-Young returned to the stadium where she earned a state runner-up medal in the high jump last spring. She notched a fourth-place finish Saturday at 4-10. Senior Jay Sumich took fifth in the long jump at 20-2.25, and junior Hunter Holman and senior Jackson Gray tied for Yelm’s top pole vaulters at 11-6.
