Busy Week #2: Dual vs Federal Way and Kent-Meridian Invite

Hey Track Fans!

It was a busy week for Emerald Ridge Track & Field, as we hosted our first home meet of the year on Wednesday against Federal Way and spent Saturday at our first invitational at Kent-Meridian. Buckle your seat belts – here comes the excitement….

Before the highlights, I have to share one of the lowest points I have ever been a part of as a coach. For those of you that know junior Gabriela Cintron, she is the hardest working, focused, and supportive members of our track team – she led our group of off-season athletes through rain, sleet, and wind all winter in the hopes of having a great season and qualifying for the state championships. She is absolutely everything a coach (and teacher) could ask for. Unfortunately, her season came to an abrupt end on Saturday when she ruptured her Achilles tendon during her first race of the day. It will require surgery and has a very lengthy recovery timeline. Please keep Gabi in your thoughts.

On a brighter note, we had some great performances to jump start our season. With so many new faces on the team, improvement is happening all across the board. Here are some highlights from the week.

In the women’s discus, sophomore Ellie Peterson had a huge improvement in her first full meet as she nearly hit the 80’ mark in the discus and followed it up with a third place performance in the shot put; she nearly mirrored these performances on Saturday at Kent Meridian. Not bad for a track rookie.

Also in the field events, sophomore Sammie McGinty had a clearance at 4’6” in the high jump with wet conditions. In the triple jump, sophomores Jade Williams and Taylor Willis both surpassed the 30’ barrier in the triple jump with marks of 31’10 and 30’11 respectively.

In the hurdles, Gabriela Cintron ran season bests of 17.02 and 51.01 to get second in both races on Wednesday. On the men’s side, junior DaShawn Jackson had a strong personal best of 43.50 for second place in the 300 hurdles on Thursday and ran a tight race for second in the 110 hurdles as well. He also led our male sprinters with a time of 11.80 in the 100 meter dash. Senior Jarin Watson (45.10) and sophomore Skye Berbert also had strong debuts in the 300 hurdles (46.05) during the week.

Senior Karlee Stueckle had a good day on Saturday, winning the 300 meter hurdles handily (44.7 – state leader), running a personal best in the 200 for second (26.09 - #5 in state), and running a great leg on our 4x400 relay that finished second as well. The relay included sophomores Sophia Brown and Bailey Miller, along with freshman Carley Huber. Their time of 4:15 currently ranks them sixth in the state. Brown had a strong week, with a lifetime best of 1:03.25 in the 400 and a season best of 2:28 in the 800. Huber had two lifetime bests in the 800, the best of which was a time of 2:32 on Saturday. Miller ran a lifetime best on Saturday in the 400, crossing the line in 1:03.72 to win her heat and finish 8th overall. Freshman Yahir Gonzalez, in his first time ever running the 400 meters, established a new ER Freshmen School Record, winning his heat on Saturday in a time of 56.98.

In the distance events, freshman Roz Slichko ran a season best in the 1600 on Wednesday and came back to run a new freshman school record and #4 all-time mark of 11:28 in the women’s 3200 meters in her event debut (that is two miles in under 5:45 pace, for those keeping track at home). Other strong performances from the week included Sydney Colbern earning the victory in the women’s 800 on Wednesday and a 5:48 mile on Saturday in her first crack at the event. Drew Hovde (2:11/4:48/10:03) dabbled in each of the distance events, as did teammate Jessie Foster (2:09/4:51/10:22). Junior Adam Volkman also broke the elusive 12:00 barrier in the 3200 on Wednesday.

There are plenty of other great things happening that I am sure I have overlooked or neglected to mention. We’ll keep the good news coming! Thanks for all your support. And I apologize for any grammatical errors and I hastily wrote this Monday morning…. We are hosting a home track meet this Thursday against GK beginning at 3:30 at the JAG (Jaguar Athletic Grounds).

Best,

ER Track Coaching Staff