Saturday, March 16, saw the East Jefferson track and field teams travel to West Seattle Stadium to compete in the 25-team Seattle Academy Relays. While largely set as a relay format meet, many traditional individual events were contested as well.

The conditions were unusually fair for March, with temperatures nearing 70, sunny skies and generally light winds. What wind there was started the day as a headwind, before changing directions to provide a lightly aiding tailwind by the end of the meet.

The East Jefferson girls scored two blowout victories at the meet.

Senior Ellise Gardner topped the field by over 15 feet in the javelin with her throw of 114’ 7”.

Fellow senior Aliyah Yearian broke away from the field early in the 1600-meter race, and was effectively alone as she cruised to an easy victory in 5:13.12.

Both Gardner and Yearian have put up the early Washington State 1A leading marks with their respective victories.

In the 1600-meter race, senior Fiona Fraser also played a factor near the front of the race. She closed an early sizable gap on White River’s Emma Tomlinson (last year’s WIAA 2A State Championship fourth-place finisher) in the second half of the race, but couldn’t quite match Tomlinson’s closing speed, relegating Fraser to third place, half a second behind in her personal best (PB) time of 5:20.03.

Fraser’s time puts her as the second-ranked Washington State 1A 1600-meter runner, behind teammate Yearian.

Senior Reid Martin has picked up this season at the same high level of javelin proficiency that he demonstrated throughout his junior year. His toss of 151’ 3” placed him fourth in the field, more than seven feet ahead of league rival Isaac Lo of Bellevue Christian. Martin’s throw is currently the eighth-best javelin mark for WIAA 1A throwers this year.

Rivals’ freshman Kaida Rodrigues came through her first ever triple jump competition looking like a seasoned competitor. With an improvement in every round, Rodrigues finished the competition in fifth place with a jump of 31’ 7”.

Not only was Rodrigues the top frosh at the meet, but her mark sits her as the sixth-ranked jumper so far this year in WIAA 1A, and the second farthest freshman jumper among all WIAA size divisions.

The Rivals placed two competitors in the top 10 of the boys 1600-meter race, with senior Indigo Gould (4:55.29) narrowly leading fast-closing freshman Joshua Yearian (4:55.80) across the line, in eighth and ninth place respectively, with both runners notching PBs. Yearian was the top ninth-grade placer in the event, more than 10 seconds ahead of the next freshman.

The Rivals also scored a top 10 finish in the girls 4x100m relay.

The team of Sienna Emmerson, Carina Shiflett, Audrey Matthes and Kaida Rodrigues placed 10th in 54.46, showing much improved baton exchanges, as they took nearly two seconds off their time from earlier in the week.

Freshman Shiflett also notably posted the top 100-meter finish among ninth-graders, with her 12th-place 14.06 into a slight headwind.

The Rivals track and field squads next travel to Bellingham on Friday, March 22, for the 11-team Twilight in the ‘Ham Invitational meet.