Competing against Klahowya, Seattle Christian, and Neah Bay high schools, the East Jefferson Rivals track and field teams finished at the top in their final home meet of the 2022 season.

Wednesday, April 27, the Rivals boys and girls teams put on a dominating show for the home crowd, with the girls winning 121 to 51 over second place Klahowya and the boys putting up a similar margin of 111 to 48 over Klahowya.

Vashon High was supposed to compete as well but didn’t make it due to a bus breakdown. 

EJ athletes scored event victories in the boys 100-meter (Jerome Reaux Jr., 11.95), girls 400-meter (Camryn Hines, 65.71), girls 800-meter (Aliyah Yearian, 2:33.09), girls 3200-meter (Tadu Dollarhide, 13:24.30), girls 100-meter hurdles (Stephanie Sanchez, 18.68), boys and girls 4x100-meter relays (Austen Hammer, Reaux Jr., Gage Barry, 49.22; Aurin Asbell, Sanchez, Audrey Matthes, Addy Asbell, 54.03), girls 4x200-meter relay (Kay Botkin, Matthes, Sanchez, Aurin Asbell, 1:58.93), boys and girls discus (Tusker Behrenfeld, 115 1; Ava Vaughan-Mifsud, 85 8), girls javelin (Ellise Gardner, 94 7), boys and girls high jump (Behrenfeld, 5 6; Paisley Mitton, 4 4), girls long jump (Aurin Asbell, 14 1). 

Additionally, the Rivals teams scored clean one, two, and three sweeps of several events: the boys 200-meter (Max Allworth-Miles, 26.17; Hammer, 26.60; Tanner Haddenham, 27.19); boys 1600-meter (Glen Dawson, 4:51.07; Soare Johnston, 4:55.35; Sebastian Manza, 5:00.44); boys 3200-meter (Manza, 11:27.80; Dawson, 11:34.68; Johnston, 11:44.22); boys shot put (Behrenfeld, 40 5.5; Anson Jones, 40 3.75; Barry, 38 8); girls shot put (Addy Asbell, 30 7; Gardner, 35 0.75; Vaughan-Mifsud, 23 7); boys javelin (Behrenfeld, 159 0.5; Reid Martin, 123 1; Toby Fulton, 105 8); and boys triple jump (Barry, 33 4; Connor Paterson, 31 1; Indigo Gould, 30 8.5).

The day was marred by an unfortunate injury, however, as sprint star Reaux Jr. was hobbled by a hamstring strain to his leg in the 4x100-meter relay. About 70 meters through the second leg, Reaux pulled up and limped his way to the handoff zone, allowing his team to complete the victory in the event while also potentially compromising the continuation of his season. Initial diagnosis is that the strain is Grade 1, and with luck and continuous rehab, the team hopes Reaux will be back for the postseason at least in relay duty, if not in time for the individual races.

On Saturday, April 30, a small group of Rivals athletes traveled to Shelton for the elite Shelton Invitational event.

The top EJ finish came from Yearian in the 3200-meter as she pushed the pace in the final two laps to third place in a tight three-way finish in 11:22.72.

Yearian was barely nudged by the top 4A competitors from Olympia (11:21.04) and Puyallup (11:22.44).

Yearian’s mark places her at No. 2 on the Washington State 1A performance list heading into the postseason. 

Also winning medals at the Shelton Invitational were Behrenfeld (fourth, Javelin 160) and Hines (fifth, 800-meter 2:26.74).

Additional competitors were Johnston (fifth, freshman/sophomore mile, 4:52.26), Gardner (eighth, javelin, 96 5), Lia Poore (eighth, triple jump, 33 0.5), Allworth-Miles (eighth, 800-meter, 2:04.31), Behrenfeld (10th, discus, 121 2), Manza (12th, 3200-meter, 10:13.42), Vaughan-Mifsud (14th, discus, 78 2), and Fiona Fraser (14th, 3200-meter, 12:35.96).