The East Jefferson Rivals track and field teams wrapped up the Nisqually League Championship meet on Vashon Island with the girls team finishing at the No. 2 spot and the boys ending with a second-place tie with Charles Wright Academy.

Down 11 athletes due to a school COVID outbreak, the Rivals reached deep and pushed onward to end with both teams on the winners’ podium, regardless of the hampered state of the squad.

Both teams battled it out with their Nisqually League counterparts in the May 14 matchup, and the Bellevue Christian School teams each took the gold in the championship meet.

The EJ girls finished just one point ahead of Cascade Christian School, 115-114, while the boys tied Charles Wright Academy for second place at 120 points each.

The event also served as the qualifier for the District III Championship meet at North Mason High School, with the top eight finishers in each event moving on.

The Rivals field event crews started the day off with some high notes and league championship titles, along with deep point scoring.

Tusker Behrenfeld captured double wins in the boys javelin (159 10) and discus (123 6) to open scoring for the Rivals during the first-shift field events.

Behrenfeld was backed up by Reid Martin in the javelin (fifth, 116 5), and in the discus by Gage Barry (fifth, 103 6) and Toby Fulton (sixth, 99 7).

Similar depth for the Rivals was on display at the girls shot-put ring as Addy Asbell (second, 29 4.75), Melody Douglas (fifth, 25 9.75), and Ellise Gardner (sixth, 25 8.75) combined for 15 points in the event.

Meanwhile at the pits, Aurin Asbell took fourth in the girls long jump (14 10.75), and in the boys triple jump, Barry was fourth (35 3.5) and Connor Paterson placed sixth (32 10).

The second-shift field competition continued the momentum as Lia Poore took the girls triple jump title (32 5) and Gardner won the girls javelin with a 4.5-foot, personal-best throw of 102 7.

Luna Moloitis also tossed a clutch, personal-best throw of 65 to secure the eighth and final scoring spot in the girls javelin.

The boys shot put crew came up big with Anson Jones (second, 42 6), Barry (third, 41 7), and Behrenfeld (fourth, 41 4) all throwing personal bests to produce a combined 19 points in the event.

Paterson also managed an 8-foot personal best in the boys long jump to claim third place (16 8) in a field with the second- through eighth-place jumpers, all within a foot of each other. 

The final field event points were put up in the girls discus by Gardner (fourth, 84), and Adelynn Johnson (sixth, 80 3) who improved her personal best by nearly 14 feet in the competition.

With personnel missing from all the relay teams, each EJ squad brought in bench depth and performed admirably, with all teams moving on to the district championship. 

The boys 4x100-meter relay squad of Jerome Reaux Jr., Morgan Harbin, Alex Harvey, and Barry, and the girls 4x100-meter team of Addy Asbell, Kay Botkin, Audrey Matthes, and Aurin Asbell each placed third.

The girls 4x200-meter relay team of Addy Asbell, Matthes, Poore, and Camryn Hines earned the bronze spot, as well. The 4x400-meter crews of Sebastian Manza, Glen Dawson, Harvey, and Behrenfeld; and Botkin, Hines, Fiona Fraser, and Tadu Dollarhide placed fourth and fifth in the boys and girls races, respectively.

Then came the distance events. On the boys side, Max Allworth-Miles (second, 800-meter; second, 1600-meter), Manza (second, 3200-meter; third, 1600-meter), Dawson (fourth 1600-meter, seventh 800-meter), and Soare Johnston (fourth 3200-meter) all scored and qualified for the district championships.

For the girls, Hines (second, 800-meter; second, 1600-meter), Fraser (fourth, 3200-meter; sixth, 1600-meter), Poore (fifth, 400-meter; fifth, 800-meter), and Dollarhide (fifth, 3200-meter) came out with comparable results.

The highlight of the sprints for the EJ teams was the girls 100-meter race, with sisters Aurin Asbell (third, 13.51) and Addy Asbell (fifth, 13.92) each sprinting to lifetime bests and outperforming their entrance seed.

Harvey also improved his lifetime best in the 100-meter by two-tenths of a second to 12.24, coming up with matching ninth-place finishes in both the 100-meter and the 400-meter, but will advance to the district championship meet in the 100-meter due to another competitor’s scratch in the event.

Other sprint points on the girls side came from Botkin in the 100-meter hurdles (sixth, 18.98), and Matthes in the 200-meter (eighth, 30.08).

In his first sprint race since straining his hamstring at the home meet on April 27, Reaux ran a conservative 56.93 400-meter race with no problems in his hamstrings to place sixth and move on to the district championships.

Ava Vaughan-Mifsud, Aliyah Yearian, and Staphanie Sanchez were also awarded circumstantial pass-throughs and joined their teammates at the District III Championship at North Mason High School.