Rivals compete at BCS Invitational, East Jefferson boys take gold

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The East Jefferson track and field teams traveled to Sammamish to take on the fields at the BCS Invitational event, with the EJ boys team finishing in first and the girls in fourth.

The boys claimed a victory in the 16-team field with a score of 117, topping Nisqually League rival Bellevue Christian School’s 110 points.

The girls managed a fourth-place showing with 77 points on the strength of their throws and distance event performances.

Tusker Behrenfeld was far and away the field event athlete of the meet, collecting the full suite of podium placings and more.

Behrenfeld notched his sixth javelin win in seven competitions with a throw of 159 2, nearly 30 feet ahead of his closest competitor.

In other throwing events, the script was flipped, as Behrenfeld turned in solid second-place performances, trailing behind exceptional throws by competitors in the discus (155 2 to 117 7 behind Forks High School’s Sloan Tumaua) and shot put (49 7.75 to 40 0.5 behind Bellevue Christian’s Brett Olson).

In addition to his throws, Behrenfeld also competed in the high jump for the first time and came up big with a third-place finish on a 5 4 jump.

Other top contributors to the East Jefferson’s onslaught included a one-two sweep of the girls discus by Ava Vaughan-Mifsud and Ellise Gardner; a second-place throw by Gardner in the javelin; third place in the shot put and javelin by Gage Barry and Reid Martin respectively; and a third, sixth, and seventh place collection in the girls shot put by Gardner, Melody Douglas, and Vaughan-Mifsud.

The distance events were the other big trove of points for both of the Rivals teams.

Camryn Hines gave EJ its first track victory of the day when she set fire in the last lap of the 1600-meter race to run away with a three-second win in 5:27.16, more than 20 seconds faster than her previous best in the event, and joining teammate Aliyah Yearian in the 1A State top 10 for the distance.

First-place finishes in personal best times were also claimed by Max Allworth-Miles in the 800-meter (2:01.94), and Aliyah Yearian in the 3200-meter (11:48.49) with margins of victory at nearly 10 and 35 seconds respectively.

The Rivals also netted points in the distance events with podium appearances by Glen Dawson (second place, 800-meter, 2:11.07); Sebastian Manza (second, 1600-meter, 4:41.78); Soare Johnston (second, 3200-meter, 10:11.28); Lia Poore (second, 800-meter, 2:35); and Fiona Fraser (third, 3200-meter, 12:29.29). All had personal-best times.

Other East Jefferson points came from a first and third finish in the boys triple jump by Gage Barry (35 3.5) and Connor Paterson (33 6); fifth place for Paisley Mitton in the high jump (4 4); first place in the 400-meter (54.15) and fourth place in the 200-meter (24.46) for Jerome Reaux Jr.; sixth place in the 200-meter for Hines (29.83); and a close second-place finish in the boys 4x400-meter relay (Reaux Jr., Dawson, Manza, and Allworth-Miles) at 3:44.16 to close out the meet.