Rivals track and field shows out at Li’l Norway Invitational meet

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East Jefferson track & field teams turned out with some high class performances at Saturday’s Li’l Norway Invitational at North Kitsap High School.

The EJ girls team finished seventh out of 20 teams and the boys ended in ninth out of 20 at the Poulsbo competition April 16.

The action on the track started out with a high note for both teams in the distance medley relay (1200, 400, 800, and 1600-meter) races. While neither team could quite match up to the quartets fielded by 3A opponent Central Kitsap High, both teams placed a solid second place, well ahead of the third team in each race.

The girls’ race was a gripping, back-and-forth affair as junior Camryn Hines led off with a spectacular 3:59.2 1200-meter carry, which set the tone for the team as each following runner ran their best-ever times at their respective distances (Fiona Fraser, 69.4 400-meter; Lia Poore, 2:36.4 800-meter, Aliyah Yearian, 5:27.9 1600-meter).

While their time of 13:13.04 came up 5.5 seconds short of Central Kitsap, the EJ girls broke the 2008 Port Townsend school record by more than 50 seconds.

In the boys race, Central Kitsap took an early lead that they never relinquished, and while EJ chased gamely, they were also dogged the entire way by a credible North Kitsap High School team. Senior Max Allworth-Miles was finally able to break away from North Kitsap’s anchor in the 1600-meter leg to approximately split the distance between Central Kitsap and North Kitsap (CK was first 10:57.63; EJ, second 11:16.07; and NK, third 11:33.20).

The EJ boys ended up just 1.21 seconds short of the 2008 Port Townsend school record, and hope to take another shot at it at a distance festival in Olympia in May. While all of the boys’ legs were solid, they easily have the potential to take a second per lap or more off from each leg (Sebastian Manza, 3:26.5 1200-meter; Jerome Reaux Jr, 56.4 400-meter; Glen Dawson, 2:11.8 800-meter; Allworth-Miles, 4:41.2 1600-meter).

Despite the on-and-off rain showers, cool temperatures, and swirling winds, EJ saw two individual athletes post all-time personal best marks, which netted overall victories.

Senior Tusker Behrenfeld threw the javelin 163 7 in his win to narrowly best his previous top mark of 163 2 from earlier in the week.

Junior Stephanie Sanchez just edged out athletes from Bainbridge and Kingston to nab the 100-meter hurdles victory in 17.58 on her first hurdle race back from Spring Break.

Other top 10 placers included: Allworth-Miles (second, 800-meter, 2:04.93), Lia Poore (fourth, triple jump, 31 2.5; sixth, 300-meter hurdles, 55.15), Manza (fourth, 3200-meter, 10:08.36), Behrenfeld (fifth, discus, 122 1), Sylvia Butterfield (sixth, 3200-meter, 13:41.39), Ellise Gardner (sixth, javelin, 98), Aurin Asbell (sixth, long jump, 14 5.5), Camryn Hines (sixth, 800-meter, 2:30.91), Addy Asbell (seventh, shot put, 29 11), Fiona Fraser (seventh, 1600-meter, 5:51.06), Ava Vaughan-Mifsud (ninth, discus, 83 9), and the relay team of Addy Asbell, Sanchez, Matthes, and Aurin Asbell (seventh, 4x100-meter, 54.33).

Earlier in the week the EJ teams competed at Klahowya Secondary School in Silverdale with Cascade Christian, Bellevue Christian, Charles Wright, and Annie Wright schools.

The coaching staff consensus athletes of the meet for East Jefferson were Melody Douglas and Tristen Herbig, who each notched personal best marks in two events. Douglas improved her discus personal best to 60 3.5, and her 800-meter best to 2:58.90, while also putting the shot 24 9.5.

Herbig completed a distance double with personal bests in both the 800-meter run (2:58.95) and 1600-meter run (6:18.86).

Full meet results are available at the East Jefferson athletic site: www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/School.aspx?SchoolID=358.