The East Jefferson Rivals track and field teams travelled out to Rainier to face a field of 18 other high school teams for the Rainier Icebreaker Invitational, with the Rivals’ girls team finishing in second overall and the boys in fifth.

On Saturday, March 19, both EJ squads travelled south to Rainier High School’s track field to kick off their spring season.

The girls team finished second to Montesano High, losing 88-80, and the boys earned the fifth place spot with a total score of 66.5 points across competitions.

Senior Tusker Behrenfeld opened the meet for the Rivals as the first competitor up in the javelin competition. With his first throw of the season, Behrenfeld put out a spectacular mark and eventual winning throw of 163 feet and one inch in distance. It was nearly 20 feet ahead of second place and currently sits as the top mark in the whole state among 1A schools. In the discus event, Behrenfeld started off with another incredible throw, adding nearly 20 feet to his personal best to place third with 122 feet and eight inches in distance for the throw. He leads the state for 1A schools in discus.

The Rainier Icebreaker featured a pair of rarely run co-ed relays: a sprint medley relay (100 meters, 200 meters, and 400 meters), and a four-by-400-meter relay.  The EJ quartets of Stephanie Sanchez, Jerome Reaux Jr., Audrey Matthes, and Austen Hammer in the sprint medley relay; along with Reaux Jr., Lia Poore, Camryn Hines, and Sebastian Manza in the four-by-400-meter relay each earned strong second place showings behind 2A opponent White River High.

The distance events were a strong point for the Rivals teams at the invitational event. As the girls 3200-meter racers took the line, they were being pelted with wind and hail. Sophomore Aliyah Yearian didn’t let that temper her ambition though, as she stormed out to a commanding lead within the first 50 meters of the race. Lap after solo lap, she extended her lead to take the race in 12:02 with a winning margin of greater than one minute over second place teammate Fiona Fraser (13:03), who made use of a fourth quarter surge to get 16 seconds clear of the third place finisher.

The boys’ 3200-meter race was similarly impressive for freshman runner Soare Johnston. In his first-ever track race, Johnston led wire-to-wire for a 16-second victory in 10:52. Other top placings for the distance squads included Hines’ walkaway victory in the 800-meter race (2:33), and Manza’s second place finish in the 1600-meter race (4:55), both within a second of their best-ever marks.

Other standout performers for the Rivals include: Aurin Asbell (first long jump, 14-feet-2-inches), Poore (second in the triple jump, 29-feet-6-inches; seventh in 1600-meter race, 6:16.95), Kay Botkin (second in 100-meter hurdles, 18.84), Manza (second in 300-meter hurdles, 49.80), Ellise Gardner (third for javelin, 91-feet-7-inches; 5th in discus, 82-feet-4-inches), Gage Barry (fourth in shot-put, 37-feet-7-inches; fifth in discus, 116-feet-1-inch), Addy Asbell (fourth in 200-meter race, 29.31; eighth in high jump 4-feet-2-inches; eighth in shot-put 27-feet), Reid Martin (sixth in javelin, 115-feet), Glen Dawson (sixth in 800-meter race, 2:21.49), Reaux Jr. (seventh in 100-meter race 12.14), and Tadu Dollarhide (eighth in 1600-meter race, 6:24.42).

To see the full results for EJ at the event, go to athletic.net/TrackAndField/School.aspx?SchoolID=358.