District runs away with three silver medals at state track

By CASEY OLSON

The Mirror

The Federal Way School District’s trek to Eastern Washington for the Class 4A State Track and Field Meet didn’t yield any championships. But district athletes still had a solid meet Friday and Saturday at Pasco’s Edgar Brown Stadium.

The Todd Beamer 4x100-meter relay team again came up one place short from winning a state championship Saturday. The Titans finished second to Evergreen in the final. Evergreen outleaned Beamer 42.16 to 42.37. The Titan team included Duran Ward, Josh Waller, Justin Drayer and Anthony Hogan. The only senior on the team was Waller, who also finished fourth in the 100 in a time of 11.23.

Decatur junior Ezra John Griffey also had a strong state meet in the sprint events. Griffey finished in second place in the 200 in a time of 22.06 and third in the 100 in 11.17.

Federal Way senior Viktor Gruy also ended up with a silver medal in Pasco. Gruy jumped a career-best 14 feet, 6 inches in the pole vault to finish second behind Kamiak’s Sean Beighton (14-9).

On the girls’ side, Federal Way sophomore Jacqie Evenson ended up in third place in the 300 hurdles in a time of 44.84 after failing to qualify for the finals in the 100 hurdles. The Todd Beamer 4x200 relay team also finished third and just like Evenson, the Titan relay team will have at least two more chances at winning a state championship. The Beamer team, which finished behind Garfield and Bellarmine Prep on Saturday, includes freshmen Mercedes Sullivan, Jessica Niewoehner and Mackenzie Hickel, and sophomore Shlonda Baker.

Jefferson Jennifer Wamsley had a solid all-around state meet. The junior finished in a tie for third place in the high jump with a leap of 5-4, 15th in the long jump (15-9 3/4) and sixth in the triple jump (36-2 1/2).

Other placers on the boys’ side during the state meet were Federal Way’s Jay Davis in the long jump (fifth, 21-3 1/4) and Beamer’s Justin Drayer in the 200 (seventh, 22.66).

Other placers on the girls’ side include Jefferson senior Kenna Patrick in the 1,600 (sixth, 5:03.14) and 3,200 (eighth, 10:57.08), TJ’s Sofia Malamura in the shot put (fourth, 39-6) and discus (fifth, 123-5), TJ’s Kelsey Racicot in the javelin (seventh, 114-2), Decatur’s Jordyn Woodke in the triple jump (fifth, 36-5 3/4) and Decatur’s Gena Woodke in the discus (123-0).

• Todd Beamer High School senior Judy Liening added another Class 4A State Girls Tennis Tournament trophy to her collection Saturday.

Liening ended up in fifth place at the Vancouver Tennis Complex after cruising into the semifinals.

It was Liening’s third-straight state tournament trophy, but first on the singles’ court. During the past two state championships, Liening played doubles with partner Megan Havili. But Havili graduated last year, leaving Liening to test her singles skills. Liening and Havili ended up at in second place during the 2006 tournament and were in the top-eight in 2005.

Liening downed Roosevelt freshman Hallie Martin in the opening round on Friday, 6-1, 6-1. The win set up an epic three-set quarterfinal match with Shorewood’s Kari Fiske. After losing the first set, 6-4, to Fiske, Liening won the final two, 7-5, 6-4, to earn a berth into the semifinals against Gig Harbor’s Christy Sipes.

But that was were her run would end. Sipes, a freshman, beat Liening, 6-2, 6-1, Saturday. The Beamer senior then lost to Evergreen freshman Christina Le in the third/fifth match, 6-2, 6-3.

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