Mariyah Vongsaveng’s quest for a fourth straight state title is still alive, as are Federal Way’s hopes to win their third consecutive titles in boys and girls track and field. But it might be tougher this year than any of the others.
Tahoma took home the district title in both the girls and boys events. They could be the toughest competition for the Eagles in the state if they want to win it once more.
Federal Way placed third in the boys meet and the girls placed fourth. Decatur boys placed 16th and the girls placed 12th. Beamer placed 18th in the boys meet and 14th in girls. Jefferson boys placed 22nd and the girls placed 20th.
All four of the schools are sending athletes to the state championships. Any who placed in the top six spots at districts will be competing at Mount Tahoma High School.
Vongsaveng qualified for the state championships in both the 300-meter hurdles and the 100 hurdles despite running on a strained quad. After winning the 100 hurdles event, Vongsaveng fell to the track in obvious pain and was carried to the training tent by Federal Way coach Quinn Gillis.
Day two saw Vongsaveng finish with a second-best time of 44.83 seconds in the 300 hurdles and standing on her feet.
Karis Cameron qualified for the 100, 200 and long jump events at the state championships. She was also a member of the Eagles 4×100 relay team that came up just short of qualifying for state.
Khristian Pickens will be busy for the boys team as he qualified for the triple jump, high jump and is a member of the Eagles 4×400 relay team that qualified for state.
The boys team will have to rely on most of their points coming from field events this year if they hope to repeat as state champions. Pickens, Jared Pulu, D’Jimon Jones, Mason Sallee, Marcus Tate and Chico McClatcher all qualified in a field event.
Decatur will be represented by both the boys 4×100 and 4×400 relay teams as they qualified for the state championships. The 4×400 team were the beneficiaries of Stadium’s team being disqualified for having another athlete “pacing” them from the field, an illegal tactic. Their 4×100 team finished fifth with a time of 42.89.
The girls will be represented by Parris Watson in both shot put and discus and Gabrielle Boyd in discus. Watson is one of the favorites to win in both the events she is in at the state championships.
Kemuel Santana, a member of Decatur’s 4×100 and 4×400 teams, will also be competing in the 200.
Beamer will send their girls 4×200 team to state as well as Reed Copeland in the long jump event and Ashley Mason in the 3200.
Reeve Normandia qualified for the Titans in both the 100 and 300 hurdles events.
Jefferson will be represented at state by Isabelle Desimone in the girls pole vault event, Taylor Sterling in the girls high jump event and Zoe Williams in the javelin event.
Michael Johnson qualified for their boys team in the pole vault event.
The 2A, 3A and 4A track and field state championships started on May 28 after the Mirror’s publishing deadline, but they run through May 30. They are being held at Mount Tahoma High School. Day two of the meet begins at 9 a.m. Friday and is scheduled to have their last event of the day at 6:30 p.m. On Saturday, the meet will have its final day start at 9:30 a.m. and the final event is scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m.
