Medical Lake gets the results they expected in District 7 track

Cardinals will send three to 2A regionals at Prosser

By PAUL DELANEY

Staff Reporter

Last week's Great Northern League track championships produced the exact result Medical Lake coaches expected. Three Cardinals head to Friday's regionals as senior high jumper Matt Friddle, junior hurdler Clay Watters and Libbie Klettke, a sophomore, will shoot for state berths at Prosser.

As a coaching staff, “We're excited about some things,” that came out of last week's competition at West Valley High School, head coach Gene Blankenship said. “Overall I thought we did a pretty good job, we set a lot of personal records.”

“There were some kids who were disappointed, but the coaching staff thought we did exactly what we thought we'd do,” Blankenship said. “The three that qualified were the exact same ones the coaches thought would advance.” Taking that thought one step further, Blankenship thinks they are also the three who have the best shot to get to state.

Team-wise, Cheney (193.5 points) and East Valley (141) battled it out at the top of the boys' standings with Medical Lake sixth with 26 points. Cheney's 150 points topped East Valley's 136.5 while Medical Lake was seventh 31 in girls' team standings.

“I think our best bet is Clay Watters,” Blankenship said of his hurdler who qualified by finishing third in the 300-meter event with a time of 41.55, just behind East Valley's Beau Somers who clocked a 41.12. Cheney's Diondre' Moore-Young won with a 39.84.

Matt Friddle, also third in the high jump at 6-feet even was 4 inches under winner Matt Mauro of West Valley. “The best high jump from the other district was 5-10,” Blankenship said.

Klettke finished second in the javelin and just missed the cut in the discus, finishing fourth with a throw of 99 feet, 8-inches, three feet short of a berth there too. “She set three personal records and all three went into our (Medical Lake) top-10 list,” Blankenship said. Klettke's 114-foot, 7-inch throw in the finals was second all-time at ML behind record holder Misty Robinson who threw 117-8 in 2002.

Blankenship said in order to advance to state – which the top four placers do – “I think she'll have to PR again.”

As he looks toward the future, Blankenship's top goal over the summer is to increase the number of kids who participate in both cross country and track.

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.