By John McCallum
Editor 

Blackhawk girls fall by two at West Valley meet

 

Last updated 5/5/2016 at 12:07pm



When Cheney High girls’ track and field head coach Tom Stralser looks back at last Thursday’s Great Northern League dual meet at West Valley, all he sees are points.

“We left points on the track, we left points on the field,” Stralser said of the Blackhawks 76-74 loss to the Eagles.

But Stralser also sees the positive, something important moving forward towards the District 7 meet, May 13.

“We also competed well in other areas,” he added. “This is the best the girls have competed all year long.”

Cheney grabbed eight first-place finishes, five on the track and three in the field, along with some big points from key second-place finishes.

Sophomore Alsatta Bakana had three of those wins, capturing the 100-meter dash in 12.72 seconds, the 200 in 25.96 — both season-best marks — and the high jump with a vault of 5 feet, 2 inches. Junior KD Skillingstad continues to get into postseason shape, winning the 110 hurdles in 16.05 and the 300 hurdles in 48.21, with freshmen teammates Julliette Gaul and Kaitren Fisher finishing second and third to give Cheney a 1-2-3 sweep in the 300.

Hannah Spakousky won the 3,200 in 12:33.23, with Alexis Brooks third. Savannah Hyde was second in the 400, and Stephanie Assonken set a season-best time of 17.97 for third in the 100 hurdles.

Cheney also went 1-2-3 in the 4x100 relay, with the team of Savannah Hyde, Skillingstad, Assonken and Bakana first in a season-best 51.45. Cheney finished second in the 4x200 and went 2-3 in the 4x400.

In the field, the Blackhawks swept the javelin, with Rylie Pease capturing first with a throw of 138 feet, followed by Marissa Peach in second and Bryanna Sammuels third. Makayla Miller set a season-best vault of 9 feet to win the pole vault.

Stralser said the team got some big points from junior Kristie McGourin, who placed with a season best 30-11.5 in the shot put and was second in the discus as well. competing for the first time in the triple jump, sophomore Alexis Miller tied West Valley’s Kim Anderson at 32-04 for second.

Like their male counterparts, the Cheney girls sent a skeleton crew of athletes to compete Saturday at the Strandberg Invitational at Central Valley. Pease won the javelin with a throw of 127-08 while Bakana tied a season-best of 5-04 for second in the high jump and was third in the 100.

Zoe Lamb was fifth in the pole vault with Miller seventh, and Abby Hammermeister set a new season-best of 5:29.96 for eighth in the 1,600. The distance medley team of Alexis Schmidt, Julia Gundlach, Lelie Holland and Spakousky were sixth as Cheney finished seventh in team scoring with 33.5 points.

The Blackhawks varsity won’t compete again until the District 7 meet May 13 at West Valley High School. The junior varsity will take part in the District 7 JV championships today (May 5) in Pullman.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.

Author Bio

John McCallum, Retired editor

John McCallum is an award-winning journalist who retired from Cheney Free Press after more than 20 years. He received 10 Washington Newspaper Publisher Association awards for journalism and photography, including first place awards for Best Investigative, Best News and back-to-back awards in Best Breaking News categories.

 

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