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By PAUL DELANEY
Staff Reporter 

Medical Lake track heads to districts with eyes on state berths

Cardinals should qualify strong contingent for state meet at EWU

 

Last updated 5/19/2016 at 2:56pm



Just as co-head coach Gene Blankenship predicted privately, Medical Lake’s boys cruised to victory, 92-62 over Riverside in a Northeast A League dual meet May 12 at home.

But what was surprising to him was the performance of his girls who fell to Riverside by just four points — 70-66 — in the final tune up before district and state competition. And had it not been for an admitted error by Blankenship, the girls were likely on track for an upset victory.

“On the girls’ (side) we made a couple of coaching errors,” Blankenship said. “Blame that on me.”

He failed to put any competitors in the hurdles. “All we had to do is enter one person,” he said. “That final stuff is my responsibility.”

Despite the loss as a team, the Cardinals came away with some impressive individual performances and numerous personal records heading into the district meet Friday at Newport, particularly for an ever-improving girls’ team.

Freshman Jaxyn Farmen won the long jump by a lot with a 16-foot, 9-inch leap and breezed in the triple jump with a 33-11 mark.

“She’s been a real consistent performer,” Blankenship said. And she appears to be on track to win “The Elijah Farmen Award,” named after Jaxyn’s brother who graduated in 2015, which goes to a person who does well in both field events and track. Farmen was second in the javelin at 77-2, just behind teammate Michaela Petersen’s winning 78-11.

Nani Paikuli, a junior, won the shot put with a 27-6 and an 83-11 toss in the discus. “27’s not a long ways but it’s a PR for her,” Blankenship said.

Impressive on the boys’ side were the throwers. “They performed the best,” Blankenship said, specifically Nate Davis. His throw of 43-06 in the shot put was tops for the meet and nearly a foot better than his previous personal record.

Medical Lake won in the usual places for boys with Keyhon Ross sweeping the 100 and 200-meter runs. Their 4x100 team of Ross, Jared Wright, Dawson Lack and Nehemiah Fields won, but were unchallenged, other than a second entry from ML that was ultimately disqualified.

Olijawan Smith easily won in the 100 and 300-meter hurdles, prompting Blankenship to offer the prediction that Smith would qualify for the state meet, which takes place May 26-28 at Roos Field. “He’s going to qualify in the 110’s (hurdles) for sure; he’s a maybe in the 300s.”

Others Blankenship figures will advance to state are of course the boys’ sprints and 4x100 relay team. Distance runners, which have been the staple for ML’s high finishes at state, including a 2014 title, will not be a factor.

“Our distance runners are way too young,” he said.

The girls will likely send both Farmen and Lexi Rolan in the sprints. The 4x100 girls’ team could qualify, but are likely to be shorthanded at districts.

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

 

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