The Cheney High School contingent heading to the Star Track 2A state meet this weekend may be small, but they may also be potent.
All seven individuals and two relay teams advanced out of the District 5/6/7 regional meet last Friday at West Valley, and head to competition May 28-30 at Mt. Tahoma High School in Lakewood. The Blackhawks girls finished fourth out of 15 teams at districts with 70 points, three points back of Ephrata, while with just two competitors the boys squad finished 12th.
“We’re looking OK,” Blackhawks girls head coach Tom Stralser said. “This was the year of unknowns and it turned out to be a pleasant surprise.”
The first surprise was freshman KD Skillingstad, who repeated her District 7 performance by winning all three of her events last Friday. She took first in the 100- and 300-meter hurdles with times of 14.86 seconds and 44.85 seconds — both season bests and both top times in 2A state.
Skillingstad also captured the triple jump with another season-best mark of 36 feet, 3.5 inches, fourth best in the state and just an inch and a half behind Burlington-Edison’s Alana Handy. Cheney’s other first-place finish went to senior Jamie Bradley, who captured the pole vault with a vault of 11-00, putting her in a three-way tie for fifth best in state. Stralser said she’s easily capable of 11-06 and with some minor adjustments, could go over 12 feet.
Freshman Alsatta Bakana and sophomore Riley Pease advanced to state with second place finishes in the 100 and javelin. Bakana finished in 12.79, just 47/100ths of a second behind Pullman’s Angel Nkwonta, in the 100 while Pease’s toss of 116-06 was four feet back of Ephrata’s Elizabeth Nowik in the javelin.
Pease is currently the 2A state leader with a throw of 134-4, done at the District 7 meet May 15. Bakana’s season best of 12.52, also at the District 7 meet, has her sixth in state.
Both Cheney girls relay teams advanced. The 4x100 team of Skillingstad, Ally Jones, Bakana and Stephanie Assonken was second with a time of 49.24, 5/100ths of a second back of regionals champion Pullman, giving the schools the top two times in state.
In the 4x400 relay the team of Jones, Jolene Whiteley, Savannah Hyde and Kristie McGourin was third with a time of 4:11.14, with Pullman taking first in 4:07.31.
“You look really good as a coach when you’ve got good athletes,” Stralser said of the relay teams.
On the boys’ side, freshman Peyton Putney and senior Steaven Zachman advanced out of regionals to state. Zachman turned in a season-best of 1:56.15 for second in the 800, third best in state, while Putney’s 22.98 gave him second in the 200. The freshman’s season best time is 22.76.
In wheelchair competition, freshman Isaiah Rigo placed first in four events, the 100, 400, 800 and 1,600.
Competition at Mt. Tahoma begins Thursday afternoon, with Cheney’s first event being the 1,600 wheelchair combined race at 3:20 p.m. Baring anything unforeseen, Stralser thinks all of Cheney’s athletes have strong chances at top-eight finishes.
“Our hope, our goal every year is that everybody who goes gets off the turf,” he said. “You get through preliminaries and you get on the medal stand.”
John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.
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