By John McCallum
Managing Editor 

Blackhawk boys come up short of district title

 

Last updated 5/17/2018 at 9:31am



By JOHN McCALLUM

Managing Editor

When it came to team scoring in last week’s District 7 meet at Cheney High School, things didn’t work out the way the host Blackhawks boys expected.

For starters, Cheney came up short in its bid for a championship, finishing second behind Pullman 199.16 – 194.50. For boys head coach Derek Slaughter, the score wasn’t necessarily about finishes, but about how points were awarded.

“We have five teams in our league and (we) score it like an invite,” Slaughter said. “Top eight spots score, with only three moving on to regionals. If you score top three only, we run away with the meet.”

In many cases, the Blackhawks ran away with most of the top slots, beginning with Cole Omlin. The freshman won three district titles in the field events, taking the high jump with a height of 6 feet, 5 inches and the long and triple jumps with leaps of 20-09 and 43-01 respectively.

Cheney also dominated the sprint races. Charles Johnson captured the 100-meter and 200-meter races with times of 10.71 and 21.81. Peyton Putney was second in both events in 11.15 and 22.81, with Carson Brown making it a 1-2-3 finish in the 200 by placing third with a personal record of 22.83.

Brown turned around and won the 400, also with a PR of 49.65, with Dusten Butikofer third in a PR of 52.31. Isaiah Dunn set a PR of 40.95 for first in the 300 hurdles, with Danny Boyd third in the 110 hurdles. Bas Holland was second in the 3,200 with a PR of 10:05.

Both Cheney relay teams breezed to district titles. The 4x100 team of Zach Jongeward, Jacob McGourin, Putney and Johnson was first in 42.38 and the 4x400 team of Kevin Houndonougbo, Brown, Dunn and Johnson was first in 3:25.17.

McGourin was first in the discus with a throw of 160-09 while freshman Ryan Riekmann advanced to regionals with a second-place finish in the javelin, setting a PR of 155-04 in the process.

Slaughter said he and the other Cheney coaches scratched athletes from some events to give them a better shot to make it out of districts in others, something they wouldn’t have done given the scoring method.

“If a district championship mattered, we would have kept them in, but what matters is state,” he said. “We still have a goal of 82 points at state and have a crew that can achieve that.”

Slaughter is highly optimistic about his athletes’ chances of advancing to state from regional action with the Central Washington Athletic Conference this Friday in Ephrata. That includes the 200 where he believes Cheney has a good shot at advancing all three of its entries.

“There is no trophy for this meet, but we say, ‘Survive and each another week,’” Slaughter said. “Top four is the goal in each event. Then, we will try to make history at state.”

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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