Last Wednesday’s showdown with West Valley and Pullman for the Great Northern League track and field title proved to not be Cheney’s day.
The Blackhawks boys and girls both lost to the Eagles and the host Greyhounds, the boys 98-47 and 79-65 and the girls 89-61 and 80-70 respectively.
Camden Verstrate, Jacob McGourin and Ryan Riekmann each brought home first-place finishes for the Cheney boys. Verstrate captured the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.90 seconds, with McGourin winning the discus with a toss of 173 feet and Riekmann winning the javelin with a mark of 164-00.
Second-place finishes went to Julian Torres, Mekhai Goodloe and Parker Rogers. Torres set a new personal record of 2:01.79 in the 800, Goodloe set a PR of 48-08 to lead McGourin and Hyrum McCombie in a 2-3-4 finish in the shot put — with McGourin’s PR of 48-3.50 good for third — while Rogers and Dawson West went 2-3 in the high jump.
Cameron Watkins was third in the 400, with Dusten Butikofer setting a PR of 57.34 for fourth. JT Gasper was third in the 3,200, Andrew Rushing was third in the discus, Vincent Terrile was third in the javelin and Kolton Shaw set a PR of 38-8.50 for third in the triple jump to round out the Cheney boys’ top-three performances.
The 4x400 team of Watkins, Torres, Rogers and Jaheem Peele was third while the 4x100 team finished fourth.
The only individual first-place finish for the girls went to Abigail Scott. The freshman had a toss of 111-08 to capture the javelin, with sophomore Hope Schnieder’s PR of 92-05 good for second.
The Blackhawks girls had second-place finishes from Sophia Van Wormer (100), Maddie Warren (200), Jaela Thornburg (400), Kaitren Fisher (season best of 50.35 in the 300 hurdles) and Makayla Miller (pole vault). Fisher was third in the 100 hurdles and Hunter Holsten was third in the discus to round out top-three finishes.
The 4x200 team of Sydney Reagan, Warren, Thornburg and Sara Graham finished 3.6 seconds ahead of West Valley for first in a time of 1:51.30. The 4x100 team finished second while the 4x400 team of Mayah Spakousky, Anna Richardson, Isabell Williams and Jenna Mansfield was third.
Blackhawks head coach Derek Slaughter was philosophical about the teams’ performances last Wednesday in Pullman. Cheney was “not prepared to win a league” title, Slaughter said, something that would have required the athletes to have “an amazing day” to do.
The Blackhawks still have time and opportunity to generate those performances in order for the boys to keep their hopes alive for defending their two previous 2A state team titles.
“There were still some great performances (at Pullman) with groups of kids, but we need to have a team effort this next week,” Slaughter said of Friday’s District 7 competition at West Valley. “I am a big believer in it is not bad losing some earlier meets to be sharpened for state at the end. (The) state champion team of 2017 lost to WV, EV (East Valley) in league and was third in districts. Quality is quality.”
The top-two placers from district competition move on to regional action May 17 at Central Washington University in Ellensburg.
John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.
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