Busy times for Medical Lake track

Medical Lake track and field is getting very much used to life on the road riding buses.

The Cardinals completed a busy week with competition in the Northeast A League at Newport April 26 where the boys lost to Lakeside 94-50 and the host Grizzlies 73-71. ML's girls lost to Lakeside 93-57 and Newport 103-28.

Over the weekend the squads were split with 16 athletes - eight boys and girls each - traveled to Bellevue for the Shoreline Invitational, while another 24 ventured to Ritzville for the Undeberg Invitational.

At Shoreline where schools of all sizes competed, 1A Medical Lake had some impressive results.

"The boys had three PRs (personal records) and the girls had four," head coach Gene Blankenship reported in an email. Reid Headrick finished fifth overall in the elite 3200 meters and claimed the school record in 9 minutes, 29.84 seconds.

Kayla Ramsey improved her 3200-meter school record time running 11:16.04 in the elite girls 3200 race. Ramsey finished fifth as the top small school athlete.

Jenna Castro was fourth in the Open 1600 running 5:30.63. Chiche Okemgbo finished fourth in the shot (38 feet) and third in the discus (113-08/PR).

Dakota Phillips cleared 11 foot, 6 inches in the pole vault moving to seventh on the ML top-10 list.

In Ritzville and the small school centered Undeberg, five boys and six girls established new PRs.

Among those was Elijah Outhenthapanya who finished second in the shot put at 40 feet, 6 inches.

Notable efforts by the girls included Kaitlyn Wiley finishing fifth in the 800 (2:43.78) and third in the 1600 (6:07.01).

The 4X100 relay team consisting of Kelsey Wiley, Layla Burris, Charde Luat and Ailaihni Viloria finished fourth overall at 54.57 seconds and behind Okanogan's 52.12.

The ML boys had 27 PRs and the girls 15 in Newport.

"The total of 42 PRs shows a lot of progress which will likely help our scores surpass our competitors," Blankenship reported on Facebook. "It means that almost every single Cardinal is improving," he added.

Adasha Gardner ran 52.59 in the 300-meter hurdles, moving her onto the tenth spot all-time at Medical Lake. Gardner also moved to the seventh place in the pole vault at 7 feet, 6 inches. Castro vaulted to the second spot on the list with an 8-6.

Headrick swept all the distance races and was first overall in the 800, 1600 and 3200-meter events.

Medical Lake had a 1-2 finish in the 3200 with Castro (12:08.59) and Jasmine Cruz (13:00.46) pacing the field.

Dakota Phillips finished second in both the 110 and 300-meter hurdles and third in the pole vault.

ML's team of Cris Garza, Josh Henry, Eli Ueda, and Cylas Puzycki finished second in the 4X100 relay. Liam Earl had a solid day in throwing finishing second in the shot and discus, plus third in the javelin.

Chuks Okemgbo was second in the high jump. Among the girls Kelsey Braswell finished third in the 100 while Charde Luat was runner-up in the 200.

Hazel Grubaugh was second in the 400 and third in the 1600. Ramsey finished third in the 800 with Kaitlyn Wiley second in the 1600.

Alilahni Viloria finished second in the 100M hurdles, and Adasha Gardner won the 300m hurdles.

The girls' team of Ramsey, Cruz, Castro and Gardner also won the 4X400 relay. Chiche Okemgbo also had a solid quadruple effort winning the shot put, javelin and the triple jump as well at being second in the discus. Tessa Appel was second in the high jump.

Perhaps getting used to travel is a good thing for the Cardinals?

Medical Lake concluded NEA competition hosting its lone league meet May 3 and then focuses on districts, May 19-20 at Riverside and then state in Yakima the following weekend.

Paul Delaney is a retired Free Press Publishing reporter and can be reached at pauldelaney53@comcast.net.