Cardinals compete at Cochram Relays in Wenatchee

WENATCHEE — Rain greeted the Medical Lake track and field team early, but the sun shined both literally and figuratively for the Cardinals later in the day at the Ray Cochram Relays on March 23.

“We got lucky with the weather,” Coach Gene Blankenship wrote in a social media post. “It did rain a bit in the morning, but we had sunshine for the rest of the day.”

Among those bright efforts was a first-place in the 4x100 Throwers Relay by Allison Appel, Chiche Okemgbo, Feodora Lalicker and Autumn Trout in a time of 56.92 seconds.

Okemgbo added her own individual wins with a 37:11.5 school record in the shot put and a 106-04 in the javelin. She recorded a discus toss of 112-11 in the javelin, also a school best.

Allison Appel PR’d in the shot put, Autumn Trout in the discus and Feodora Lalicker in the javelin.

Autumn Trout, Allison Appel, Layla Burris and Charde Luat landed in a tie for second place with Okanogan in the 4x300 relay in 3:13.78.

Another school record went to Kaylee Dennler in the 1,600 meters with a fourth place and time of 5:43.01.

Chuks Okemgbo had the highest finish among the Cardial boys with a third-place in the high jump at 6-foot even. Nakai Ornelas was fourth with a personal record in the 1,600 meters.

The girls finished fifth as a team with 60 points, behind Lake Stevens at 129. The Cardinal boys were eighth with 28 points where, again, Lake Stevens (162.5) won the team title.

“We’re a young track team and I think we’ll see lots of improvement this year,” Blankenship said.