Twin Harbor athletes gear up for state track meets

The annual state track & field meets in Tacoma and Cheney have been fertile hunting grounds for Twin Harbor athletes hunting for state individual and team championships on Memorial Day weekend.

Starting Thursday, Harbor athletes will begin their hunt again, this time with a large group of state contenders in both state meets.

Both state meets are at their now-traditional venues — the state 2A track & field meet will be at Mount Tahoma High School in Tacoma and the state 1A/2B/1B meets will be held at Roos Field at Eastern Washington University in Cheney.

Here is a quick look at contenders heading into this weekend’s track meet.

State 2A

Aberdeen will send a five-spot of athletes to Tacoma for the state 2A meet, led by Bryan Sidor and Faith Cardenas.

Sidor has authored one of the biggest improvements in the 400m on the Harbor, dropping nearly five seconds of time from the Grays Harbor County Championships to today at 49.73. The mark is good enough to lead all 2A 400m runners entering the state tournament, according to Athletic.net.

Sidor will be running in the 200m as well, where he is ranked ninth overall.

For Cardenas, she will be in four events — 100m, 200m, 400m and the 4x200m relay — at Tacoma. Cardenas is ranked eighth overall in the 400m at 59.4 and will be joined by Emmy Walsh, Madi Niemi and Kennedy Pruett in the relay.

State 1A

The state meet in Cheney has been a playground for state titles for some Harbor athletes, especially in the field events. For Montesano’s Jordan Spradlin, it has been a showcase and a celebration as well.

Spradlin will walk into Roos Field as the reigning and defending state champion in the shot put and javelin. She’s ranked No. 1 in the shot put (45-0) and No. 2 in the javelin (132-6), just a hair past five feet under Okanogan’s Jill Townsend (137-9 1/2) at No. 1.

Spradlin will head off to the University of Arizona to compete in track & field in the fall, so this is a final chance for her to grab some hardware to end her high school career.

Also from Montesano, senior Shayla Floch is in three events — high jump, long jump and 200m — and is ranked second overall in the high jump at 5-2. Lakeside-NMF’s Sienna Swannick is the top high jumper at 5-6.

For Hoquiam, its boys team is filled with state contenders, starting with senior Anthony Nash in the 100 and 200m sprints. Nash is fifth overall in the 100m and he is the anchor runner in the 4x100m relay that is ranked third. Jonah Doll, Artimus Johnson and Chris Smith make up the 4x100m relay with Nash.

Senior Devin Merksick has been dominant in the high jump all season and he has the state’s best 1A mark at 6-7. Johnson, who is in the 300m hurdles, is ranked seventh overall in the pole vault.

For Elma, it has a large contingent of runners and athletes going to state. However, only the 4x200m relay team (Jillian Bieker, Jayla Mason, Beka Lensegrav and Maddie Clark) are ranked in the top-eight in the 1A entering the meet.

State 2B

The Twin Harbors’ best chance for a state individual champion, as a group, will come at the 2B meet this weekend. And, those chances will all be in the field events, starting with the throwers.

North Beach’s Seth Bridge, the defending state champion in the discus, owns the state 2B mark in the event at 173-5. Raymond’s Luke Hamilton is seventh overall in the event as well.

Bridge (third), Hamilton (fourth) and North Beach’s Ryan Louderback (fifth) are ranked in the shot put. Ocosta’s Matthew Hart is eighth in the javelin.

In the high jump, North Beach’s Rodney Washington and Raymond’s Marcus Anderson and Jimmy Thepsoumphou are all tied for sixth overall. Anderson is also fourth in the triple jump and sixth in the long jump.

Raymond’s Jace Duckworth is the defending state champion in the pole vault and he’s tied for third overall entering the state meet with North Beach’s Brenden Chaney at 13-6.

For the girls, Raymond’s Karlee Freeman is the biggest story of the meet. Still nursing a knee injury that she aggravated in the district meet, Freeman is “70-80 percent” ready, according to Raymond head coach Mike Tully. Freeman is the state leader in the shot put (38-6) and the discus (159-7), with her discus mark ranked the best in all classifications.

At the district meet, Freeman used standing throws to qualify for state. According to Tully, she may use a few standing thows before going to full throws, depending upon how her knee is feeling, at state, too.

North Beach’s Tawni Blankenship is the state leader in the pole vault at 11-6, with Waterville’s Lexi Deishi at 11-0, Willapa Valley’s Brooke Friese third at 9-3 and Raymond’s Angel Evans tied for sixth.

North Beach’s Nannette and Natasha Fruh are fourth and sixth, respectively, in the discus and Ocosta’s Kathryn Anderson is third overall in the girls 800m.

State 1B

The Harbor’s smallest schools have several contenders as well, including a possible repeat in the boys javelin — Taholah’s Levi Jackson.

Jackson, who won the 2016 title by more than 10 feet and will try to match Taholah’s Jon Jackson’s two state titles in 2015 and 2013, leads the 1B state totals in the javelin at 169-0.

In the girls meet, Taholah’s Celisha Ralston is fifth in the discus, Nettie Mail is sixth in the shot put and Mary M. Knight’s Kaylee Sowle is among the state leaders in the 100m, is ranked first in the high jump and triple jump and is second overall in the long jump.