Undeberg Invitational, Race Report

Howdy, glad you’re back again. Settle in because a lot happened at the Undeberg Invitational yesterday. I’ve broken the meet down into two parts. I thought it was a terrifically run meet and you can find my comments on that in this post. On to athletes.

The first running event of the day was the women’s 4x200. Colfax won the event in a time of 1:50.49 with a team that has two freshmen and a sophomore. I watched from the first exchange point. The second place team from Ritzville was in the lane next to Colfax. Ever try to get a picture of perpetual motion? The two girls were practically vibrating while they chatted, one bouncing on her toes, the Ritzville runner going side to side instead—until the gun went up and the race started. The Broncos had a lead from the starting split coming into the first exchange, but the Colfax team, with Sarah Kraut leading off, had a series of good exchanges and ran a season PR to edge Ritzville by less than a second while Colville stayed competitive, pulling in third place.

The women’s 3200m was much less competitive as freshman Shania Graham of Republic ran away from fellow freshman Mariah Pena (Medical Lake), winning with a time of 11:56. Heidi Hennings (Ling-Ritzville) stayed close on Pena’s heels, clocking in at 12:37, two seconds behind the freshman, good for third place.

The men’s 3200m, run much later in the day, finished with a terrific sprint between Colville’s Kevin Carpenter and Lakeside’s Ryan Coffman. Carpenter edged by about a half-second, 10:01.27 to 10:01.85. The field was crowded with 32 runners and several more positions were decided with hard finishing kicks. The trio of Cody Alvarez (Othello), TJ Baun (Colville), and Brady Mullikin (Asotin) finished within less than a second and a half between them.

I caught the hurdles this time and watched Ryan Whitmore (Lind-Ritzville) win both the 110m High hurdles as well as the 300m intermediates—avoiding a loss in the intermediates by nearly flinging his body over the last hurdle as he got his feet out of step and missed the approach. He edged Marco Pena (Othello) in both. The longer race was decided by .05 seconds. Luke Walker (Colville) took third in the 300m and sixth in the 110m. Joe Lang (Royal), Shawn Weisner (Pomeroy), and Colton Forman (Kittitas) finished in the top five in the 110m hurdles while Owen Lanning (Waitsburg-Prescott) took fourth in the 300m hurdles with Ben Elliott (Colville) joining his teammate Walker in the top five.

Colfax ran out two women fresh from the 4x200 relay, Bailey Mackleit and Parker Warwick who placed first(16.67 seconds) and fourth respectively in the high hurdles. Allison Wujek (DeSales) was second, Karlee Maioho (Wilbur-Creston) third, and Mara Riley of Seattle Academy fifth.

Mackleit came back to post a season’s-best 48.84 to win the 300m event. Freshman Karlee Maioho moved up to second. The women’s 300m hurdles were dominated by younger athletes as sophomore Jadyn Dandreth (Reardan), freshman Allison Garza (Othello), and another skilled Colfax runner, Olivia Mellor, a sophomore, rounded out the top five.

I missed the 100m sprints as I wandered around the field events.

Pole vaulting turned out to be a bit of an adventure. The Colfax coach Jason Cooper was kind enough to answer some of my questions since I admittedly know very little about the technical aspects of vaulting.

The wind, gusting from nearly behind the vaulters, effectively shoving them more quickly into the bar as they elevated. Apparently this is preferable to a side wind which alters the direction of the pole plant and forces the athletes into off-balance, sometimes dangerous take-offs. I’ve joked for years that, over-tall and over-broad as I am, I make a good sail. It’s less funny when you’re balanced 12’ off the ground on a slender rod and hoping that you’re still over the pit.

Coach Cooper’s vaulters are probably looking for better weather, but Sam Daily tied his personal best and won with a vault of 12’00”. A pair of Davenport men tied in height, Tanner Perry tying his PR while his teammate, Austin Zeller set a new one. They were followed by two Pomeroy Pirates, Memo Morfin and Cole Mayfield. All five of the top men either tied or beat their previous bests.

Lakeside dominated on the women’s side, taking the top two spots. Farrahn O’Hara won, clearing 10’06” while Samantha Blake cleared 10’. Scout Cai is another very promising Colfax pole vaulter. She has good speed and elevation but is still developing her technique. Both she and Blake are sophomores. With pole vault such a technical event, I expect to see some fun battles as they both become more skilled.

The women’s 1600m. Wow! Seven of the top ten spots taken by freshmen, led by Madison Ward of St. George’s as she builds on the impressive start to her high school career with a 5:29.86. Felicia Ziemer (Lind-Ritzville) took second while Harley Strope (Reardan) was the only upperclassman to crack the top five. Mariah Pena backed up her strong 3200m with another good performance in this event. Kat Stephenson, running with a tender Achilles’, came close to a PR. Heather Siegel, the St. John-Endicott standout, was solid in sixth. Zoe Robertson (TO-GP) set a PR sneaking past Emily Adams (Waitsburg-Prescott) and teammate Katie Holbrook (a sophomore). Kiara Hoxie held off Robertson and the others to secure seventh. It’s an impressive group of young runners.

Domenic Rehm (Medical Lake) won convincingly with a 4:30. Ryan Coffman (Lakeside) ran a 4:34. Kevin Carpenter a 4:35 and Micah Dingfield (Medical Lake) 4:38. Unlike the women’s side, the men’s race was controlled by upperclassmen. The only freshman to get into the top ten was Thomas Weakland (Asotin) who set a PR with a 4:42.96 as he took seventh.

The head wind didn’t help any of the discus throwers.

Piper Loop (Asotin) continued her winning ways, picking up a first place finish again in discus with a toss of 117’03” and a fourth place with a season-best shot put of 35’07”. Alyssum Reno of Kittitas won the women’s shot put (39’03”).

Jacob Swearingen (Asotin) won both the shot (47’09”) and discus (146’09”) for the men. The competition in the shot put was close with Eli Richardson (Rosalia) heaving a 47’07.25 and James Hopkins (Reardan) keeping pace with a 45’06.5”. Inches separated Austin Oursland (140’09”, Kittitas) and Josh Brown (140’01”, Colfax) as they vied for second in discus.

Moving back to the running events (and no, these aren’t in order!), the men’s 800m race surprised the heck out of me and at least one runner. Brady McKay (Asotin) ran the fourth heat of the race, consistent with his previous efforts. The fastest runners went in Heat 1, the next fastest in 2, etc. Except that Brady apparently didn’t get that particular memo. He roared past me at the 100m mark already with a ten yard lead and I liked his aggression, attacking the race. When he came by again, at 500 meters,  the lead was up to thirty yards.

I talked to him after the 800m, before I realized he had blasted a 13 second PR and taken fourth place overall. He sounded a little stunned at himself and thinks it might be time for him to challenge the 4:51 plateau he’s been stuck at as a miler. I suspect his coach, Tim Gundy, will agree.

St. George’s took the top two spots in the race. Will Tender ran a 2:02 and Nathan Vanox a 2:06. Isaac Mata (DeSales) was next in 2:07.8.

Madison Ward and Felicia Zeimer sandwiched Shania Graham as freshmen lead the way again. Only one junior (Anna Cook of La Conner) and no seniors placed in the top ten. Ward, Zeimer, Katherine Meyer (Kittitas), Lily Vogt (Seattle Academy), Zoe Robertson (her second of the day), and Katie Holbrook all set personal records at the distance.

Coach Rick Riley of St. George’s took a few minutes to talk to one of the milers, going over the way that Steve Prefontaine would structure his week to build both his base and his speed. Since I was lollygagging in the area watching the high jumpers and javelin throwers, I eavesdropped. Interesting stuff and I thought it pretty neat that a running legend took time out during a busy meet to share his knowledge with the kid.

I think I could write an article on Rick but we’ll save that for the cross country season, I think.

Since I mentioned javelin, did you know that a javelin can rotate 180 degrees when the wind catches it? Bit wild looking. When you catch the wind just right, oh my. One of the gentlemen marking throws had to beat a hasty retreat when a Kittitas thrower, (Austin Oursland. I think) launched one and caught air. Oursland took second to Kolton Cobb of Columbia-Burbank who nailed a throw of 170'.

I went looking for more coverage of the meet but about the only thing I could find was a nice article on the DeSales team in the Union-Bulletin covering the bounty of PR’s their team had.

I caught this young man, Alex Scoggins of Seattle Academy, as he was preparing for his last attempt in the triple jump. He finished third on this attempt

(39'11.5"). Owen Lanning (Waitsburg-Prescott) won the event with a triple jump of 41'00.5" and Kameron Strobel (Colville) took second at 40'10.25".

That'll have to do it for today. As always, I know I didn't get to everybody and I'm sorry-doing what I can. You all are awesome!

All the results and placements for the Undeberg Invitational  were courtesy of Athletic.net. It's a truly awesome resource. And many thanks to the race director - having a program made this whole project easier.

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(I modified this article to correct a mistake of mine. I called Jacob Swearingen 'Josh' in error. Sorry, Jacob!)