Lake Washington boys take 4×100 crown at district meet | Prep track

SEATTLE — For the second week in a row, Scout Callens raised his arms in victory, having won a tight contest in the 4x100 meter relay.

By John William Howard • May 21, 2016 10:36 pm
Lake Washington’s Scoutt Callens raises his arms in victory following the Kangaroos’ first-place finish in the 4x400 meter relay finals on Friday
Lake Washington’s Scoutt Callens raises his arms in victory following the Kangaroos’ first-place finish in the 4x400 meter relay finals on Friday

SEATTLE — For the second week in a row, Scout Callens raised his arms in victory, having won a tight contest in the 4×100 meter relay.

The Lake Washington High senior ran the final leg for the Kangs’ title relay team at the 3A SeaKing District II championships on Friday, May 20 at Southwest Athletic Complex. Ryan Clifford, DJ Mann and Chet Atuanya ran the first three legs, finishing in 43.08 seconds.

“Being underdogs for a couple years, being behind and coming through to win KingCos and Districts, that’s what we practice for,” said Callens. “That’s pretty incredible to see it play out at the end of the season.”

The foursome, though Atuanya said the group has been more consistent this season compared to last season, hasn’t been able to compete together for very long. Clifford has been nursing an injury, and only returned for the district preliminary events on May 18 — at which the group set the top time of 42.98 seconds, the fourth-fastest time in school history.

The Kangs’ time from the preliminaries was the third-fastest time across Class 3A for the weekend, and the fifth-fastest time in Class 3A this season, promising Lake Washington a good seed at the state championships, scheduled for May 26-28 at Mt. Tahoma High School in Tacoma.

As a team, the Lake Washington boys placed eighth with 29 points. The Juanita boys placed fifth with 54.83 points, and the meet was won by Bishop Blanchet with 82 points.

The Juanita girls took second overall with 54.5 points behind Holy Names Academy (57) and ahead of Chief Sealth (52). The Lake Washington girls finished 13th with 30 points.

The Lake Washington boys weren’t the only team to have a dramatic finish in the relays. The second-fastest time in the 4×100 meter relay this season was set by Juanita in April, but that was before senior Makiah Gilmer dropped out ahead of the KingCo championships for personal reasons.

And when junior Salvon Ahmed pulled up lame in the 100 meter finals and Noah Kells strained his hamstring on May 20, the Rebel boys relay teams looked doomed. The 4×100 team failed to qualify for state, and the 4×400 team entered the final leg with ground to make up for the fifth and final state berth from District II.

Enter Randy Jones.

The senior took the baton with a 10-meter space between him and the sixth-place runner, but caught up and was in fifth rounding the final bend.

“I run a better last 200 than I do a first 200, so I came out real hard,” Jones said. “I managed to catch up a bit and stick with [Interlake’s Raymond Salgado] on the third 100, so I knew right there I could bring it home. About 20 meters to go, my legs didn’t work anymore and I felt him on my right.”

With Salgado gaining, Jones was all but out of options.

“I did what I had to do,” he said. “I dove forward, and I guess it was worth it.”

Jones crossed the finish line horizontally, finishing three one-hundredths of a second ahead of Salgado for fifth place and a spot in the state championships.

Juanita had an extensive list of standout performances, led by top-two in the girls’ shot put and discus competitions from Natayah Bauer. The junior set the school record in the shot put on her first throw of 40 feet, 2 inches to win, and took second in the discus competition with a throw of 112 feet, 4 inches. Bauer also qualified for state in the javelin with a fifth-place finish.

Juanita’s Tom Mikkelson and Adrian Goodwin pulled away on the final lap to qualify for state in the boys 3,200 meters, finishing fourth and fifth, respectively. Mikkelson set a career-best of 9 minutes, 38.09 seconds.

Nathan Casebier took second in the finals for the 110 meter hurdles with a career-best of 14.7 seconds.

Jones qualified for state in three individual events with a third-place finish in the triple jump, a tie for fourth place in the long jump and a fourth-place finish in the 300 meter hurdles.

Lake Washington had a strong showing in the throwing events.

Brandon Gockel threw 160 feet, 2 inches to take second in the boys’ javelin competition, while Natalie Vetto won the girls’ javelin competition by clearing 126 feet, 2 inches. Kangaroo senior Georgia Romine-Black took second in the girls’ shot put with a mark of 36 feet, 5.75 inches.

STATE QUALIFERS

Lake Washington boys

Scout Callens — 200 meters, 5th

4×100 meter relay champions

Alex Guerrero — Discus, 5th

Brandon Gockel — Javelin, runner up

Lake Washington girls

Thayer Davis — 400 meters, 5th

Georgia Romine-Black — shot put, runner up

Natalie Vetto — Javelin champion

Brittany Blaskovich — Pole vault, 5th

Juanita boys

Noah Kells — 800 meters, 4th

Tom Mikkelson — 3,200 meters, 4th

Adrian Goodwin — 3,200 meters, 5th

Nathan Casebier — 110 meter hurdles, 2nd

Randy Jones — 300 meter hurdles, 4th; Triple jump, 3rd; Long jump, 5th

4×400 meter relay, 5th

Juanita girls

Natalie Kalda — 100 meter hurdles, 3rd

Shelby Wilks — 300 meter hurdles, 4th

4×100 meter relay, 3rd

4×200 meter relay, 5th

Natayah Bauer — Shot put champion; Discus runner up; Javelin, 5th

Tamani Smart — Triple jump, 3rd

CORRECTION: This story was updated to reflect the order of runners in the Juanita boys’ 4×400 meter relay. The last leg was run by Randy Jones.