The Juanita High track team may have to rewrite the record books by the time Natayah Bauer has completed her junior season.
Bauer is expected to qualify for the state championships in three events for the third consecutive year. She leads 3A KingCo discus rankings by a whopping 15 feet, is second in the shot put and third in the javelin — and she hasn’t really let loose so far.
“I know I can get through KingCo, get through districts and place high at state, but the main goal is to break some records here and get my name on the boards,” Bauer said at practice on Tuesday, April 26.
She’s breathing down the neck of Kate Cryderman’s shot put record from 2012, and is just over 7 feet shy of Louise Reina’s javelin mark from 2005. She’ll need a bump of around 13 feet to nab the discus record, set in 1981 by Maria Haley.
With the league championships less than two weeks away, the coaches are beginning to ramp things up. The Rebels — both the boys’ and girls’ track teams — are undefeated in league meets so far, and went for a perfect league season on Thursday against Bellevue.
Head track coach Neil Kells said Bauer works hard and puts her mind to the task at hand, but it’s not exactly a level playing field with other athletes.
“It’s unheard of for a freshman to make it to state as a thrower, let alone in all three throws,” Kells said. “For her to make it to state in all three throws as a freshman just proves her talent is God-given. She’s just that natural. To make it again as a sophomore and place in all three — those are not things you teach.”
Bauer is the varsity goalkeeper for the girls’ soccer team in the fall, and she plays on the varsity basketball team in the winter season. She even wrestled for a season in middle school, which is what led her to track and field in the first place.
“I needed something to do after wrestling season,” Bauer said. “It was offered, I didn’t want to do anything else and track sounded fun. But I didn’t want to run. I was coming out here looking for something that didn’t involve running — like a jump or a throw.”
A year later, her freshman season, she placed in the top three at districts in all three events. Her sophomore year, she was sixth at state in the javelin and discus, and fifth in the shot put.
“I think she has three state titles in her this year,” Kells said. “Shot put is going to be kind of hard because there’s a girl down at Bonney Lake [High School] that’s throwing 43 feet right now in shot put, and [Bauer has] had a couple weeks where she hasn’t been able to compete.”
Getting out of KingCo isn’t yet a foregone conclusion. Lake Washington’s Georgia Romine-Black leads the shot put rankings by a mere inch, and Lake Washington’s Natalie Vetto has an 11-foot lead over Bauer’s best time in the javelin.
Bauer said it’s all right to step into the ring with confidence, but she has to be sure to keep things in perspective.
“I think of all these meets like practice for getting into the mindset of, ‘this is the throw that’s going to win state,’ or, ‘this is the throw that is going to take me to finals,'” Bauer said. “I take every meet seriously, no matter how easy it is, so I can prepare myself for when it actually matters.”
