Post Falls’ Waltz Dances Into Two Record Books
Records are made to be broken, except when Ian Waltz comes around. The sturdy Post Falls senior obliterated two records Saturday afternoon at Central Valley High School to earn athlete of the meet honors at the Strandberg Invitational Twilight Meet.
Waltz heaved the shot put a pedestrian - for him - 60 feet, 11 inches, wiping out the 5-year-old record of 54-1 3/4 set by Kevin Wright of Lewis and Clark.
That, however, was nothing when the 6-1 1/2, 245-pounder stepped into the discus ring. He cut loose a toss of 182-10, a whopping 22-2 past the mark established by Eric Johnson of Cheney in 1991.
“It feels good,” Waltz said. “I made a goal with myself to break at least one record every meet I go to.”
He only came up short once, and that was last week at the Coeur d’Alene Invitational when he couldn’t quite catch the marks set by former Mead standout Jason Baskett.
Waltz isn’t giving up on catching Baskett, though - he is headed to Washington State on a track scholarship. Baskett graduates from WSU this spring.
“The discus was good - I tied my best after sitting around for 3 or 4 hours,” Waltz said. “The shot wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be.”
The lack of competition didn’t phase Waltz, since he won the shot by almost 9 feet and the discus by better than 30.
“One of the things I’ve been working on all year is to compete against myself,” he said. “It’s kind of tough to do sometimes.”
Wenatchee’s boys and West Valley’s girls edged CV for team titles, with the Post Falls boys and Ferris girls third. However, the nice, overcast day produced 13 meet records.
Kaci Stansbury of West Valley did the opposite of Waltz. She also won athlete of the meet honors by setting records in the shot put and discus, but she did it the other way around.
First she threw the discus 135-1 1/2, easily erasing the 117-9 by Chewelah’s Hannah Barans in 1992. Then she went to the shot put and had a 41-1/2 put that allowed the 39-11 by LC’s Nikki Stillian to stand for only a year.
“There have been a lot of records broken in everything,” Stansbury said. “It’s not overly hot (like last year). It’s kind of just right today, not overly cold (like two years ago).”
The shot put was a personal record for the senior and the discus was close. Both are near the state lead for Class AA athletes.
“In the shot put, we changed my form a little last week,” she said. “I’m a little smoother and faster across the ring. It still wasn’t all there but it was 41. I’ll take it. I’m pretty excited.”
Among the excited people was sprinter Stephanie Pfeifer. The Ferris junior had never won an individual event in an invitational meet until Saturday, when her coach and father, Pat, happened to be at an open house and banquet because he retired after 12 years as the Saxons football coach.
Pfeifer saw his daughter run in the preliminaries of the 100 meters, went to the open house at school and then hauled back to the Valley in hopes of catching the finals.
He made it, barely. After catching his daughter’s eye at the start, he almost didn’t beat her to the finish line.
“I was looking around and saw he was here,” she said. “I wanted to give a little extra. He’s my (sprint) coach and he’s gave me so much. I wanted him to see me do well.”
Her time of 12.9 seconds wasn’t outstanding or her best, but it was enough.
“I was ecstatic, it was great,” she said. “I visualized it all day. To finally beat someone at the end was great. He’s always right there (at the finish) and him giving me the sign I won was great.”
Having her father around more often during football season will take some getting used to.
“It was so fun having him as football coach,” the Ferris cheerleader said. “I was right in the middle, so emotionally involved. It will be hard, but he’ll still be my track coach and my dad.”