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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Area stars off and running

It wasn’t a day for personal bests, but it was a day to do best for your team.

The rain and wind that descended on Eastern Washington University on Friday during the first day of the State 2B/1B track and field championships took care of the former.

Athletes took care of the latter.

None was better than Lind-Ritzville’s Erik Hille. The senior came into his last high school meet with the fifth-best mark in the discus and the second-best mark in the shot. He left the meet – he has no events today – with a second in the discus, a shot put title and 18 points for the Broncos.

His effort helped give L-R the 2B boys first-day lead with 31 points, 12 ahead of Willapa Valley.

The La Conner girls, with first-place efforts from Sabrina Schwindler (high jump) and Cora Kellerman (javelin), lead the 2B with 21 points, eight better than White Pass and King’s West.

The defending 1B girls champions, Trout Lake/Glenwood, piled up 26 points in three field events to lead by seven over Lopez Island and nine over the Odessa Tigers.

The Tigers, paced by Matt Cronrath’s second consecutive 1,600-meter win, are tied with Bickleton for first in the boys 1B ranks with 31 points.

2B: After his first event, the discus, Hille was disappointed he didn’t set a personal best. After his second, he was smiling, almost laughing, because he won.

“I was close to my PR and on a day like this that’s all you can ask. I was hoping for a PR today, but second is going to help the team,” he said after his 151-foot, 6-inch discus throw placed him second behind defending champion Drew Ege (156-9) of Willapa Valley.

“Well, I won,” he said after a 49-4 3/4 in strong rain showers gave him the shot put title, 11 inches more than second-place finisher Ryan Doramus of Selkirk.

“The conditions weren’t very good, but you have to play the hand you’re dealt. It was pretty slick, but everybody has to throw in it. Someone has to be the best,” Hille added.

The wind was more of a factor in the 1,600, where Valley Christian’s Jeff Pope reeled in Nathan Perry of White Pass with about 300 meters left to win in a hand-timed 4 minutes, 28.9 seconds.

“That third lap, when Nathan went out, I didn’t know what to do, whether I was going to chase him or if I was going to stay back and try to get him that fourth lap,” said Pope, a junior who finished fourth last year.

He chose the latter.

“I got to him about the 300, felt good and took off,” he said. “It hurt at the end, for sure.”

Northwest Christian’s Lisa Vandenburg had to run twice as far, but she was able to draft behind Lindsey Wagner from Northwest Christian (Lacey) for the first half of the race. At that point, Vandenburg and White Pass’ Mikel Elliott broke away, with the shorter Elliott content to let Vandenburg cut through the wind.

“I thought I could maybe try and see if she would (come back),” the sophomore for Colbert said of her first attempt to get away from Elliott with about a lap and a half remaining.

Finally, with a little less than a lap left, Vandenburg decided, “I really want to win. I gotta go.”

She did, slowly pulling away down the backstretch. Sprinting to the line, Vandenburg won in 11:47.17, more than 8 seconds faster than Elliott.

1B: Cronrath, who ran a 4:25 in his last race, was looking to go out on a personal best. But it was not to be.

“It was really slow,” he said after running a 4:30.94 and holding off Herschel Sanchey of Klickitat for the second consecutive year. “I was hoping to go 4:20, but Herschel’s a real good competitor and, with the closure of my senior year, I just wanted to do all I could to win.

“Sometimes I get myself too pressured up and I don’t do good.”

Cronrath and the Tigers are in the boys title hunt, while Kaprina Goodwin and the Northport girls won’t be. That doesn’t lessen the pressure on Goodwin, who is trying to win four events for the second consecutive year.

“I kind of feed off it a little bit,” the senior said after winning the triple jump with a leap of 35-2 1/2. “I’m like, ‘Everybody wants to see a good race, or a good jump. I’ve got to give it to them.’ “