Colfax, Odessa pick up titles

It seemed fitting for the Colfax girls track team to finish off a storybook debut in 2B Saturday afternoon.

Colfax, which moved down from 1A this year, captured a state track championship at Eastern Washington University’s Woodward Field to go with state titles claimed in basketball and volleyball.

The Bulldogs, without an individual state champ, posted 57 points. Runner-up Wahkiakum had 48.

“It’s emotional,” Colfax coach Jason Cooper said, choking back tears. “These kids worked so hard. The girls were relentless. We had good senior leadership and they brought our young kids around.”

•2B: Colfax may not have had an individual champ, but the same foursome teamed up to capture the 400- and 800-meter relays.

Kami Lowe, E.B. Hatley, Carli Herman and Kayla Johnson won the 800 relay in 1 minute, 48.67 seconds in the day’s first race and came back two hours later to capture the 400 in 51.52.

The time in the 800 was a season best by 2 seconds and the foursome improved their time in the 400 by a smidge.

“We expected to push each other to win it,” Johnson said of the 800 relay. “We’re just shocked to do this well.”

Perhaps no individual had a bigger hand in the team title than freshman Morgan Willson. She followed up her second in the 3,200 Friday with a second in the 800 and a third in the 1,600. She also anchored the fourth place-finishing 1,600 relay.

Willson was the starting point guard late in the season for the basketball team and came off the bench in volleyball. Now she’s considering giving up volleyball to do cross country in the fall.

“I don’t think I can top this,” Willson said of her year in general. “I couldn’t ask for a better state (meet) and year.”

Kate Reidy of St. George’s captured the 1,600 title (5:18.13).

“I was in my own little world out there,” Reidy said of her final. “I was just in race mode. It was my goal to win since last year. Most of my workouts were geared for this race.”

Taz Brooks of Liberty took gold in the triple jump with a vault of 34 feet, 4 inches. It was a season best by 21/2 inches.

Warren Miller of St. John-Endicott/LaCrosse-Washtucna captured the high jump (6-4). Grant Schultz of Reardan matched the mark but finished second based on more misses.

Miller hit his first jump on five straight attempts before missing on all three tries at 6-5.

“My last one felt really I close. I just grazed it,” Miller said.

Valley Christian’s Jeff Pope, who captured the 1,600 on Friday, didn’t defend his title in the 800, finishing second.

Riverside Christian captured the boys team title with 78 points, topping runner-up Tacoma Baptist by six. Defending champ Lind-Ritzville finished fifth (33), two points out of a trophy.

•1B: Defending boys champ Odessa had to share the title with Mount Rainier Lutheran as both finished with 67 points.

Scott Strang led Odessa with a first in the 3,200 (10:13.69) while Travis King had a pair of fifths in the sprints (100, 12.16; 200, 24.48).

Aaron Bruya added a second in the triple jump (41-1) and a third in the high jump (6-0) for the Tigers.

Alex McDowell of Wilbur-Creston won the 200 in a season-best 23.66 and took second in the 100 (12.03). He also ran on W-C’s 400 relay, which took second.

Andrea Heinen, a freshman from Cusick, won the shot put at 33-93/4. Her winning throw was nearly 3 feet shorter than her season best.

“I was nervous at first because I was losing, but my coach gave me some encouragement,” said Heinen, who also ran a leg on the second-place 1,600 relay.

Erin Dashiell, Lindsay Loe, Salena Osborn and Brandi Johnson led Columbia-Hunters to first in the 400 relay (53.56). It was a season best by 1 second.

The Trout Lake/Glenwood girls won for a third straight year as they finished with 125 points, well ahead of runner-up North Sound Christian (77).