Bell captures 100, 200 titles

Why ride when you can run? Chace Bell’s aversion to horses as a youngster led to his becoming a dominant sprinter and the Reardan junior swept away the State 2B 100- and 200-meter fields during the final day of State 1A/2B/1B meets.

Bell’s two victories were among 12 earned by local athletes during Saturday’s championships in three boys classifications at Eastern Washington University.

But while area athletes shined individually atop the podium, Lakeside was the only school to bring home a team trophy, finishing fourth on another dry and windy day.

King’s won Class 1A with 74 points. Lakeside scored 41 to finish 13 points shy of second.

Riverside Christian won 2B with 70 points, while Reardan just missed a team trophy, scoring 38 points, one away from fourth.

Mt. Rainier Lutheran, with 92 points, outlasted Crescent 92-78 in 1B. Columbia was the highest area school in 1B, in seventh with 44 – one of four Panorama League schools to finish in the top 11.

2B: Bell won the 100 by nearly one-half second – a lifetime in track – and the 200 by two-tenths of a second. He also long jumped 22 feet, 4 inches for third in the long jump, benefiting from a 1.7 mph tailwind.

“Times were slow,” said Bell, alluding to the stiff headwind in the 100, “but conditions were the same for everybody. It was kind of disappointing, but a win’s a win.”

Two other area athletes won events at the meet. Lind-Ritzville’s Grant Schultz captured a stirring high jump, clearing a career-best 6-7 to beat St. John-Endicott defending champion, friend and rival Warren Miller by an inch.

Republic’s Nik Michel backed Friday’s 1,600 victory with a wire-to-wire 800 title and placed third in the 3,200.

1A: The day was a repeat of Friday with area throwers, led by Will Lohman, this time in the shot put, and Colton Berry capping his eventful state with an easy victory at 800 meters.

Newport hurdler Aric Walden roared to victory in the 110 highs and Freeman’s 400 relay team also won handily.

Chewelah senior Lohman capped his career with a discus-shot put double, leading a 1-2-3 Cougars sweep of the latter. He hit a meet record 59-3 ½, short of his season best by a couple of feet, with teammates Riley Nelson, popping one 53-1, and Will Peters, 51-0 ½ early to secure the trifecta. Their combined 40 points left Chewelah one point short of a team trophy.

Berry’s 800 win came with a blood-soaked bandage that covered the stitches he received following a spike wound during his 1,600 second place on Friday. He thought his 1:58.26 was another school record.

Walden timed 14.96 into the wind to win the hurdles by four-tenths of a second.

Freeman (Peter Heinen, Tucker Rudy, Patric Spence and Jared Hinch) timed 43.76 in the short relay to win by half a second.

1B: If there were an MVP for sheer guts, Columbia sprinter Gabriel Jones would have been a lock, with several stirring comebacks that produced the Lions’ share of their 44 points.

His determination was evident in second-place finishes in the 100 and near-miss 200 and in an apparent winning 400 relay anchor leg, an event that was later rerun. Guttiest of all was his come-from-behind 400 victory, won by a surge at the end.

“The first straight I was pretty far behind,” Jones said. “The last corner was intense. I looked at the guy in front of me and saw he had bad form, pretty much closed my eyes and kept breathing.”

The 400 relay team from Curlew (Torin Poore, Brandon Eberley, Ethan McCollam and Dakota Drennan) wound up the champions in the do-over.

Aaron Bruya, from Odessa, defended his high jump title and picked up a javelin medal, his third of the meet.

Wellpinit’s Kennedy Seyler won the triple jump at 41-51/4.