Zimmer Runs To State-Best Win

The rain stopped and the sun came out just in time to see a few amazing performances during the first day of the Frontier League District 7/Millwood Albertson’s track meet in Cheney Tuesday.

Freshman Jeannette Zimmer of Cheney smashed the 13-year-old district record in the 3,200-meter final by almost 10 seconds, breaking the tape at 11 minutes, 8.2 seconds for the state berth next weekend in Tacoma.

Zimmer controlled the pace from the start, pulling away from Jessica Riehle of West Valley on the sixth lap and stretching her lead to nearly 40 meters at the finish line. Zimmer broke her AA state-leading season best by 10 seconds and the overall season best by more than a second.

“It scares me when people are behind me, so I thought I better get going,” Zimmer said of the Riehle’s challenge. “This is definitely what I wanted.”

The boys long jump final may have provided the most excitement. State AA leader Ricardo Colon of Pullman and Pat Ferguson of East Valley were tied, jumping 22 feet entering the final round. Chad Schwendiman of Pullman, a premeet favorite, failed to jump the state qualifying distance of 21-11 in prelims, but scored high enough to get into the finals.

Schwendiman came through on his last attempt, soaring 22-7, good enough for second-place behind Colon who jumped a meet record 23-3. Ferguson finished third and all three qualified for state.

Schwendiman, also qualified for the finals in the 200 meters and the 400 meters, winning both his heats.

In the girls long jump, Star Olson of East Valley overcame early scratches to qualify at 17-2.

West Valley’s Kaci Stansbury and Aimee Aldendorf will return to state for the second year in a row in the girls shot put. Stansbury won with a throw of 40-7 and Aldendorf was second at 40-2. Joe Wald of Clarkston won the boys shot put with a throw of 50-2.

Mike Schroeder of West Valley and Erin Soliday of Cheney both qualified for state in the javelin. Schroeder won with a toss of 175-5 and Soliday had a winning hurl of 125-6 in the girls’ competition.

Senior Ryan Pauling of Cheney took the boys’ 1,600-meter race in 4:29.4 to qualify for state.

Finals in the remaining 26 events will be held Friday in Cheney.

Softball

The Colville Indians and East Valley Knights ended their regular seasons with a split. Tarrah Brown went the distance, striking out nine and giving up two hits, as Colville won the opener 4-2.

In the second game, the Knights rebounded for a 11-5 win behind