Chase Sets Pace For Bs Republic’s High-Speed Chase Confident He’ll Win Four State Championships Today

In Morgan Chase’s world, the difficult seems easy and confidence is in large supply.

“I have a feeling that I’ll be able to take all four (events today),” Chase said Friday after putting up the best times in three preliminaries at the WIAA/ U.S. Bank State B track and field championships.

“Other than dehydration, there should be no problem,” the Republic senior said as he recounted his day following the 200-meter prelim.

The 200 was Chase’s lone giveaway. Already exhausted from three events during the warm day, Chase eased up at the end and allowed Waterville’s David Stoddard to claim the best time.

Although South Bend (17 points), Lopez Island (15) and defending champ Tacoma Baptist (15) led the early team race, Chase believes that by early tonight, when the meet at Eastern Washington University’s Woodward Stadium ends, he’ll have compiled 40 points for the Tigers.

“Both sprints will work me harder than the hurdles,” Chase said.

Cocky? Maybe for someone who didn’t set meet records in both hurdles Friday. Chase, however, did.

He began his day with a 14.29-second 110 hurdles, shattering the record by more than 1 second, then ran a 38.4 in the 300. The old mark belonged to another Waterville Stoddard, Todd, in 1992 (38.6).

Chase also had the best 100 (10.9).

Tac-Bap wiped out a meet record in its 1,600 relay prelim (3:27.33).

During the day’s five finals, 1995 runners-up hit the top three times.

Klickitat’s Paul Bryan, who came up 1 inch shy last year, easily won the high jump at 6-8. He passed on 6-9, the meet standard, and failed at three attempts at 6-10.

Rooney Maynard of La Conner won the shot put at 53-3. He threw 4 feet farther than last year, when he settled for second.

South Bend’s Aaron Williams threw the javelin 210-8 to make up for last year’s runner-up finish.

Lopez’s Jeremy Willis, fifth last year, won the triple jump at 42-10-3/4.

Matt Humann of West Side Christian placed sixth in last year’s 800 and added the 1,600 this year for conditioning. The plot worked, as Humann rebounded to beat last year’s runner-up, Christian Laugen of St. George’s, in 4:22.68.

“This is just about the seventh time I’ve run this race,” said Humann, whose school doesn’t have a cross country team.

Laugen rebounded to win his 800 heat, but Glen Miller of Northwest Christian had a day’s-best 2:01.94.

While Republic’s scoring won’t fall into place until today, St. John-Endicott made an early move toward the girls title.

Andee Schmick and Tricia Lamb had a 1-2 finish in the triple jump to give the Eagles a meet-best 18 points, two better than Naselle. Lamb came in with the best mark from district, but Schmick went 35-1-3/4 to eclipse Lamb’s 34-7-3/4.

“Either way, it didn’t matter,” said Schmick, Endicott’s co-valedictorian. “We just wanted to go 1-2.”

The results were reversed in the 100 hurdles prelims, as Lamb’s meet-record 15.26 bettered Schmick’s heat-winning 15.70.

The dynamic duo are also No. 1 (Schmick) and 2 (Lamb) heading into today’s long jump final.

In other finals, two champions repeated and one gave her school its first state title, individual or team.

Moses Lake Christian freshman Jessica North won the 3,200 in 11:58.4. North was allowed to run as an eighth-grader.

Junior Erin Pehl of Willapa Valley threw the javelin 134-2, more than 5 feet better than last year’s winning effort.

Molly Carlson, third last year, gave Selkirk its first championship after a 38-8-3/4 shot put.

“Maybe they can give me a car - a jeep; in green, with white and black trim,” Carlson suggested as an appropriate prize from the Ione school.

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