Rough Start Can’t Ground Senior Leaper
State A track
Butcher the javelin event, use the resulting frustration to build resolve rather than anger and then waste the field in the triple jump.
The strategy had worked so well for Jill Pimley the past two years that she decided to apply it once more during Friday’s opening day of competition in the State A Track and Field Championships at Eastern Washington University’s Woodward Stadium.
And once again the Goldendale senior came up with a highlight-reel leap of 38 feet, 6-3/4 inches, another State A meet record and her fifth - yes, fifth - state triple jump title.
“This is the third year in a row I’ve done real bad in the javelin and then come back in the triple jump to do real well,” said Pimley, after breaking her own State A meet record for the third consecutive year.
“I was just excited to get in there and do the triple jump again, so I could forget about the javelin.”
Earlier in the day, before a couple of downpours delayed several events, softened the stadium infield and greased up the runway areas, Pimley failed miserably in her attempt to make the javelin finals.
She came in with a personal best of 138 feet, but threw only 92.
“No excuses,” said Pimley, who won her first state triple jump title while competing as an eighth-grader for Class B Klickitat. “I just haven’t been throwing well lately.”
But she made up for her javelin fiasco by edging Okanogan’s Ciceley Clinkenbeard in the triple jump and bettering the State A meet record of 38-3-1/2 she set last spring.
It was the most stirring performance during a 9-hour marathon that produced several other outstanding efforts, including Sam Darling’s perseverance and 14-foot pole vault and Sean Steele’s 6-10 high jump off a slippery surface.
Darling won the pole vault after sitting through a 15-minute delay.
“Today was more a case of surviving than actually winning,” said the Cashmere junior, who was the only competitor to clear 14 feet. “I think a lot of people cramped up sitting around in the rain.”
Steele, a senior from Orting, turned in his best high jump of the year and knocked off Granite Falls favorite Tim Marks, who cleared 6-8 after finishing second with a leap of 6-9 last year.
Girls
Pimley, who tied a State B triple jump meet record as an eighth-grader and broke it as a freshman and sophomore at Klickitat, picked up her second straight State A crown.
Pimley, who also owns the State B meet record in the 300-meter low hurdles, will go after Cascade’s Megan Franza and the State A meet title in today’s finals. She will also compete in the long jump.
In other girls finals Friday, Burbank freshman Cassie Sloan won the 3,200 meters by more than 15 seconds after running an 11:26.0; Goldendale’s Amber Pantages won the shot put at 38-5-3/4, and Heather Reichmann, from King’s, bested the javelin field with a toss of 141-7.
Goldendale, behind the wins of Pimley and Pantages, grabbed the first day team lead with 20 points.
Boys
Along with the wins by Darling and Steele, the first day of competition also featured wins by Ridgefield’s J.R. Horal in the shot put (53-1-3/4) and Toledo’s Ross Jorgusen in the 1,600 meters (4:20.47), Winlock’s Nathan Lindeman in the triple jump (44-10-1/2) and Nooksack Valley’s Bryan Jones in the javelin (185-6).
Ridgefield took the first-day lead in the team standings with 21 points. Connell was second with 19, followed by Nooksack Valley with 18.
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