Rogers’ Stars Highlight Mooberry
Prep track and field
Rogers junior Mieke Woelky had just run the 3,200 meters in a biting wind.
“I’m so happy,” the foreign exchange student from Berlin said. “It’s Mooberry and it’s the first time I broke 12 minutes and it’s the first time I won. The sun is shining and it isn’t raining.”
That sums up the 37th Annual Mooberry Relays at Rogers perfectly.
Woelky got the meet off to a great start on Saturday, running 11 minutes, 58.1 seconds for the 3,200.
The other athletes followed suit.
Kris Sly of West Valley threw the javelin 190 feet, 6 inches. Teammate Ben Clifford tacked 9 inches on his personal record, going 14-9 in the pole vault.
Kevin Solberg of Ferris moved into the top 10 among state discus throwers with a 163-9. Cameron Stewart was even better at 174-10, third in the state, helping Mt. Spokane win its first-ever invitational. The Wildcats edged Shadle Park 94-84.
Demetrius Scott of Shadle had the best long jump and was the anchor on three winning relay teams, earning Outstanding Male Athlete honors.
“It’s a wonderful feeling,” Scott said. “There’s many great athletes here. To be outstanding athlete is great. I think I had a real good day, as a matter of fact, but I couldn’t do it without my teammates because this is a relay event.”
Field events were scored as the total of the best by two teammates.
Katey Moat had the best high jump at 5-4 and won the 100-meter hurdles. Shannon Groh of West Valley went 138-9 in the discus, also third in the state.
Shadle Park’s Katie Schurra set a triple jump meet record at 35-10 to help the Highlanders pile up 81 points for the team title.
Jennifer Kennedy of North Central won the 100, ran on the winning sprint medley relay and third-place 400 relay and was the second-best long jumper to repeat as the Outstanding Female Athlete. The Indians had 68 points to finish second.
Girls
Woelky never ran before arriving at Rogers.
“We don’t have sports in school at all,” she said “I joined cross country for fun, to get to know people and make friends. I got better and better every race.”
She had no winter sport so she ran with the boys distance team.
“All of a sudden this spring I was good,” she said. “Running is now such a big part of my life. The whole thing here is so much fun. The guys are really good friends to me.”
Woelky plans to join a sports club at home and keep running.
“I think they don’t have the same distances,” she said. “I guess I could be pretty good. Not many people do it. It’s weird. It started being something I did for fun. Now I’m more serious. I have high expectations. The more laps in the races, the better I can be.”
Boys
The meet belongs to Rogers and the Pirates did their part. Kyle Safran won the 110 high hurdles in 14.7 seconds, lowering his best for the third straight meet.
“It’s overwhelming,” Safran said of winning on his school turf. “This is a chance to get out and show what Rogers is about. We have good quality, we just don’t have numbers to compete with other schools.”
Safran’s enthusiasm was nothing compared to Clifford.
“My goal was 14-9. I was really hoping to get it but I didn’t expect it,” he said. “For the past month I’ve been stuck at 14.”
Clifford went 13-6 last year in Illinois without a coach. He was glad the family moved because he wanted a coach.
Sophomore Luke Brosvik cleared 13-0 to give WV the pole vault win.
Eason Invitational
Amy Nickerson of Central Valley won the long jump at Snohomish’s Eason Invitational with a leap of 17-2.
Nickerson, who was also fifth in the 100, was overshadowed by Stacy Bolstad of Sandpoint, who won the 100, 200 and 100 hurdles and was third in the 400 to be named Outstanding Female Athlete.
Burnaby, British Columbia won the meet with 55 points. Sandpoint was sixth with 36, followed by CV with 28.
CV’s Heather Harding was third in the shot put and discus.
The CV boys were fifth with 28 points. O’Dea won the meet with 53.