EV’s Cabbage finds her track calling

East Valley’s Clarissa Cabbage was a runner without a track event.

“Both my sophomore and junior years,” she said, “I was running different events in every meet.”

Sometimes it was as a member of a relay, sometimes the sprints and she never competed beyond the district meet.

“In any event, for my senior year I wanted an event I could go the distance in, to regionals or state,” Cabbage said.

The Knights athlete, at the behest of her coach, Shane Toy, took up the hurdles, the 300-meter race in particular, which is a test of both speed and endurance.

“This winter when we were looking at our depth chart, I said let’s try to make her a 300 hurdler,” Toy recalled. “She adapted to them like a duck to water.”

Cabbage said she didn’t think she could be very good at them.

“I told him I’d try,” she said. “I didn’t really want to, but did it just to please him. I guess it’s been a big surprise how it’s gone.”

During her first race Cabbage timed 52 seconds. She improved each successive week, becoming the Greater Spokane League’s second-fastest 4A runner in 47.2.

Last weekend she also had a career-best 16.7 in the 100s. Though hitting hurdles and nearly falling in both District 8 finals, she qualified for this weekend’s regional meet in Yakima.

Cabbage has been mentored by Brandon Blize, a 1998 EV state champion and runner-up hurdler who ran at the University of Montana before injury ended his career. The Knights assistant coach will graduate this year in education from Eastern Washington University.

“The thing with her is she has a lot of strength and power,” said Blize, who offered an explanation for her poor races last Friday. “You can’t be afraid of the hurdles. At districts she actually kicked into another gear and attacked them. It was her first bad races, which is actually a benefit. I think she will run real well this week (in Yakima).”

Cabbage did not run track as a freshman because of family issues. She had marginal success her next two years before finding her niche in a new event this year.

“I PR’d almost every meet and last Friday three-stepped the 100 hurdles for the first time,” she said. “It feels great. It’s a great way to finish my high school career.”

Already committed to attending the University of Washington she wouldn’t mind walking on to the Huskies team next spring.

“If she runs a clean race at regionals,” said Toy, “I think she’s going to open some eyes. I told her at the start of the year, I guarantee we’re both going to say we wish we would have started this as a freshman. When you look at it from the perspective of just running hurdles one year, her times are really fantastic.”