B’s off and running

Chelsi Friese has happy feet. Even while sitting still, her feet never stop tapping out a staccato beat.

“Restless leg syndrome,” she laughs.

The Willapa Valley senior waited for well more than an hour while 11 pole vaulters in the field toiled away at early heights. Friese, winner of the past two State B titles and holder of the State B meet record at 11 feet, 3 inches, wasn’t going to begin until the bar reached 9-6 during Friday’s inaugural State 2B championship meet at Eastern Washington University.

By the time the bar reached her beginning height, only one vaulter remained in the competition: Erin Saari of Naselle. While vaulter after vaulter struggled to clear heights that started at 6-6, Friese calmly stepped up and cleared 9-6 on her first attempt, sailing over the bar by more than a foot.

“It was such a long wait,” Friese said. “I was ready to go; I wanted to jump. It was so hard to just sit and wait. I kept thinking about all the things that could go wrong and how embarrassing it would be to not make my qualifying height.”

Saari stayed with Friese through 10 feet, but bowed out when the bar went to 10-3 – a height Friese passed on. The defending champ cleared 10-6, missing on her first attempt, cleared 11-0 on her second attempt, then went for a meet record by moving up to 11-6, a height she again cleared easily on her second attempt.

“That’s what I had been looking for,” she said. “I wanted to break my meet record.”

She broke it again by clearing 11-9 on her third attempt and made a valiant effort to clear 12-0.

Friese won as a freshman by clearing 9-9. Last year, despite being interrupted by a hail storm, she broke the previous meet record by a foot, clearing 11-3 for a back-to-back title.

Friese will compete next year for Eastern Washington University.

After six final events, Liberty holds a 13-point lead over Lacey’s Northwest Christian in the girls 2B team standings.

Senior Shawn Hennessey highlighted the first day for the Lancers, placing second in the triple jump.

Walla Walla Academy’s Brianne Bechtel won the shot put with a throw of 39-4 ¾ and placed second in the discus behind King’s West’s Lakiesha Nilles.

In the girls 1B meet, Entiat holds a six-point lead over Trout Lake/Glenwood in the team race.

Northport’s Kaprina Goodwin highlighted the 1B opening day, leaping 35-3 ¾ to easily win the triple jump.

On the boys 1B side, Odessa built a commanding 51-14 lead over Bickleton.

Matt Cronrath led the Tigers’ first-day effort by winning the 1,600 meters while teammate Aaron Wilson cleared 11 feet to win the pole vault.

Reardan senior Brad Serdar crossed the finish line more than 3 full seconds ahead of his nearest competition, winning the 1,600 final in 4:30.

In the 2B boys race, Riverside Christian led the team race with 18 points thanks to a 1-2 finish in the long jump. Justin Lovern leaped 21-2 to win while teammate Aaron Wells was second at 20-7 ½.

Willapa Valley’s Drew Ege won the boys discus with a throw of 158-9, 11 feet farther than second-place Tim Lazelle of South Bend.

Tim Thompson cleared 13 feet to win the pole vault.

In the 4x100 preliminary heats, six relay teams qualified for today’s finals by posting sub-45-second times.

Riverside Christian ran a hand-timed 44.1-second prelim. St. George’s, which had the state’s fastest time coming into the state meet, turned in a 44.8 and qualified fifth.