Coaches, students prepare for season
Vic Wallace has a problem.
The second-year boys track and field coach at West Valley High School, the closest thing the sport has to a Pied Piper, has done his job too well.
“I just picked up another couple guys,” Wallace said Monday. “Problem is, now I don’t have enough uniforms. I’m down to using old junior varsity uniforms. I guess I know what I’m going to be doing this summer.”
What has a smile on Wallace’s face is the buzz the sport is creating around the school.
“I was really happy to be able to get back out and help with football in the fall,” he said. “We’d have a break and kids would come up to me and want to talk about track and looking forward to track in the spring. I like hearing that kind of excitement.”
What comes along with that elevated excitement is an elevated expectation.
“It’s a problem a coach kind of likes to have,” Wallace said. “These kids came out expecting to pick up where they left off and it doesn’t always work that way. At the same time, they came out ready to work.
“By the time the coaches get out onto the field, the kids are already well into their warm-up routine.”
Central Valley Bears
The Bears won their first Greater Spokane League championship a year ago, and coach Chuck Bowden has a solid group back.
Solid as in a solid mass of track athletes.
“I had 140 kids turnout,” Bowden said. “I figured there would be some attrition from that number, but when I went back and looked, I had 136 guys practicing.”
The freshman class is 35 athletes strong and the senior class is just as large.
The sprint class is deep and solid, making for another set of powerful relays.
Senior James Theodorson is one of the state’s top 200 meter and 400 meter runners in the state, and so is junior teammate Brad Whitley.
Theodorson one of the three state’s fastest returning Class 4A times in the 400 at 49.29 (Isaac Teichgrab of Stanwood has the fastest time at 49.69). Theodorson reached the finals in the 400 meters, placing seventh (50.45 seconds). Whitley ran a 51.23 qualifying heat and did not reach the state final. Along with seniors Danny Groby and Conrad Malinak, they formed the state’s fastest 4x400 relay team throughout the season, and a fourth-place finisher at last year’s state track meet.
Whitley owns one of the state’s fastest Class 4A 800 times returning (1:57.07).
Greg Barnes, a jumper/sprinter/hurdler, returns and will be strong in the long jump and, for the first time this season, both hurdles races. He also ran the opening leg of the state’s leading 4x100 sprint relay team a year ago. Teammates Groby and Connor Janhunen also return from a team that lost out on a state berth because of a dropped baton in the regional meet.
Also back is state triple jumper William Davis, one of the area’s top triple jumpers, as is junior teammate Evander Cobbs was the All-GSL triple jumper a year ago.
Davis’ triple jump of 44-1 against Mead and Lewis and Clark a year ago helped cement the team’s first league title. His personal best 44-8 1/2 is one of the state’s best Class 4A marks.
Bowden has Davis working with his sprinters – a move that should make for a major increase in his triple jump marks.
Senior Josiah Brown should be strong in the throws, as will senior Jeff Greenlund. Senior thrower Tyler Cochran will rejoin the throwers after competing in the wrestling nationals.
Patrick Mealey, coming off a solid football season, looks to shine in the javelin. Senior Nick Boucher also looks strong.
East Valley Knights
If Case Parker gets any more versatile, he’ll be driving the bus home from meets.
The senior is one of the state’s top sprinters returning from a year ago – an All-GSL first-team pick in both the 200 and 400. His 22.39 200 meter personal best time is one of the three fastest in Class 3A. His 48.73 400 time is standard for returning Class 3A.
“He does everything for us,” coach Dave McCarty said. “He goes wherever we need him.”
A year ago Parker placed second in the 400 at state, turning in a 49.35 in Pasco, a half-second behind winner Max Lutton of Franklin Pierce. He ran in the 200 prelims, where he posted a 22.67 mark. And he anchored the 4x400 relay team.
Junior Nic Bellomy and sophomore Zach Ames made up half of last year’s state 4x100 team. Ames also placed 12th in the javelin as a freshman, throwing 161-3.
Even with just a half dozen seniors on this year’s varsity, the Knights are deceptively experienced.
“We don’t have a very big senior class,” McCarty said. “We were a pretty young squad last year and we have a good deal of experience back. We may be young, but we have a lot of veterans.
“We were pretty young in the throws a year ago and we were thinking we were about a year away. I think we’ll be pretty good there this year.”
Senior Tony Stevens looks improved in the discus, the coach said. James Dorr returns in the throws, as does C.J. Means.
The one challenge facing the Knights is to replace a pair of outstanding hurdlers from a year ago.
“Tim Armstrong and Kyle Bowers are difficult kids to lose,” McCarty said. “But I think we’ll be OK.”
University Titans
The Titans have their third head coach in three seasons.
Doug Fry takes over a squad with solid talent.
“My No. 1 goal since the start of practice was to build a team,” Fry said. “I just love this sport and I want to pass that on.”
Senior Wes Nolen won the state javelin title as a sophomore with a throw of 190 feet, 7 inches and has a personal best mark of 195-3. He will battle Lewis and Clark junior Joe Zimmerman, who has thrown 202-0, and Mead junior Justin Graff, who has thrown 187-5, for the GSL title and will likely carry the battle all the way to Star Track.
“Wes is throwing well right now, but we haven’t let him throw hard yet,” Fry said. “That’s the way we want it right now.”
Senior Josh Hopkins, a second-team All-GSL pick in the shot put a year ago, and sophomore Codee Allen are throwing both the shot put and discus well, and long jumper Jon Nelson has impressed the coach.
“Jon has dedicated himself to getting better for the past year,” Fry said. “He just has an awesome attitude.”
Senior Dalton Puyear returns in the pole vault and has made great strides in the triple jump.
The distances are capably manned by sophomore Anthony Brown and freshman Travis Stark, both of whom are running well to start the spring.
Seniors Matthew Bogyo, Christopher Powell, sophomore Jordan Cunanan and freshman Dustin Dufner look strong in the sprints and hurdles.
The Titans open the Greater Spokane League season next week against East Valley and Lewis and Clark.
“That should be a good meet for us,” Fry said. “It’ll give us a good idea of where we are.”
West Valley Eagles
The Eagles start their second season in the Great Northern League with a good supply of returning talent.
West Valley had the league’s best 4x400 relay teams a year ago and the entire squad returns intact: seniors Richard Keroack, Parker Flynn, Tim Pring and junior Alex Allison. The group placed sixth at last year’s state Class 2A meet.
Keroack was also an All-GNL second-team selection in the 800 meters. Pring made an immediate contribution in his first season out for track.
“He really caught on in a hurry last year,” Wallace said of his football standout. “He’s one of the kids whose been out sick early on – we have something going around that has been nasty. I’m just getting over it myself right now.”
Also back is junior Justin Degenhart, a veteran of the state 3,200 finals.
Senior Ryan Rose placed eighth in last year’s javelin finals, throwing 159-3. And sophomore Nigel LaFountain cleared 6-2 in last year’s state high jump finals, placing ninth.
“I’m still getting kids coming out and we’re in the fourth week of practice,” Wallace said. “I’m still going through the halls, recruiting kids. But we also have a big freshman class out that looks really good.”
Freeman Scotties
It’s the fourth week of spring turnouts and the Scotties still are not running on their own track.
“We finally were able to plow some of the snow off the track, but it was still four feet deep in places,” coach John Hays said. “We’ve been improvising. We’ve been rotating in shifts between the gym, the secondary gym, the multipurpose room, the wrestling room and the weight room. We have kids running on the concrete walkway between the high school and the middle school, but that’s been awfully hard on the legs. We got the high jump pit cleared and the jumpers are working there now.”
The bottom line is this: The Scotties open the Northeast A League season against Newport Saturday and will have spent very little time on an actual track. The meet itself has been moved to West Valley.
“Are we ready for a meet? No.” Hays said. “But that’s just the way it is.”
Senior Kyle Naber is a returning state placer in the javelin (fifth with a throw of 158-04) and Marc Soelberg, also a senior, placed fourth in the pole vault a year ago, clearing 13-0 to finish fifth.
Junior Luke Mathews competed in the triple jump at state a year ago and already has jumped 39-10 1/2 – just nine inches shy of his state mark from a year ago. Fellow junior Jake Moon placed in the 1600 at state a year ago and was part of a state 4x400 relay.
Junior Anthony Emtman and sophomore Patric Spence are state relay veterans.
“I have a pretty good group back and some freshmen who look pretty good as well,” Hays said.