Javelin throwers put on a show

PASCO – By the time Jacob Wilson broke the State 4A javelin record it was already gone, courtesy of Wes Nolen.

When Nolen managed to throw beyond the old state best it wasn’t there any more, courtesy of Wilson.

That was the nature of a riveting competition at StarTrack XXVI on Saturday, as those two kept the crowd enthralled with three 200-foot throws apiece.

When it all ended, Wilson, an exuberant junior from Heritage, was the champion at 207 feet, 10 inches, with Nolen, the 2006 champion from University, at 206-11.

“I loved every bit of it,” Nolen said. “That was pure competition. That’s the name of the game. That’s how it goes. You go out and give it your all and if you win, you win.”

That almost left Mead’s Justin Graff, the regional champion, and Lewis and Clark’s Joe Zimmerman, the previous state leader at 206-3, as afterthoughts.

“That’s a good meet,” said Zimmerman, who broke 190 four times, topped by a 199-6. “I got third to those throws, I don’t even care. I knew (Wilson) had thrown 195, but that was insane.”

It was that kind of wild day at Edgar Brown Stadium, where the most compelling girls story out of the Greater Spokane League was also a runner-up finish, overshadowing four champions.

Mead freshman Baylee Mires was scraped up pretty good after tripping at the start of the 1,600-meter run, but she regrouped for the restart then charged to second place.

“I got up, I couldn’t cry and stayed calm,” said Mires, who weighs all of 100 pounds. “I couldn’t let it bother me.”

Her time of 4 minutes, 57.10 seconds is the fourth fastest by a freshman in state history and broke the Spokane freshman record of 4:58.73 established by friend and rival Andrea Nelson of Shadle Park last year.

LC’s Eleanor Siler completed a perfect season in the girls 400 with a state-best and school-record time of 55.62. Fast-improving Mead sophomore A.J. Maricich won the boys high jump by clearing 6-foot-8 for the second week in a row.

The Shadle girls and Central Valley boys concluded the day with 1,600 relay titles.

Heritage won the boys title with 50 points. Todd Beamer had 38, just ahead of Mead at 341/2. CV had 30 points, one point short of a trophy.

Bellarmine Prep had 761/2 to beat Gig Harbor, which had 65, for the girls title. Richland was third with 40. Shadle, Mead, LC and Ferris were in the top 10, separated by six points.

Boys

It was a lovely morning for the javelin and Graff, the top seed, led after one throw at 188-9. Nolen took the lead in the second at 196-6 only to have Wilson throw 5 inches farther on the next throw. Preliminaries ended with Zimmerman going 192-6, Nolen breaking the meet record of 202-9 with a 206-1, Wilson 203-10 and Graff 191-0.

Nothing changed on the first round of finals, other than the crowd catching on that something special was happening. Wilson popped the winner in the next round but Nolen didn’t back down, hitting his big one on the next throw.

“195 to 208, that’s a great jump,” Graff said. “It’s a good time to PR.”

In the final round, Graff matched his best, Zimmerman had his best, Wilson had the worst throw among the leaders at 175-3, and then Nolen had a 203-3.

“It’s bittersweet. I have a new personal best, but I’m second in state,” said Nolen, the only senior in the quartet. “If I’m going to lose, I’m glad I lost to a record.”

Maricich won the high jump last weekend in Richland, more so than when he was the only one of a quartet that cleared 6-7 to make 6-8.

“As soon as I cleared 6-8 at regional, I thought I could win state,” he said.

Maricich’s two attempts at 6-10 weren’t close, so he took his last jump at 7-0 and came close.

“I didn’t feel 6-10 was working for me,” he said. “All week I was thinking 7 foot, and I wanted to get an attempt. It’s not that high. Next year.”

CV’s mile relay has been the 4A leader most of the year and was a good 3 seconds ahead of Rogers-Puyallup. But for 399 meters of the last lap, Bears anchor Brad Whitley was trailing. It wasn’t anything his teammates did – the Bears’ state-best time of 3:20.45 turned out to be a school record – but how well Rogers ran.

“I was mostly thinking maintain, don’t lose any ground,” Whitley said. “Coach has been building strength in me through the 800. I knew if I was able to keep my form, I would be able to get him.”

He did, by three-hundredths of a second.

Girls

Mires ran the race of her life after crashing hard to John Crawford Track.

“I kept telling myself I wasn’t going to give up, keep going strong, it’s only four laps,” she said. “I told myself everything is a bonus. The hard part is getting here.”

She settled in behind the race favorites and was the only one to challenge senior Mietra Smollack of Oak Harbor.

Nothing seemed to bother Siler all season.

“It went perfectly, just how I knew it had to go,” she said. “Undefeated in the 400, whoa, that’s cool.

“I’ve been running the 400 for like eight years. I have the experience not to make stupid mistakes any more and I wanted it so bad.”

As least there was a positive end to Shadle’s season, which started with high hopes only to be derailed by injuries and illness.

“I don’t care how our individual events went – we set out to do something and we did it,” anchor Jordan Carlson said. “It’s about time something went right.”

The Highlanders won on Brianne Brown’s third leg, which she opened a lead that Carlson easily preserved, though Mead roared from fourth to second.