District 8 track: CV has formula for win in relay

On a perfect day to run, the Central Valley girls’ 4x100 relay faced their nemesis from Lewis and Clark on Thursday.

The Tigers had beaten the Bears last week, but Central Valley switched up their lineup, adding junior Hannah Reiman to the team of Madison Hovren, Kelsey Turnbow and Katie Hawkins.

The switch worked as the Bears edged the Tigers and set a meet record at the District 8 4A and 3A track championships held at Spokane Falls CC.

“It’s pretty exciting,” Hovren said. “LC is obviously an extremely tough competitor. But my team did awesome and we came out on top.”

The relay time of 48.48 seconds was one of three meet records to fall.

Sidney Ritter of Shadle Park ran a 14.99 girls 100-meter hurdles in preliminaries for the second record and Mike Proudfoot of Mt. Spokane ran 16.62 in the boys 110-meter hurdles prelims for the third record.

Going into the final day of competition today, Mt. Spokane is leading both the girls and boys in the 3A team races. In 4A, the Ferris boys had a 14-point lead over Central Valley and the Bears girls team was leading by 19.5 points over Mead.

The winner of the 3A boys long jump, Mt. Spokane’s Tod Kahler, said he first battled a knee injury earlier this season and came back only to start suffering from shin splints.

Despite the pain, Kahler jumped 20 feet, 3¼ inches to win. However, the jump was still 7 inches shorter than Kahler’s best this year.

“It’s my first win at districts,” Kahler said. “I’m really pleased, but I’m going to have to do better at regionals to get into state.”

In the 4A boys pole vault, Central Valley’s Trevor Brown failed his first attempt at 14-6. But on his second, Brown cleared the bar with room to spare and his competition wasn’t able to match it.

“I was just more confident” on the approach to the second attempt, Brown said. “I was feeling like I was going to go flying. But I’m hoping next time I fly a little bit higher.”

As Brown was finding his wings, the relay teams ran the 4A boys 4x100. On the third leg, Mead broke out to a commanding lead until Ferris’ Noah Kim handed the baton to Jalen Hicks. Hicks turned on the jets and blew past Mead’s Samson Brown for the win in 42.89.

“Oh yeah, it’s all Jalen,” Kim said. “I was trying to get the baton up in his hand and he just kind of snatched it. He’s kind of fast.”

After trouble with one of the exchanges last week, Mead beat the Saxons in the event. But Ferris got the last laugh.

“It felt good to come back and beat them today,” said Hicks, who also won the long jump with a leap of 21-9.

At the beginning of the 4A girls shot put, Ferris senior Siniva Areta wasn’t laughing at all. She scratched her first two attempts.

“I just did a standing throw to get into the finals,” Areta said.

Her ploy worked. On her first attempt in the finals, Areta launched the shot put 38-1¼, which was her personal best. She never had to throw again and picked up her first district title in the event.

“The competition made me throw better. This is my year. I’m a senior. I’ve got to win,” she said.

Areta won the district title last year in the discus. “I hope to repeat” today, she said.

In the 3A girls high jump, only three competitors remained after the opening height of 4-4. North Central’s Karsten Gering, a freshman, just missed on her first attempt from 4-10.

“Oh, so close,” she said as she smiled and jogged away.

Gering nailed the jump, her personal best, on her second attempt and claimed the district title.

“Oh, I definitely didn’t expect it,” she said. “It’s really exciting. Someone told me that districts could change a lot about how I jump. It definitely did.”

North Central coach Kelly Harmon looked on as Gering won the event.

“She’s a great kid,” he said. “She works hard, never complains and she always has a smile. A district champion in the high jump. That’s pretty cool.”