St. George’s Marika Morelan wins state title in 3,200-meter run

St. George’s Marika Morelan went against her mother’s advice Thursday and decided the run the 3,200-meter final in the State 2B championship Thursday at Eastern Washington.

Morelan had been suffering ill effects from the flu, and to be perfectly honest, Morelan doesn’t like running. But there she was holding a slim lead over Eliana Summers from Northwest Christian (Lacey).

With three laps to go, Morelan turned on the jets and won going away.

“I almost threw up on lap seven,” Morelan said after the race. “My mom told me not to do this. I’m pretty sick. But, I wanted it so hard. Honestly, it feels really freaking good.”

Morelan finished second in this event last year for the Dragons just a few months after she finally gave into the repeated pestering by St. George’s cross country coach Josh Hayes.

“I’ve hated running forever,” Morelan said. “It was never my cardio of choice.”

But she gave it a try and now she’s a state champion. And, her win helped St. George’s to an early lead in the team standings.

While her illness is not short term, Republic’s Tiffany Byington pulled off a similar win in the 3,200 for the 1B state title. Immediately after the race, Byington had to use her inhaler to keep from passing out.

During the race, Riverside Christian’s Victoria Cole kept right on Byington’s back shoulder. But Byington, with her asthma symptoms and all, gave a big kick in the final lap for the win.

“I heard someone say her name. I said, ‘I’ve got to book it,’ ” the sophomore said.

Asked if she looked back to see if Cole was going to catch her, Byington said: “No. Don’t look back when you are on the track. Right?”

While it was only the preliminaries, Oakesdale’s Anne Hockett ran a 45.39 in the 300-meter hurdles in the 1B race to set a new state meet record. The previous record of 45.72 was set last year by Almira/Coulee-Hartline’s Katie Emerson.

Tyrell Bonner of Shoreline Christian also set a new meet record for the 1,600 in the 1B final. Bonner won with a 4:28:71. That beat the 4:28.84 set last year by Lummi’s Enrique Medina. In that same race, Wellpinit’s Kyle Abrahamson finished fourth.

1B pole vault

Odessa-Harrington senior Lanessa Simon vaulted a 9 feet, 9 inches, which was more than a foot better than any other competitor to win the 1B title.

“It’s a really, really great feeling,” Simon said. “I don’t get to experience this anymore.”

2B boys 1,600

Northwest Christian’s Jack Ammon finished third and St. George’s Nathan Vanos finished sixth in the 2B race.

1A boys 1,600

The “Codys” of Deer Park finished second and fifth to help the Stags to an early lead in the 1A team standings. Cody Bollum and Cody Westerman, both juniors, both had personal bests in the race.

1A girls 3,200

Moriah Duenich of Deer Park ran herself to collapse trying to catch Cascade-Leavenworth’s Erin Mullins, who won going away. But Duenich recovered after several tense minutes to say she plans to run Friday in the 800. In the same race, Deer Park’s Libby Michael finished fourth.