Inspiration Easy To Spot In Cheney

State B track

Kelly McCaw and Matt Humann both came up with an inspiration “from nowhere” Friday after noon and turned the unexpected gift into individual titles in the State B Track and Field Championships at Eastern Washington University’s Woodward Stadium.

For McCaw, a Waitsburg freshman, the bolt from the blue landed in the form of a 36-foot, 2-inch leap that proved her best in a remarkably strong field of triple jumpers.

For Humann, a West Side Christian senior, it came as a stroke of sounder judgment. He quashed his first-lap enthusiasm, saved himself for today’s 800- and 3,200-meter runs and still won the 1,600 final going away in 4 minutes, 23.8 seconds.

McCaw hit her personal-best jump in the preliminaries, hurried off to qualify for today’s 100-meter finals and returned to find out she had won the event without having to jump again.

“I was just waiting and biting my nails to see if anyone was going to beat it,” said McCaw, whose previous best effort had been 35-2-1/2. “I really didn’t know what to think. One girl said she had jumped 36-2 earlier this year, but said it came out of nowhere. Mine was a jump out of nowhere, too.”

Humann, in successfully defending the 1,600 title he won last spring with a time 4:22.68, said he almost let his ego get in the way of his dream of winning the state meet’s three longest races.

He started the race much faster than he planned and needed to readjust his strategy midstream.

“I wanted the (meet) record early,” Humann explained of his uncharacteristic quick start, “but then I remembered I had a couple of other events to worry about.”

So he settled back in the pack for a couple of laps before launching a last-lap kick that distanced him from everyone but teammate Maurice Saulsby, who finished second in 4:25.64.

“I didn’t want anyone to get anywhere near me, so I just took off,” Humann said of his last-lap surge. “I wanted to keep the lap pretty even … but, oh, well.”

Girls

EWU basketball player Andee Schmick, who won last year’s State B triple jump title, presented McCaw and the rest of the top eight finishers with their medals Friday.

And she probably felt fortunate in having grabbed the gold when she did, because her leap of 35-1-3/4 last spring would have placed her fourth in this year’s competition behind McCaw, Soap Lake’s Audrea Lewallen (35-11-1/2) and Lopez Island’s Cara Smith (35-4-3/4).

“It was incredible,” McCaw said of the competition. “The girl who finished third (Smith) said she jumped a foot farther than she did last year and finished in the same place (third).”

In Friday’s other finals, Naselle’s Maya Miller (12:15.5) and Brooke Ralston (12:16.6) finished 1-2 in the 3,200 meters, Crescent’s Vanessa Wilhelm won the shot put (39-3-1/4) and Willapa Valley’s Erin Pehl won the javelin (142-5).

Naselle grabbed the first-day team lead with 23 points, followed by Crescent, with 18, and Waitsburg, with 15.

Boys

The 1-2 finish of Humann and Saulsby in the 1,600 gave West Side Christian 18 points and put the Crusaders in second place, a point behind Crescent, in the team standings.

“We’re hoping to do real well as team this year,” Humann said. “Maybe not win it, but at least take home a trophy.”

Still, the best individual effort of the day was turned in by Waterville’s David Stoddard in the preliminaries of the 300 intermediate hurdles. Stoddard, a senior, ran 38.32 to break the State B meet record of 38.40 set last year by Republic’s Morgan Chase.

In other finals Friday, Rainier’s Josh Frunz won the shot put (52-5-1/4), Crescent’s Jokobal Square took the triple jump (43-10-1/2), Napavine’s Kallan Kersavage won the high jump (6-6) and Whit Spencer, from St. George’s, won the javelin (172-1).

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