NC’s journey to 3A summit

Darren Nelson, North Central Class of ‘91, returned to his alma mater to teach English and be an assistant football coach in 1996.

He also took on the duties of coaching the 1999 girls track team, which back then may have been unkindly considered as baby-sitting. The Indians finished the 1998 season, when Nelson first helped out, a distant last in the Greater Spokane League with just eight girls.

Eight years later the season ended with the dozen best of the 75-member strong team scrambling onto the podium at Edgar Brown Stadium in Pasco to accept the trophy as the 3A state champions.

“I remember thinking having 12 girls get there was a feat,” Nelson said. “It’s coach speak, I know, but you talk about going in and doing your very, very best. Some days that’s good enough, some days it’s not. They all competed to the best of their ability. You can’t look at any of them and think they didn’t do everything in their power to get this done.”

What the Indians did is lap the field, getting points from every girl to score 69 points, 27 more than the runner-up and 39 more than they needed just to get a team trophy.

That’s quite a journey for the program, which began the long road when Nelson began handing out fliers in November 1998 trying to entice girls to turn out for track.

“The girls at NC didn’t have a niche,” he said, although the Indians were good in cross country. “My hope was maybe track was the thing they could hang their hat on.”

From those humble beginnings, when senior sprinter Jennifer Kennedy, who still holds two school records, was the inspiration and 55 girls finished the season, the Indians have completed the long climb to the top.

In 2000, NC qualified for the GSL championship.

“Then it just started rolling,” Nelson said. “After that you could at least make the argument we’ve been in the top-four mix. It’s about the girls coming out and feeling confident in what they were doing. You can credit that to 2000.”

Although the Indians haven’t won every time out, they have managed to win every regular-season dual meet at the school for seven years.

There was still one more hurdle, and that was being successful beyond the county line. In 2004 Ashlee Michelson, who finished third in the discus, was the only Indian to make the State 4A meet.

“Our school made a decision to compete where we should probably be competing, the 3A level, not that these girls couldn’t compete at any level,” Nelson said. “We started to realize as a coaching staff and the girls started to understand their goals didn’t have to be confined to Spokane.

“The other thing you have to add is we have great talent. We have talent every year you just have to find it.”

This group of girls was certainly talented, including Jordan Clyburn. Even though wheelchair events don’t contribute to team points, Clyburn won medals in five races. Michelson, a senior, won state in the shot put and discus, becoming the first NC individual champion since Wendy Wilson won the high jump in 1989. She is headed to Central Washington University to keep throwing and play basketball.

Senior Anna Walters, who is headed for Seattle Pacific, won four medals, finishing second in the 400, third in the 200 and anchoring the 400 and 800 relays. Sophomores Kara Egland and Katelyn Fiorillo ran on both relays, and junior Maneshaia Bruton and senior Mallorie Frieske ran on one each.

Junior Mary Graesser placed fifth in the 1,600 and sixth in the 3,200.

Senior pole vaulters Kendall Mays and Krista Hoffman, who will vault for Washington State and Eastern Washington, went 2-4.

But it was sophomore Andrea DePaolo who provided a snapshot of what this team was all about.

In just her second year of throwing the javelin, DePaolo broke through three weeks ago at the district meet with a 12-foot personal record of 120-feet, 7-inches. She backed that up with a 115-10 to finish second at regionals. But she struggled at state, and it wasn’t until her third throw of 112-10 that she made finals, which left her a disappointed seventh.

Even though she picked up only two team points, what was important was that she finished ahead of competition from a team that was expected to challenge the Indians. That’s something every NC girl, relays included, did.

Michelson finished her career by upping her school record in the discus to 132-10, but it was surpassing 40 feet in winning the shot put, something she did for the first time a week earlier, that ensured Holy Names wasn’t going to steal points from NC.

Graesser has PRs in both distances and both times finished ahead of Holy Names runners.

The 400 relay was most impressive, finishing ahead of both Rainier Beach and Issaquah.

Walters lowered her school record in the 400 to 57.13 seconds and for good measure took care of two Issaquah runners in the 200.

Only the pole vaulters were unchallenged by a contending team and yet they both had PRs, Hoffman at 11-6, Mays at 12-0, the first time a Spokane girl has cleared that height in high school.

“I’m really happy,” the jubilant Mays said. “Everyone’s happy.”

“A lot of it has to do with Nelson,” Walters said. “He’s very encouraging and uplifting. He really tries to build a team environment.”

Which was why DePaolo was part of a smiling group when it was over.