Colville’s Williams overhauls Porters to capture 2A 3,200

Colville junior Brittney Williams showed on the first day of State 2A/1A/B track at Eastern Washington University that there’s more than one way to win a distance race.

While Cedar Park Christian counterpart Jane Larson was adding to her impressive State 1A track story Thursday with an uncontested runaway 3,200-meter victory, Williams proved in the 2A contest that slower and steady can also prevail.

Williams’ title, with tag-along teammate Nikkol Sipes placing third, came by hanging back then reeling in pace-setting Hockinson’s Porter sisters, Shannon and Sarah, with a solid finish.

The two disparate titles were among seven finals on the first of three days of state meet action.

Today’s daylong action begins at 9:30 a.m. and will include 27 finals among the three enrollment classifications. The rest of the 105-event meet will be completed Saturday at Woodward Stadium.

Girls

Freshman Shannon and junior Sarah Porter, who finished third last year in the 2A race, went out hard. Through six laps they left the rest of the field well back.

But they suddenly came back to Williams and Sipes by the end of the seventh lap. On the final lap the Colville duo had made up all they’d given away earlier and Williams won the race to the finish, with Sipes not far behind.

“When we realized we started to catch them,” Sipes said, “we figured we might as well go for it.”

Williams finished in 11 minutes, 13.41 seconds, winning by more than 2 seconds. Sipes’ 11:17.91 was 2.23 seconds behind Shannon Porter. Sarah took fifth.

“We went out really fast, 78 seconds when we usually run 86,” said Williams, who finished third behind the Porters in state cross country last fall. “They must have gone out in 72 and it was way too fast. We must have slowly pushed up, I guess. It hasn’t sunk in yet.”

There was no such chasing the powerful Larson, whose steady pace netted a 10:57.13 time and 40-second win over the Charles Wright distance team that had four of the next five places. It was Larson’s ninth state track title with three races to go, but was off her season-best 10:42.8, run in a race against boys.

Toutle Lake’s Chelsea Schilter won the Class B race in which Odessa’s Kysa Cronrath took fifth in a personal-best time since being struck with knee injuries.

In the 1A girls pole vault, Valan Calvo of Cedar Park and Mimi Maritz of Seattle Academy tied the meet record of 10 feet, 6 inches. They left Freeman’s Jessie DePell a disappointed third at 10-0, an inch off her personal best.

“In a sense it’s a laid-back sport,” said DePell, the four-time top-four placer in the pole vault. “But I love to compete and it’s always fun to win.”

Boys

There was no magical 2A distance finish for Medical Lake’s David Jacob who took the 1,600 lead in the final half-lap of a tactical race but finished fourth, .64 seconds off the lead in the closing five-runner flurry that included Lakeside’s (Nine Mile Falls) fifth-place Max Reeder.

“It makes me mad,” said Jacob, also fourth last year and either ill or injured much of this season. “I had it right there and didn’t hear them coming.”

Tyler Rapp of Lakewood won the scramble in 4:31.

Class 1A defending champ Alex Crabill ran solo like Larson, winning by 7 seconds in 4:17.84. In the B race, Klickitat’s Herschel Sanchey tried to do likewise, but Mt. Vernon Christian’s Jeffrey Schloemer overhauled him at the end in 4:32.25. Odessa’s Matt Cronrath was third.

Early team leaders are Charles Wright’s girls and boys in 1A; Colville’s girls and Lakewood’s boys in 2A; and Toutle Lake’s girls and Mount Vernon Christian’s boys in B.