NC’s Michelson a state champ
PASCO – It didn’t take long for the North Central girls and East Valley boys to send a message at the State 3A track and field meet Friday morning at Edgar Brown Stadium.
Almost before the first cup of coffee was gone, Ashlee Michelson produced a state championship for NC in the shot put, the first individual title for the Indians since 1989 when Wendy Wilson won the high jump.
“I had no idea,” Michelson said. “That’s pretty cool.”
Even better was the 10 points it produced for the team, especially when Pepper Glessner of Holy Names, expected to be a contender, faded to sixth.
EV, expected to compete for the boys title, got an early eight points when Tyler Jolley finished second in the discus.
“I felt good,” Jolley said. “Last week I was fighting off hives – nothing felt right. Coming back this week is a relief.”
EV racked up 17 points with long jumper Scott Bunkelman and 3,200 runners Nick Atwood and Tyler Thatcher also contributing. The Knights, who also got all their runners through preliminaries, lead Columbia River by one point.
Mary Graesser scored in the 3,200 and Andrea DePaolo scored in the javelin, giving NC 15 points, 10 in front of Holy Names. The Indians also pushed all their runners through to today’s finals at John Crawford Track.
EV also got a state championship – by a half-inch – from Eleaya Schuerch in the long jump.
Girls: Michelson, who didn’t place last year, was the favorite coming in after breaking 40 feet for the first time last week at 41 feet, 4 1/2 inches and wanted to improve.
“I wasn’t that nervous,” she said. “I get nerves before the first throw, but once I got that in and knew I was in finals, I was OK.”
Lyndzie Johnson of EV went from seventh to third with a 38-4.
NC also picked up two points in the javelin when sophomore DePaolo finished seventh. All three GSL entries scored in that event, led by EV’s Pam Eatock in fourth.
Schuerch completed the first round of the long jump with the lead at 16-91/2, but Dominique Radcliffe of Kelso went 16-10 in the second round. Schuerch responded with 17-3 1/2. Radcliffe made two quick jumps in the finals, barely scratching on one that appeared close to 18 feet. Schuerch then got in two jumps before having to wait for Radcliffe to return from running the 100. When Radcliffe came back she jumped 17-2 3/4.
“I almost had a heart attack. That was close,” Schuerch said.
Boys: Jolley, who finished behind state leader Korey Morris of Renton in the discus, opened with a solid throw and got his best on his second throw.
“I was warming up bigger,” he said. “I think that’s all right, second place.”
Any hope Cheney had of sneaking in for a state trophy probably disappeared when Bob Wilske, ranked fourth in state, failed to get a legal throw.
EV’s Knights got some bonus points when Bunkelman finished fifth in the long jump despite entering as the 11th seed.
His 21-11 1/2 is a PR by 10 inches.
There were two more bonus points when 3,200 winner Chris Kwiatkowski of Bellingham was disqualified for jostling with Kevin Zelenak of Black Hills down the stretch. That moved Atwood up to fifth and gave Thatcher eighth.