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BACK ON TRACK

The East Valley girls track team has a group of standout hurdlers led by Kylee Williamson, center. From left, Ellen Dexter, Courtney Crace, Kennah Meyer, Kylee Williamson, Laura Summers, Lori Bourgeous and Ashley LaFayette. (J. BART RAYNIAK / The Spokesman-Review)
Steve Christilaw Correspondent
The East Valley girls track team has a group of standout hurdlers led by Kylee Williamson, center. From left, Ellen Dexter, Courtney Crace, Kennah Meyer, Kylee Williamson, Laura Summers, Lori Bourgeous and Ashley LaFayette. (J. BART RAYNIAK / The Spokesman-Review)

Kylee Williamson is in fast company.

The three-sport East Valley senior is part of what is perhaps the state’s fastest group of collective boys and girls hurdlers.

At one time or another this season Knights have held the fastest times in both the 110 high and 300 intermediate hurdles boys races and have had multiple runners consistently among the state elite in the girls 100 and 300 hurdles.

“Our hurdlers have been doing great – just awesome,” Williamson said. “We started the year fast, and we’ve just kept going.”

Senior Tim Armstrong continues to hold the state’s fastest time in the boys 110 meter hurdles with a 14.54 effort in his first meet of the season. Senior Kyle Bowers is also among the state elite in that event, turning in a best time of 15.35. Armstrong no longer holds the state’s fastest time in the 300, but his 39.97 is among the three best in Class 3A this season.

Junior Lori Bourgeous’ automated time of 15.94 in the 100 hurdles is among the state elite, but the junior also boasts a hand-timed 15.3 effort. She also has a hand-timed 46.3 in the 300 hurdles. Sophomore Ashley Lafayette has been among the state’s fastest in the 300 hurdles.

Currently Williamson is among the top three Class 3A 200-meter sprinters with a 27.3, and trails only Bourgeous among Class 3A 100 hurdlers with a 16.1 effort.

“We have great coaches,” Williamson said. “Nick Lazanis has been coaching the girls hurdlers this year, but every once in a while I go over and with the boys coach, Brandon Blize – he’d been my hurdles coach the last two years.

“The interesting thing is that coach Lazanis coached Brandon, so you get two different perspectives on the same approach to running hurdles.”

Blize holds the school and district Class 3A record in both hurdles, running 14.0 in the 110 and 37.9 in the 300. Armstrong is hot on the heels of both records.

“Tim came out at the beginning of the season and told me that this was going to be his year,” Williamson said. “He said he was ready to work hard and run fast.

“And Lori has just been incredible this year. She was good last year, but she’s made a huge leap this year.”

Bourgeous and Williamson make up half of the school’s 4x100 relay team, with senior Eleaya Schuerch, the returning state champion in the long jump, running the anchor leg and senior Angela Shearer firing out of the starting blocks.

For the first time in her East Valley career, Williamson started the track season late – but with a good excuse.

Williamson and Schuerch helped lead the Knights to their first state girls basketball tournament appearance. That success carried over to track – along with a few nagging injuries.

“I pulled a hamstring and broke my finger during the season, so this was not my best (basketball) season health-wise,” she said. “But once we got to state, we just decided we were going to go for it.”

Walking into Key Arena for the first time was special, she said.

“It was so cool to see the Seattle Sonics logo on stuff,” she laughed. “And some of us wondered just who all else had used our shower before.

“But we just decided that getting there wasn’t good enough for us. I am so proud of how we played and that we won a game over there. And I think that attitude carried over for us to track. We’ve gotten off to a fast start, and we’re going to get even better.”

Williamson played in state tournaments before, but this experience was different.

“We’ve been in the state tournament in soccer before, but that’s not the same thing,” she said. “That was just like playing in another game – another road game. Playing in the state basketball tournament is totally different. You have a big crowd, and there’s all that excitement. A state track meet is special, too – you have huge crowds there watching everything you do.”

One side effect of playing in the state tournament, Williamson said, has been to rethink her college plans somewhat.

“I’m going to go to North Idaho next fall and play soccer,” she said. “But after playing basketball at state, I had a couple colleges talk to me about playing basketball. I’m still going to play soccer, but I’m really thinking about walking on and playing basketball at NIC, too.”