Hille overcomes adversity
Erik Hille has had no trouble flying recently, but Tuesday afternoon he couldn’t get the discus to fly like he is accustomed.
When the Ritzville senior struggled during the District 7 2B track and field meet at Spokane Falls Community College his junior teammate Casey Rios cashed in, unleashing a 150-foot, 9-inch throw, a personal record by 11 feet, to upset his more heralded teammate.
“I kind of figured Erik would throw farther,” Rios said. “Every time I get close to him or beat him he throws a lot farther.”
Not this time, with only two throws to find his form. However, on his last one he got close, 148-8, 6 feet short of his PR.
“I told Casey he would throw 150 today,” Hille said with a big grin. “It happens. At least I qualified for state and I couldn’t have lost to a better guy.”
Hille channeled his disappointment into the shot put, where he easily won with a throw of 51-4½.
The merging of the Bi-County and Panorama leagues sent the top four boys finishers and top three girls to the State 2B meet at Eastern Washington May 23-24.
Rios and Hille helped the Broncos win the boys title with 142½ points with St. George’s second at 129. The order was turned around on the girls’ side, with the Dragons scoring 148 points to 118 for L-R.
Hille’s struggles in the discus go beyond a little cold wind, which was replaced by rain midway through the meet. First, he is a beginner, in just his second year of track. Second, he just returned from San Antonio, a week after going to Atlanta. In both cases he picked up prestigious scholarships from Toyota (national winner) and Coca-Cola (regional winner), respectively.
“Discus is a lot of technique,” Hille said. “Since this is only my second year, I’m kind of still learning. I’m a little disappointed. I threw better in practice, but everybody says that. I know what I need to work on, my release. It was kind of an inconsistent day for me.”
Not so for Rios.
“I honestly don’t know where that came from,” he said. “I was hoping to hit 40 today. That 50 was a bonus. We push each other. If he does good, we both do good.”
Hille took up track and field because his baseball career ended before it started. He was the only freshman to earn a letter in football but in the last regular season game, before the Broncos embarked on their postseason run to the State B-11 championship, Hille suffered a broken elbow.
A passionate wrestler since fourth grade and a promising catcher, two elbow surgeries kept Hille idle until he tried to throw a baseball at the end of his sophomore year.
He returned to football, the 175-pound freshman now a solid 230, and in the spring turned to track.
“I’m competitive and I didn’t want to sit around,” he said. “I wanted to stay in shape for football and it looked like fun. I had a couple of friends do it. We’re a track family. I was actually the first one to do baseball.”
The track rookie threw the shot put 48-10¼ and finished fourth at state. His discus best was 148-8 and he was third at state. In both cases he finished behind Drew Ege of Willapa Valley, who placed in both as a freshman, and Tim Lazaelle of South Bend, who placed in both as a sophomore.
“State should be fun,” Hille said. “It looks like we’re all about the same but I’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”
He’s increased his PRs to 53-4½, which would be enough to lead the Greater Spokane League in the shot put, and 154-8, which would have led the GSL until last week.
Hille took to track quickly.
“I love it,” he said. “It’s both an individual and team sport. It’s unique in that sense. There is a lot of camaraderie, not only with your teammates but with other competitors.”
Hille may try to walk-on at Washington State, where he will go to study mechanical engineering after turning down Stanford.
He figures his scholarships are the result of his community service as well as his grades, and make up for Ritzville’s lack of AP classes.
Hille raises money for Make a Splash, which allows children in Ritzville who can’t afford it to go swimming and take lessons, and a music program that makes sure elementary school children will have instruments to play. Hille has a passion for music, first learning the piano, then the saxophone and most recently the guitar, although he is teaching himself the cello.
Youngsters stole the show at SFCC. Reardan freshman Chance Bell won the boys 100 and long jump. Liberty Teara Cornmesser won the girls shot put and discus. Davenport junior Mariah Mielke was the only triple winner, taking the high jump, long jump and 100 hurdles.
1B regional
The Curlew girls and Odessa boys rolled to the team titles at the 1B regional held at SFCC prior to the 2B meet. The top two in each event qualified for state May 23-24 at EWU. The big winner was Northport’s Kaprina Goodwin. The defending state champion in the long and triple jump plus the 100- and 300-meter hurdles, broke her meet records in all four events. It is only the second year for the split B meet and many of the 1-year-old records were broken. Curlew piled up 111 points by dominating the distances and had eight state qualifiers. St. John Endicott and Odessa both had six qualifiers with the Eagles scoring 77 points, three more than the Tigers. Kayla Engebreston won the 400 and 3,200 for the Cougars, with Noel Meyer taking the 800 and 1,600. Haley Reiber of St. John-Endicott won the 100 and 200 and Mallarie Bramer of Odessa won the shot put and javelin. With 16 state qualifiers, double that of runner-up St. John Endicott, Odessa scored 175 points, 32 ahead of the Eagles. Odessa went 1-2 in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 with Josh Allen second in all three races. Matt Conrath won the first two and Scott Stang the longest. The Eagles had two double winners, Roy Tubio in the 100 and 200 and Warren Miller in the high jump and triple jump.