Chewelah girls bring home championship
The magnitude of what transpired at Mt. Tahoma High School over Memorial Day weekend hit Pat Kostecka Tuesday afternoon.
As he was packing up the hurdles for the season, the Chewelah coach was once again struck by the dirt track with weeds and grass growing through it. It is an unlikely home for a state championship team, especially one built on the speed and timing of relays.
But the Cougars are officially champions, after bringing home the State 1A girls team title.
Just the track alone makes Chewelah’s championship unlikely.
“Where we suffer is relays and hurdles,” Kostecka said. “The timing factor is so critical we can never train (seriously) because everything is different when we get on a rubber track. For regionals, they went down to West Valley four hours early and worked on handoffs. At state, we had the day before.”
It paid off as the quartet of Erin Smith, Rebecca Johnstone, Samantha Beamer and Liz Cobb easily won both the 400- and 800-meter relays, shattering the meet record in both instances.
The Chewelah story, though, doesn’t end there.
Each of the four girls added two individual medals, accounting for all 66 of the Cougar points that allowed them to beat defending champion and Great Northern League rival Lakeside by three points.
Smith, a senior, defended her long jump title and placed fifth in the 100.
Johnstone, a senior who just started hurdling about six weeks ago, was third in the 300 hurdles and lost the triple jump title on the last jump.
Beamer, a freshman, was seventh in the 200 and second in the 400.
Cobb, a junior, was seventh in the long jump and third in the triple jump.
Kostecka knew the girls had trophy potential, but he wasn’t counting on the big one.
“We knew Lakeside, King’s and Kiona-Benton and us were the teams to beat, and Lakeside clearly had the upper hand,” he said. “You add the points you think you’re going to get and take off 25 percent unless all the stars happened to align. Everything went right for us, (Lakeside) had a few mishaps. Clearly they are a better team, but the chips just fell that way.”
Lakeside’s seniors didn’t give up the crown easily. Gale Nelson, Loreah Winlow and Kelli Tikker placed in four events, including both short relays. Tikker defended her high jump title, Kayloni Jones placed in all three distance races and discus thrower Gillian Charbonneau was third in her specialty.
State championships aren’t something taken lightly in Chewelah. As near as Kostecka can tell it’s only the second title for the girls, the first being golf last year. Boys have a football (1977), basketball (2001) and three cross country titles (1992, 1995, 1996).
When the girls returned home to Chewelah Sunday afternoon, they were greeted at the city limits and rode through town on a fire truck.
The Cougars also had a boys champion. Sophomore Wil Lohman won the discus title handily and was third in the shot put.
Kostecka, who was part of Mead’s track dynasty years ago, has been in Chewelah two decades because he loves the mountains and the community spirit.
He saw the track title as the culmination of a special time and also as a payback. Early this spring, the school levy only generated 45 percent approval. Faced with some serious cuts, the community rallied and passed it with an overwhelming 61 percent.
“The timing is so neat for our town,” Kostecka said. “The levy failed a month ago … it was about to send Chewelah into a tailspin. The community made a huge push and it passed by a super majority. … (Both victories) show we can be something big if we want to.”
Even if the team isn’t big.