Local anglers group sets meeting

The next meeting of Puget Sound Anglers-North Olympic Peninsula Chapter is Wednesday, Jan. 17, at the Sequim Elks Lodge, 143 Port Williams Road. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the meeting starts at 7 p.m.

The meeting is open to the public. This month’s speakers are father-son duo Bill and Keller Batson, who will be talking about the Batson Enterprise’s part in being the largest wholesale supplier of fishing rod building supplies in the nation. Owned and operated in Sequim for more than 25 years, Batson Enterprise supplies more than 700 wholesale accounts worldwide. The company has 500 different fishing rod blank models and more than 6,000 different parts and pieces to build any rod imaginable.

The Batsons will highlight custom fishing rod builds for the Great Pacific Northwest fisheries and why they choose certain items for certain applications.

They will also have a free raffle to win a custom fishing rod.

Turella leaps to top-10 high jump finish

Sequim’s Clare Turella, then an eighth-grader, earned a 10th place finish in the high school “Emerging Elite” division in the high jump at the Nike Outdoor National track and field meet in 2023.

The 4-10.5 leap at nationals — also the second best among all eighth-graders in the division — capped a middle school track season that saw her set league and school records in the high jump. Turella topped 5 feet 2 inches, knocking off the previous mark of 4-11.

Her personal best placed her third among all middle school girls jumpers in the state and would have tied for second among high schoolers at the 2A state meet, according to athletic.net.

Editor’s note: Turella’s achievements were incorrectly attributed in the Jan. 3 edition of the Sequim Gazette (“2023: The Year in Sports,” page B-5). — MD