Track and Field: Sequim’s Turella jumps to nationals

By Michael Dashiell • July 17, 2024 1:30 am
Photo by Kirsti Turella Clare Turella celebrates with high jump coach Ten Gordon after Turella won the Region 13 high jump championship in Gresham, Oregon, earlier this month. Turella, who will be a sophomore at Sequim High this fall, earned a spot in the Junior Olympic Championships in August.
Photo by Kirsti Turella Clare Turella celebrates with high jump coach Ten Gordon after Turella won the Region 13 high jump championship in Gresham, Oregon, earlier this month. Turella, who will be a sophomore at Sequim High this fall, earned a spot in the Junior Olympic Championships in August.

Sequim High sophomore-to-be Clare Turella took top honors in the high jump at the Junior Olympics Regional in Gresham, Oregon, to earn a place at the Junior Olympic Championships, set for Aug. 22-28 in College Station, Texas.

Turella, 16, competing for the Kitsap Fliers Track and Field club, cleared 5-1 in the Junior Olympics Region 13 championships (age 15-16 division), held July 4-7 at Mount Hood Community College, placing first among 21 other jumpers in her age group.

In the Junior Olympics meets leading up to regionals, Turella topped 5-1 to take first at the Washington Track & Field Academy and Alpha Speed Academy Summer Meet in Puyallup on June 8. She then took first place with a 5-3 mark — 6 inches better than the runner-up, a mark that would have topped the field in the 17-18 age group as well, and tying a personal best set during her 2024 high school season — at the USATF Pacific Northwest Meet at Tahoma High School in Tacoma on June 23.

Turella, who won the class 2A state high jump title in May to become the first SHS freshman to win a state individual championship, is being coached by club coaches Martha Mendenhall and Ten Gordon.