By the time Audrey Shingleton was done with her 1,600-meter race, the Sequim High senior had collapsed near the track, worn out and exhausted.
Just three hours later, Shingleton was in step behind teammate Waverly Shreffler at the finish line of 800-meter prelims and well on her way to state.
It was that kind of weekend for Sequim’s Wolves, who saw 14 athletes earn berths in nine events to the class 2A state track and field meet after strong finishes at the West Central District 2A meet, held May 20-21 in Bremerton.
Along the way, the Wolves set a pair of school records as they vied for a trip to state, set for May 26-28 at Mount Tahoma High School in Tacoma.
Senior Oscar Herrera eclipsed the school mark in the 300 hurdles — and he did it in impressive fashion. After scoring a solid win in the preliminaries on Friday, Herrera went toe-to-toe in Saturday’s final for the first time with River Ridge junior Josh Braverman, who held the best mark in that event in the 2A classification this year. In the final, Herrera blazed to a 38.35 finish, edging Braverman by 0.21 of a second. The effort tops SHS grad James Brabant’s school mark of 38.39, set in 2004.
Braverman took top honors in the 110-meter high hurdles at 14.21, with Herrera second at 14.68, a personal best.
A trio of Sequim relay teams are headed to state, including SHS’s school record-setting girls 4×200 relay team and both boys and girls 4×400 relays.
The 4×200 relay team of Gretchen Happe, Mercedes Woods, Emma Beeson and Waverly Shreffler finished the final in 1:48.05, good for fourth place and a state berth, and about a tenth of a second better than last year’s record-setters.
Sequim’s girls 4×400 relay took second in 4:12.87, just behind Liberty, while SHS’s boys 4×400 team (Herrera, Jackson Oliver, Logan Habner and Curtis Gorr) placed fifth.
Shreffler and Shingleton paced the girls squad with a 1-2 finish in the 800-meter race, finishing in 2:21 and 2:24, respectively.
Shreffler, who took fourth in state last year in the 800, looks to be challenged at this year’s state meet by Grace Oswin, a sophomore from Squalicum, who has a state-best 800 mark of 2:18.48. It’s also a return trip to the 2A state meet for Shingleton, who qualified as a freshman in the 800-meter race back in 2013, where she placed 15th.
Making a big leap for a first-year prep competitor is Elizabeth Sweet, who broke her own school freshman record at last week’s district meet in the pole vault. Her 9-foot, 6-inch effort earned her fifth place at districts and a state 2A berth. Teammate Kiara Pierson also topped 9 feet and she finished seventh — a personal best and one place shy of a state berth.
Making a return trip to the state meet is Oliver. Last year’s runner-up in the state 2A high jump was fourth at districts and in the 800 meters raced to a third-place finish in 1:59.86, a personal best.
Also earning a spot on the medal stand but coming short of state was junior Cheryl Armstrong, whose 99-foot throw tied a personal best and put her eighth at districts
Overall, Sequim’s girls placed seventh at the district meet out of 22 teams, while the SHS boys were eighth.
