All they needed was a little tweak to the regular lineup.
Sequim’s boys track & field squad raced to an 18-point win against North Mason last week, keeping the Wolves in contention for a league 2A division crown.
Coupled with the girls team’s sweep of North Mason and Bremerton on April 23, Sequim dominated their final home meet of the season.
"When we pointed it out on paper, they (North Mason’s boys) beat us," Sequim coach Brad Moore said. So instead of the normal lineup, he moved some athletes out of relays into individual events.
Despite the Bulldogs’ strong corps of throwers,
Sequim dominated the running events by taking first place in the 800, 3200, 110 hurdles, 300 hurdles and 4×400 relay events and taking second in the 100, 200, 400, 1600 and 4×100 relay events.
A key, Moore said, was taking senior Derrell Jensen out of the relays and putting him in the 100 and 200 sprints where he earned big points placing second in both.
Josh Fodge and Emmanuel Herrera helped the cause with strong first-place runs in the 110 and 300 hurdles while Alex Jenkins took first in the 800. Senior Ben Ohnstad cruised to a 10:31 win in the 3200, a personal best.
Jensen added a triple jump win of more than 39 feet,
9 inches, while Jared Lindorfer (first), Fodge (second), Kevin Beck (third) and Joey Hall (fourth) swept the high jump event.
On the girls’ side, Lauryn Garrett showed she’s not slowed by an illness by winning four events. She set personal bests in both hurdles events, then won the high jump at 4 feet 8 inches and the long jump at 15-6.
Sequim’s girls easily outpaced the Bulldogs and Bremerton’s Knights in the points standings with 95 points. North Mason was second with 40 and Bremerton racked up 39 points.
The Wolves also saw the return of Allison Cutting, a state track & field placer in 2008 and cross country champion. Sidelined with an injury for the season up until last Thursday, Cutting showed little signs of the leg problem as she won the 1600 in 5:36 and helped Sequim’s 4×400 win with a 4:26 mark.
"I loved seeing Alli come back," Moore said.
Cutting’s win in the metric mile was just one of Sequim’s 13 event wins last week. Fellow junior Anna LaBeaume won the 100-meter race (12.7) and threw well once again in her best event, the shot put (39-11) for a win. She also placed fourth with her best javelin mark of the season (83-9).
Audrey Lichten earned a personal-best mark in the 800-meter race (2:29) to win while Laura Moser took the 3200 in 12:49.
Samantha Whiteside cleared eight feet to start the pole vault event – a mark that would have won the event if she’d stopped – but went on to clear 9 feet, 9 inches, a personal best and six inches from Tiffany Millet’s school record.
Whiteside actually cleared 10 feet but hit the bar on the way down. Moore said he’s ordered two new, more advanced poles that give Whiteside a shot at easily breaking the school mark.
Alex Rose-Albert (discus) and Sierra Clark (triple jump) also took first place in their respective events.
Sequim athletes saw some top competition at the Tomahawk Classic in Marysville on April 25. Garrett topped the field of 16 competitors with a 15-foot, 8-inch long jump and placed second in the high jump after clearing five feet even. She also took seventh in the 100 hurdles and eighth in the 300 hurdles.
Lichten was second in a field of 24 runners in the 1600 with a 5:18 finish and Whiteside cleared nine feet to take third in the pole vault.
Sequim’s boys earned 12 top-10 finishes capped by Fodge’s third-place run in the 110 high hurdles. Jensen placed fourth in the triple jump and sixth in the 200-meter sprint, while Herrera was fifth in the 300 hurdles and Ohnstad was sixth in the 800-meter race.
Sequim travels to Kingston on April 30 to take on the Buccaneers and North Kitsap Vikings.
Reach Michael Dashiell at miked@sequimgazette.com.
