TACOMA — Last weekend, Kingston and North Kitsap athletes ran, jumped, hurdled and pushed themselves to the limit at the state track and field championships in Tacoma.
When the dust finally settled, 11 local student athletes had reached the final round of competition and three had climbed the steps of the medalist’s podium.
Kingston junior Ruby Roberts took fourth in both the Class 2A girls’ 800 and 1,600 meters. Roberts posted a time of 2 minutes, 14.94 seconds in the 800, and finished the 1,600 in 5:11.95. Both times were personal bests for Roberts this season. Roberts was the state champion in the 1,600 meters last year, but battled an injured leg throughout the bulk of the 2009 season.
“For any race, you just play to your strengths,” Roberts said. “I don’t have that great of a kick (at the end of the race), so I have to push in the middle more. (For the) 800 and 1,600, the strategy’s kind of similar. A lot of times it just comes down to the end.”
North Kitsap’s Siara Byers took fifth place in the girls’ 3A 100-meter dash when she posted her best time of the season, at 12.39 seconds. Byers, a junior, had snuck into the finals with an eighth-place qualifying time of 12.63 seconds.
The number eight turned out to be a theme for Kingston’s Jaime Schultz, who finished in eighth place overall in the Class 2A girls’ triple jump, 300-meter hurdles and long jump. Schultz was all smiles after receiving her medal for the triple jump, in which she leapt 33 feet, 9.25 inches.
“I was really excited, because last year I made it to state but I totally choked and I got last place, so just to place at all, I was ecstatic,” Schultz said.
After the preliminary rounds of hurdles, Schultz was surprised to learn she had qualified for the last open slot in the finals, with a time of 48.15 seconds.
“That was totally unexpected, because I got seeded last,” she said. “When we walked up and saw the results, I was completely in shock. I couldn’t believe it.”
Schultz finished the 300-meter hurdle finals in 50.88 seconds and put up a long jump distance of 15 feet, 8.75 inches.
North Kitsap junior Taylor Ottomano also showed her leaping abilities, with a tenth-place finish in the high jump, clearing five feet even.
Fellow Viking Tabor Reedy was thirteenth in the boys’ 3A 3,200 meters, with a time of 9:38.58.
Kingston’s Alex Tweten finished thirteenth in the 2A boys’ triple jump, with a distance of 41 feet. Teammate Justin Doud took thirteenth in the 2A boys’ 3,200 meters, with a final time of 10:01.86. Nicholas Schippers, another Buccaneer, came in fourteenth in the 2A boys’ 1,600 meters, at 4:36.56.
Kingston sophomore Dana VanWyck placed fifteenth in the 2A girls’ pole vault finals, clearing a height of eight feet. Teammate Ramona Morshead was sixteenth in the 2A girls’ 3,200 meters, with a time of 12:16.29. North Kitsap’s Michelle Lloyd took sixteenth in the 3A girls’ javelin, with a throw of 106 feet.
