Bremerton
With little depth and not very much experience, the Bremerton track and field team enters the season without its top two athletes from 2009.
The Knights lost Stephanie Himmelsbach, a hurdler and javelin thrower who graduated, and Jarell Flora, a senior sprinter who didn’t turn out for the team this season.
Last season Flora won a district championship in the 400-meter race and advanced to the state championships, placing sixth. He also advanced to districts in the 200 and ran a leg on the Knights’ district-qualifying 100 relay team,
“It’s a major blow,” coach Lloyd Pugh said of losing Flora. “It’s disappointing. He could very well have won two or three events at each meet.”
The absence of Flora and Himmelsbach leaves Pugh with 34 athletes on the boys team and 21 on the girls team. Many of those athletes, however, are inexperienced or new to track and field all together.
Among the top newcomers on the girls team are sophomore Julie Belden, who will run the 400 and participate in the high jump, and freshman distance runner Rebecca Frei, who also runs cross country.
Frei placed ninth in the 1,600 at the season-opening South Kitsap Jamboree last week in her varsity debut and is expected to get faster as the season unfolds.
“It looks like there are a lot of possibilities there,” Pugh said.
Beyond Belden and Frei, Pugh is unsure who — if anyone — will emerge as a postseason threat.
Sophomore sprinter Khadijsha DeWalt was the team’s top finisher in both the 100 and 200 at the South Kitsap meet, finishing sixth and 15th, while junior Michaela Anderson placed a team-best fourth in the 300 hurdles. In the 3,200, 100 hurdles, shot put, discus and javelin, no Bremerton athlete finished in the top 10.
Pugh believes those results could improve by the end of the season.
“We have a fair amount of eagerness, with the prospect of pretty good talent,” he said. “They have the potential to get better with some maturation.”
The boys team, meanwhile, must find a new leader without the services of Flora, a varsity basketball star who has committed to Seattle University.
Although it is early in the season, juniors Demasha Aldridge and Kyle Kennedy are in position to fill that role based on numbers.
Aldridge, a sprinter and high-jumper, placed first in the 100 with a time of 11.60 seconds at the Jamboree. He also finished second in the high jump with a mark of 5 feet, 10 inches.
Kennedy is a two-time state participant in the javelin and is poised to make his third consecutive appearance. He won the javelin competition at the Jamboree and also placed first in the shot put, an event to which he is new this season.
OLYMPIC
For Olympic, it will be a sprint to the finish in 2010. Literally.
The Trojans enter the season with a talented group of sprinters who carried the boys team to an Olympic League championship in 2009.
Five of the eight athletes who qualified for the 100 finals at last year’s league championships belonged to Olympic, which swept the podium behind first-place finisher Darrious Walker, runner-up Kyle King and bronze medalist Larry Dixon. James Galam and Alden Garcia finished sixth and seventh.
“You could go an entire lifetime and never see that,” Chapman said.
Chapman could see something similar this season because four of the five are back. King graduated, but Walker, Dixon and Garcia are seniors and Galam is a junior.
The leader of the group is Walker, who is looking to break the school record of 10.84 in the 100. His fastest time in that event, Chapman said, is 10.87.
Dixon, a three-sport athlete who will play football at Army in the fall, isn’t far behind Walker. He will run the 100 and 200 this season in addition to competing in the throwing events.
Garcia and Galam, meanwhile, continue to improve their times, as does senior Philips Lacanlale, who ran the 100 in a time of 11.75 last week at the Port Angeles Invitational.
Samuel Gesicki, a sophomore who throws the javelin, also is posting fast times in the sprints and figures to compete for a postseason trophy. There are about 45 athletes on the boys team.
“It’s good to have all of them because the competition keeps them motivated,” Chapman said.
The boys team’s hurdlers include Aljohn Gaviola and Harley Dakis, and its top two distance runners are John Wojtech and Seth Bailey. Hunter Keffer, Alden Garcia, Richard Lumagui and Matthew Lutz will anchor the team in the jumping events.
Although the girls team is smaller in numbers, with 20 athletes, Chapman said the roster is deeper than it’s been for a long time. Last season it finished sixth at the league championships behind sprinter Bianca Fisher, who has since graduated.
Now Chapman will look for leadership from the versatile Brooke Jordan, who runs, throws and jumps.
Jordan will compete in the pole vault, javelin and 800, among others, and could run a leg on one or both of the relays.
“She can do pretty much anything,” Chapman said.
Melia-Mae Lagat is the team’s top middle-distance runner — she will run the 800 — and Victoria Jones and Melissa Shafer will anchor the 1,600 and 3,200. Senior Christine Hill, meanwhile, is posting the team’s best scores in the long jump and triple jump.
“Everybody is pretty charged up,” Chapman said.
CROSSPOINT
With a new coach and two talented freshmen joining the program, it’s a new era for Crosspoint Academy track and field.
Robert Evans, 34, takes over a Class 2B Warriors team that last season finished seventh in the state in the girls competition and 21st in the boys competition.
The first-year coach assumes a 32-member team — 19 boys and 13 girls — that includes talent at the senior and freshmen levels on both sides.
The boys team returns the majority of its lineup from 2009, led by long jump and triple jump specialist Chase Estes, sprinter Nic Olson, hurdler Eric Jeong and discus thrower Jared Wright.
“They have the talent and work ethic to make it to districts and beyond,” Evans said.
Newcomer freshman Russell Melin, a cross country runner who will race in the long-distance events, also could find himself in the postseason. He reached the 2B state championships in cross country last fall and will run the 1,600 and 3,200 this season.
The girls team, meanwhile, welcomes freshman sprinter Grace Garguile, who placed first in the 100 at the South Kitsap Jamboree last week. She finished second in the 200 and will run a leg for the 100 relay team when the league schedule begins.
Joining Garguile is senior Carlie Rouse, a long-distance specialist who reached state in 2009. She will run the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 this season along with fellow distance athlete Molly Wheeler, a sophomore.
Middle-distance runner Leandra Shdo and hurdler Kylie Esselstrom also figure to lead the team.
“I hate speculating this early in the season, but they all have the chance to make districts,” Evans said.
KLAHOWYA
At Klahowya, all eyes are on junior Rebecca Lindgren.
Lindgren is the Eagles’ premier track and field athlete, advancing to last year’s Class 2A girls state championships in three events — the 100, 200, 400.
“She worked really hard in the offseason,” said first-year coach David Rastovski. “We’re excited for her.”
Although Rastovski said it’s too early to predict how Lindgren will fare against the other short-distance runners in the area, he has entered her into some non-league invitationals.
Those events will pit Lindgren against runners from other leagues and classifications, athletes she otherwise wouldn’t see until the postseason. She will race at an invite in Tacoma this weekend and also plans to run at the Shelton Invitational.
“All we can do is control her workouts and get her prepared,” Rastovski said. “We’ll see, you just don’t know.”
Sophomore Rachel Lindgren and junior Emily Kreifels have posted the fastest times in the distance events. Cassondra Dick and Rebecca Reise are the top two throwers and will compete in the javelin and discus, respectively.
Senior Jes Cantu will see significant action, too, but it’s unclear in which events she will compete. Last year she focused on the 400, but this year she could assume the hurdles and possibly the distance races.
On the boys side, junior Tim Fuller is the fastest sprinter. He finished 12th in the 100 at the South Kitsap Jamboree with a time of 12.10 and also will compete in the 200 as the season continues.
Junior Josh Ross will lead the boys team in the jumping events, and fellow junior Chris Smith will anchor the throwing events, the javelin being his specialty.
There are about 52 athletes on the girls and boys rosters combined.
“We need to have goals every day, we need to improve everyday,” Rastovski said.”The only thing we can control is ourselves.”
*Check back later for a report on Central Kitsap High School
