South Kitsap High junior Nolan Van Amen continued his dominance in the discus by winning his third consecutive state title with a throw of 184 feet, 8 inches.

This surpassed his personal best and the school’s record. Van Amen also placed third in the shot put, throwing 59 feet and breaking the school record during regionals, which had been held since 1970.

At the 2016 Washington State Track and Field Championships in Cheney May 26-28, South Kitsap was well represented. After winning a team championship last year, the Wolves continued to prove their strength, finishing fourth after a few key finishes by three competitors.

South Kitsap senior Albert MacArthur finished second in both the triple jump and long jump. He set the new school record in the long jump with a distance of 22-11 3/4.

“I think we were pretty surprised,” head coach Paul Zimmer said. “We had three guys go to the state meet, and we finished fourth. Those are some pretty quality guys.”

Also helping with the fourth-place finish was William Vargus, who finished sixth in the high jump with a jump of 6-2.

“All the guys really came to compete,” Zimmer said. “We had the sense that we belonged, but everyone was very thankful to be there and cheering for each other.”

Zimmer also had high praise for Paxton Depoe, a freshman, who broke the school record in the 800-meter run.

“I’m not even sure if she understood the significance of that, but she did an amazing job,” Zimmer said.

Depoe ran a 2:15 second race, finishing eighth, and beat the school record by more than two seconds in her first state meet. Zimmer is excited to see what she does in her next three years.

“We all kind of have that feeling of ‘What do we do now?’” he said. “Especially MacArthur being a senior. I ran into a few guys today and they all said, ‘Man, I can’t believe it’s over.’

“So we’ll start debriefing and look at what we can do to improve next year.”