Issy girls bring one home! 

Issaquah track and field travelled north to take on the Eastlake Wolves in the first dual meet of the season, with the boys taking home 8 individual victories and the girls taking home 9 individual victories and the TEAM win for the day. 

Starting with our field athletes, sophomore KJ Strunk won the javelin in commanding fashion, winning by over 25 feet. Not to be eclipsed by senior Mercedes Tinder, heaving her victories in the shotput and discus by more than 29 feet between the two events. Junior Courtney Smith and freshman Carson Naehr flopped new personal records of 5’0” and 5’2” respectively to win the high jump, while senior Rebekah Oberlander vaulted a stellar 9’6” for the pole vault win. This puts Courtney at tied for 3rd and Rebecca at 7th in 4A. The horizontal jumps were also won by the Eagles, with Joseph Talluto (long jump), Benjamin Laframboise (triple jump), and Presley Boettcher (long AND triple jump) bringing home the glory. Reminder: Track AND Field has 2 parts, and we already know our Eagles are flocking on the field! 

Onto the running events, girl’s 4×200 featured lots of purple and gold, as our A and B teams duked it out for top spot, finishing a narrow 2 seconds apart — proving our true depth in our sprinting events. Our very own Ethan Blazer threw down in the 100m, winning the event in 11.81. This was a .7 second improvement from last year. Our boy’s and girl’s 4x100m of Shane Olsen, Sebastian Lorete, Sebastian Powers and Joseph Talluto and Emma Wijsman, Sy’nia Williams, Anna Boone, and Daytona Crowe gave real TEAM-inspired performances, narrowly edging off Eastlake in both races.  This places the boy’s team currently at 8th in the state and the girl’s at 4th, an there’s still tons of room to improve and grow.

Our freshman rising star hurdler Toren Garcia shaved a near 3 seconds off his time in the 300m hurdles, passing his competitors in the final 2 hurdles to take home the W. His time of 44.85 currently ranks him at 10th in 4A, an amazing accomplishment this early in the season.

To the end of the meet, we saw standout performances by freshman Connor Rickey and sophomore Jane Harig in the 3200m. Both of them worked from the front, running incredibly smart races, and both walked away with amazing PRs for this early in the season. Connor’s 9:56.54 currently stands at 5th in 4A and the fastest overall freshman regardless of division, and Jane’s 12:02.63 currently stands as 7th in 4A . An incredible effort by these two that will set them up well for the rest of the season.

In the end, Issaquah girls brought home the TEAM victory, winning 74 to 71 over Eastlake. While not the ultimate goal, the TEAM victory an awesome cherry on top for the day.

With so many other efforts that showed true grit, teamwork, and heart, I could go on and on. Many other athletes did not necessarily win their event, but did take home personal wins as personal bests, as we saw a staggering 165 personal bests. An amazing feat that we look to build off of in the future. Official results here.

Looking ahead, we have our first home dual meet against Skyline on March 30th, events begin at 4:30.