In the first of our 3 post-season meets for our varsity squad, our TEAM showed that they are ready for the competition ahead. Overall, our athletes walked away with 13 personal bests, 8 All-Kingco individual performances, an individual runner-up finish, a second place team finish and a first place team finish.
Starting with our girls, who took care of business in a big way. Their squad was led by senior Kate Yahn (4th, 18:14.9, First Team All-Kingco) and junior Jane Harig (6th, 18:24.5, First Team All-Kingco) — along with junior Clara Tubbs (13th, 19:38.7, Second Team All-Kingco), sophomore Riley Eberhardt (15th, 19:43.8, PR), senior Julia Ryan (23rd, 20:15.6), senior Anna Jensen (36th, 20:38.5, Season’s Best), and junior Giada Oliva (43rd, 20:56.8, PR) — all of whom ran outstanding team races. In what was one of the closest Kingco Championships in many years, our Quah Girls won the Kingco team title with a score of 61 points to Eastlake’s 63- and Mount Si’s 64-point efforts. This is an incredible way to start the momentum of our post-season, and absolutely something for us to build on top of!
Onto our boys, who put up about as good a fight as they could have. Going up against #1 ranked Eastlake, our squad raced, and raced well. The Eagles were led by junior Brennen Rickey (2nd, 15:40.4, First Team All-Kingco), sophomore Connor Rickey (4th, 15:54.5, First Team All-Kingco, PR), senior Ben Konopka (6th, 15:55.8, First Team All-Kingco), sophomore Elliot McIntosh (8th, 16:05.8, Second Team All-Kingco, PR), senior Jonathan Liu (13th, 16:26.4, Second Team All-Kingco, Season’s Best) and sophomore Henry Tait (16:32.5, PR) — all running amazing races and finishing a close second place as a team to Eastlake (28-33). While a Kingco trophy didn’t return home with us for the boy’s team, this performance gives us an incredible point to take off from.
Links to full results are here, while links to photos taken by Ken Fischer are here.
Both of our teams qualified for the district meet, which will be held at Lakewood HS on October 29th.
In what shaped up to be Issaquah’s personal record day of the season thus far — tallying 102 out of 116 possible personal/season’s bests — the Eagles took on the Newport Knights, the Woodinville Falcons, and the Mt Si Wildcats at the South Fork Landing Disc Golf Course. Along with stellar team performances — winning 3 of the 3 possible team races — we also recorded 3 of 3 possible individual wins.
Starting with our varsity boys, where junior Brennen Rickey (1st, 15:36, PR), senior Ben Konopka (2nd, 15:48, PR), and sophomore Connor Rickey (3rd, 15:57, PR) all broke the 16-minute barrier for the first time. This is a huge step for our team and we are so excited for these three’s continued growth. Senior Jonathan Liu (5th, 16:35, SR) and sophomore Elliot McIntosh (6th, 16:36) completed our scoring 5. This group finished with a score of 17 to Mt Si’s 67.
Onto our girl’s squad, who raced 4A State 2nd-ranked Mt Si. Issaquah’s senior Kate Yahn (1st, 18:13, PR) and junior Jane Harig (2nd, 18:17, PR) led the charge while junior Clara Tubbs (7th, 19:27, PR), senior Julia Ryan (8th, 20:03, PR) and sophomore Riley Eberhardt (9th, 20:21, PR) closed the back door for our scoring 5. This effort by our girl’s squad was enough to beat Mt Si 27-28, enough to stir up some chatter for our ladies to get into the Elite race at Hole In The Wall next week (October 7). Great job by these ladies!
Our boy’s Junior Varsity group closed out the evening, where senior Hayden Stowe (1st, 17:28, PR) and junior Oscar Ruiz (2nd, 17:29, PR) worked together to new PRs, while sophomore Robert Fischer (3rd, 17:48, PR), senior Ryan Welsh (4th, 17:59, PR) and freshman Nate Laursen (5th, 18:01, PR) rounded out our scoring 5. Issaquah not only delivered a perfect score of 15 in this race, but also took the top 14 spots in this race — what could only be considered as a wall of yellow!
Links to full results here. Links to photographs by Ken Fischer here (will updated once available).
Coming up, Issaquah flies over the pass for the 49th rendition of the Historic Sunfair Invitational on Saturday, October 1st.
In our team’s first big invitational weekend of the season, Issaquah split our team between two meets — sending a squad to Nike Portland XC Invitational and another group to King’s Cross Invitational. Both groups were up against high level competition, and rose to meet the challenge.
The first event of the weekend was the Boy’s JV Danner Championship at Nike Portland, where 5 of our athletes raced. Led by sophomores Alex Yahn (16th, 17:17.2, PR) and Benjamin Lucas (17th, 17:17.8, PR), the team finished 3rd overall. Other scorers were juniors Elle Miller (24th, 17:29.2, PR), Oscar Ruiz (28th, 17:34.7, PR) and senior Hayden Stowe (31st, 17:47.0). All of these athletes placed in the top 50, earning them an individual medal — a little bit of extrinsic motivation to go with an amazing performance!
Next up was our Girl’s Varsity participating in the Danner Championship, going up against some of the top teams on the west coast. Led by senior Kate Yahn (16th, 18:22.3) and junior Jane Harig (47th, 18:56.9, PR), along with junior Clara Tubbs (83rd, 19:48.7, PR), senior Julia Ryan (134th, 20:45.4), and sophomore Riley Eberhardt (137th, 20:49.3, PR) rounding out the scoring five. Quah Girls finished as the 15th of 24 teams, along with being the 4th 4A team of the race. This was an awesome step in the right direction for this team and we look forward to seeing how the rest of the season plays out for this group!
The last race for the Eagles at Nike Portland was the Boy’s Varsity in the Danner Championship, going up against two nationally ranked teams and multiple top ranked teams in their states. Our boys rose to the challenge, finishing 7th overall as a team and the 1st Washington team. Led by junior Brennen Rickey (25th, 16:00.6, PR), sophomore Connor Rickey (26th, 16:01.0, PR), and senior Ben Konopka (29th, 16:04.8, PR), along with sophomore Elliot McIntosh (96th, 16:50.3) and senior Jonathan Liu (101st, 16:54.8) rounding out the scoring five. As we rapidly approach the post-season, it is awesome experience for these athletes to get to race fast competition — rising tides lift all boats!
Our crew at King’s Cross Invite also were met with stiff competition, but this group showed that they are equally prepared to step up to the challenge of racing — even with an intensely difficult course. Beginning with the JV Boy’s White race — freshman Josh Dayley (19:02.91, 3 mi PR) won the race, with sophomore Jieden Fenderson (5th, 20:04.41, 3 mi PR), freshman Kai Mitsuyama (6th, 20:07.81, 3 mi PR), senior Ben Dong (7th, 20:08.34, 3 mi PR), and freshman Ben Meier (10th, 20:17.40, 3 mi PR) rounding out the scoring 5. This group won the team race 28-92 over Orcas Island.
Our girls at King’s Cross also showed out — led by senior Ellie Roberts (6th, 21:58.29, 3 mi PR) and followed by freshman Amelia Ryan (11th, 23:13.13, 3 mi PR), sophomores Lorelai Beernink (14th, 23:23.95, 3 mi PR), Amanda George (18th, 24:02.70, 3 mi PR), and junior Mackenzie Bice (21st, 24:14.48, 3 mi PR) to round out the scoring 5. They finished 2nd to King’s HS 31-41 in a close team battle, and we are extremely proud of this group for representing our varsity at this meet so well!
The final are of the day was the Varsity Boy’s Red race at King’s Cross, led by sophomore Robert Fischer (10th, 17:54.30, 3 mi PR), along with senior Ryan Welsh (11th, 18:00.60, 3 mi PR), sophomore Toren Garcia (10th, 18:19.20, 3 mi PR), and freshmen Anay Dhamankar (21st, 18:48.50, 3 mi PR) and Nicolas Talluto (22nd, 18:55.00, 3 mi PR) rounded out our scoring 5. This group also finished 2nd to King’s 33-53. Developing the future of our team is looking extremely bright with performances like these!
With almost everyone on our team post either a new personal best, season’s best, or a near-personal best, it is evident that even through some of our toughest training, our athletes can put up amazing performances. Great job TEAM!
Links to the results for Nike Portland are here, while King’s Cross are here. Photos by Ken Fischer of Kings Cross are linked here, and a gallery of photos of Nike Portland are linked here.
Looking ahead, Mt. Si hosts us for a four-way meet that includes Newport and Woodinville on Wednesday September 28th. This meet is hosted at the South Fork Landing Disc Golf Course in North Bend — girls will race first at 4pm. Then on Saturday October 1st, our whole team will travel to Yakima for the historic 49th Sunfair Invitational at Franklin Park. 9th grade girls will race first beginning at 10am.
In what became somewhat of a Kingco Preview meet — where almost every school in our conference raced on the same course over a two day stretch — Issaquah reigned supreme in the first 5K race of the season. Up against Redmond, North Creek, Bothell, Woodinville, Mt Si, and Newport — Issaquah won 3 of the 4 contested races and notched 3 individual wins.
First race of the day was the varsity girls, led by senior Kate Yahn (18:21.79) who won the race over Bothell’s Lauren Hoyt. This was a near-best effort for Kate, which came at last year’s PNW Showcase in late-November — nearly PRing in September bodes well for what’s to come! Juniors Jane Harig (3rd, 19:34.53) and Clara Tubbs (6th, 20:08.16) came across next, while seniors Anna Jensen (11th, 21:06.97) and Julia Ryan (13th, 21:13.91) rounded out our scoring top 5. These incredible efforts from our girl’s team was enough to secure the overall team victory over Redmond 34-35, and securing the league meet victory over Woodinville and North Creek.
Next up were our varsity boys, led by senior Ben Konopka (16:06.46) who also won the race for Issaquah, finishing with junior teammate Brennen Rickey (2nd, 16:08.36) and ahead Redmond’s Zachary Leader. Not only is this Ben’s second individual cross country win (first dating back to October 15th, 2019), but it is also a 30-second PR from last fall AND the fastest 5Km time in 4A state rankings thus far — a testament to the hard work he and his teammates have put in over the summer! Rounding out our scoring 5 were sophomores Connor Rickey (4th, 16:28.95), Elliot McIntosh (5th, 16:36.58, PR), and Henry Tait (11th, 17:08.49, PR). This totaled to 23-53 over Redmond, sealing a dominate league performance in our first full-distance race of the season.
Onto our JV girls, who also raced incredibly well, led by junior Giada Oliva (2nd, 21:22.98), senior Ellie Roberts (4th, 22:00.59), freshman Amelia Ryan (8th, 22:47.34, PR), sophomore Ava Gonzalez (9th, 23:12.01, PR), and junior Mackenzie Bice (10th, 23:16.42). These tenacious ladies finished 2nd to Redmond’s squad 26-33, and we are so excited to see the continued development of this incredible group.
The evening of races concluded with our JV boys, whose performance can only be described as a “wall of yellow” — as the eagles secured 6 of the top 7 spots to secure a perfect score of 15 over Redmond’s 75 point effort. Senior Ty Lauritzen finished first (17:28.25) followed by sophomore Alex Yahn (17:29.55, PR), senior Hayden Stowe (17:41.36), junior Elle Miller (17:49.32, PR), and sophomore Ben Lucas (17:50.88, PR) to round out the scoring 5. This was an awesome effort by these athletes to set us up well for the future!
Full results from the meet are here. Photos by Ken Fischer are linked here.
Next week begins the next phase of our season, where we have invitationals each Saturday for 3 weekends. Issaquah will host Skyline September 21st at Yellow Lake (girls first at 4:30), and then we will split the team on Saturday the 24th, with a group attending Nike Portland XC at Blue Lake Regional Park (Championship races at 11:15am) and a group racing at Kings Cross Invite, hosted by Kings HS (races begin at 1pm).
In an early meeting with a late season foe, Issy took on Redmond’s Mustangs and Eastlake’s Wolves for our first Kingco meeting of the season. Eastlake’s two-mile home course was the set the scene in the midst of some of our toughest training. During the race, we saw every single Eagle who raced put up a season’s best in the two mile distance — which we have now raced three times — as well as 2 individual victories across the three races.
Beginning with our girls, who raced an incredible strategic race, led by senior Kate Yahn (11:25.4), who finished in a 1-2 photo finish with Eastlake’s Sally Roos. Closely followed by junior Jane Harig (11:47.2), who unleashed a kick to pass 3 athletes over the closing meters of the race for 4th place. Also scoring for Issaquah was junior Clara Tubbs (11:58.7, 8th), senior Julia Ryan (12:41.9, 17th), and senior Anna Jensen (12:42.0, 18th). To note, freshman Kennedy Fullmer put up an incredible 11-minute personal best, running 19:33.1, an incredible showing of the true grit of our team. Issaquah ladies finished third amongst the teams, but exhibited many positives we look to capitalize on as the season progresses.
On to the varsity boys, who were led by sophomore Connor Rickey, who ran an incredible time of 9:21.8 for second place in the two mile distance. Tagging along was senior Ben Konopka (9:33.3) for 5th place and junior Brennen Rickey for 7th (9:45.8). Rounding out the top five were sophomores Elliot McIntosh (10:12.6, 11th) and Henry Tait (10:15.1, 12th) — both of whom unleashed monster kicks in the final meters of the race to catch multiple athletes. Issy boys finished second in the team standings to Eastlake (27-38), an amazing show of progress we look to capitalize on more as the season progresses.
Our JV contingent, led by senior Ryan Welsh (10:54.3, 1st), also showed enormous growth from the previous race to now. This race also saw our top freshman performer of the day, Anay Dhamanker, running a time of 10:55.7, which was good for 2nd overall in that race. rounding out the scoring 5 were senior Josh Goble (11:13.3, 4th), breakout race for sophomore Toren Garcia (11:15.3, 5th), and junior Ryan Heuchert (11:15.5, 6th). This put the team results for Issy’s junior varsity squad in the W column, scoring 18-49 over Redmond.
Link to results here. Link to Ken Fischer’s photo album here.
Issaquah will be going north to St. Edwards State Park on Wednesday, September 14th for our third official competition of the season. This will be our first full 5km of the season, where we will be racing Woodinville, Mt Si, Redmond, North Creek, and Newport, hosted by Bothell. Schedule will be as follows:
4:00 - Varsity Girls
4:25 - Varsity Boys
5:00 - JV Girls
5:30 - JV Boys (under 23:00)
6:00 - JV Boys (over 23:00)
Issy Eagles flew north for our first competition of the year — the Kingco Jamboree. This also acts as a course preview for the Kingco Championships later this season, which will also be held at Marymoor Park in Redmond. This meet had athletes competing within and against their grade levels, where 8 races were held and scored as team races. Of those 8 races, Issaquah won 6 team scores, and had 2 individual wins, and bolstered the second fastest time on the boy’s side and the third and fourth fastest times on the girl’s side.
Beginning with our freshman girls, led by Clara Michael, who finished 2nd overall with a time of 13:45.2. Of note, Sailor Storey, who finished 9th in the race and 3rd for our freshman girls, took her 2 mile best time from 16:36 to 15:20 in just 5 days from our Issy 2 mile Time Trial, an amazing feat! Our freshman boys also raced like veterans, led by Nathaniel Laursen, finishing 3rd with a time of 12:05. Both of these teams took victories in their races, which was an awesome way to start the day and the season!
Sophomore girls, led by Georgia Short, who finished 3rd in her race with a time of 13:31.7, had all four girls participating in the race improve their season bests in the 2 mile distance. Our sophomore boys, led Connor Rickey, showed up in a big way. Connor finished 2nd in 10:23.8–the second fastest boy’s time of the day—and the boy’s won this race 17 points to 50 over Newport’s sophomore boys. Also in the race, Victor Soto, finishing 33rd, improved his 2 mile season best from 15:07 to 13:40 from the time trial on Saturday to the race on Thursday. An awesome showing of putting in hard work over the summer!
Junior girls, led by Jane Harig who finished 2nd in 12.44.9 (fourth fastest time of the day) won their contest over Mercer Island 24-33. Junior boys, led by Brennen Rickey, who won our first individual victory of the day in a time of 10:31 (third fastest boy’s time of the day), finished second only to Newport’s junior squad.
Our Senior girls, featuring the second individual win of the day by Kate Yahn in a time of 12:44.7 (third fastest time of the day), also featured Julia Ryan and Anna Jensen as the trio finished 1-2-3 to lead the group to scoring a perfect score of 15 points. Senior boys closed out the racing festivities, where Ben Konopka led the way with a 2nd place finish in 10:42.3, and winning the team contest over Mercer Island 35-44.
When races were combined to show how the team would perform as a whole, Issaquah Boys won 37-52 over Mercer Island, and Issy Girls won 33-63 over Mercer Island. This was an awesome way to start the season, and we are extremely eXCited for more racing opportunities!
Links to the results are here, and links to photographs of the event done by Ken Fischer are here.
Issaquah will travel to Beaver Lake Park on September 8th to compete against Redmond and Eastlake, where competition will begin at 4pm.
Flying north to Lake Stevens HS, 35 Eagles competed in 26 events. At the district meet, we saw 18 total podium (top 8) finishes in 15 different events, 9 PRs, 18 of which qualified for the state meet (top 5).
Our first state berth came with the girl’s 4x200m relay, featuring Trinity Cress, Sy’nia Williams, Emma Wijsman, and Sena Pittman. These four flew around the track at a breakneck speed, finishing 3rd, improving their season best mark to 1:46.73, a .6 second improvement from last week’s Kingco championship. An amazing job by these girls!
Following the 4x200m excitement, the 1600m was next, where we saw Kate Yahn throw down an impressive 5:04.61, good for 7th place overall. This race featured jostling, pushing, shoving–proving that even distance running can be a contact sport. Kate’s performance earned her a spot in the state meet, as other athletes scratched from the state meet following the conclusion of the meet.
Senior Sy’nia Williams continued the state buzz, as she competed in the girl’s 100m. Sy’nia finished 5th, which a blistering new PR of 12.96. This was Sy’nia’s first time breaking 13 in the 100m, an incredible feat, and at the ideal time — earning her a spot in next week’s state meet.
The first day of the district meet wrapped up with the conclusion of the women’s pole vault, where Rebekah Oberlander finished 6th with a jump of 9’6″. This was also worth a trip to the state meet. Congrats to Becky!
Day 2 continued with Eagles qualifying for state, as freshman phenom Domfo Abekah cleared 31’10.5″ in the triple jump, good enough for 5th overall. This season is an incredibly impressive start to what we’re sure will be an amazing leaping career for Domfo!
To the girl’s shotput, where senior Mercedes Tinder’s throw of 34’2.25″ earned her a 2nd place finish, securing her trip to the state meet. This was a near-best throw for Mercedes, and was a great way to cap off her season and give her another week of competition!
Courtney Smith rode the wave of the Eagle’s success in the field events, where she was able to high jump 4’10”, good enough for 4th overall. Solid attempts at 5’0″, this sets her up well for the state meet.
The girl’s 3200m took to the track, where Kate Yahn (11:00.20, PR) and Jane Harig (11:13.25) finished 5th and 6th, earning Kate the trip to state and Jane as an alternate. Regarding Jane’s performance–over the last 11 calendar months, she has taken 1 minute and 45 seconds off of her 3200m time, and this race was a battle from start to finish for her, picking off 4 athletes over the last 4 laps. An incredible showing for our distance girls!
The final event of the meet–the 4x400m–brought on one of the craziest meet atmospheres I have ever been a part of. As the starter raised his pistol, the ENTIRE stadium fell dead silent, and subsequently erupted into cheers as the race started. This element did not phase our boys, where Greyson Pike, Connor Rickey, Joshua Delgadillo, and Caleb Murphy finished 5th overall, earning the sole state berth for our young boy’s team. Notably from this race, Caleb Murphy–our anchor–had to pass 2 teams to get us to fifth place, but seemingly no lead is too much for him, as he split a new best 51.3 to earn us a trip to Mt Tahoma HS.
Josh Delgadillo and Caleb Murphy’s handoff in the 4x400m
Kate Yahn and Jane Harig 3 laps into the girl’s 3200m
Additional Eagles that placed at the District Meet:
Connor Rickey: 8th in the 800m (2:01.24)
Jerald Imai Takemura: 7th in the 3200m (9:45.09), PR (to note: both Brennen Rickey [9th, 9:47.96] and Benjamin Konopka [10th, 9:49.31] also PR’d in this race)
Toren Garcia: 13th in the 110mH (16.60, Frosh Class Record), PR
Emma Wijsman: 8th in the 100m (13.21)
Sena Pittman: 7th in the 200m (27.13)
Kiera Hanson: 8th in the 300mh (50.30)
4x100m: Anna Boone, Sy’nia Williams, Emma Wijsman, Daytona Crow finished 6th (50.98)
Mercedes Tinder: 8th in the Javelin
Issaquah will travel south 5/26-28 for the culminating event of our season–the WIAA State Championships–held at Mt Tahoma HS.
3 nights of blood (literally), sweat (lots), and tears (mostly by Coach Brookshire and Coach Mike) yielded a harvest of 31 individual athletes and 5 relay teams making it to the district meet, 29 total PRs, 14 medal-winning performances, and 1 individual event victory.
Carson Naehr, High Jump
Wednesday’s meet began with a huge performance by freshman Carson Naehr in the men’s high jump. Carson began the day seeded 16th at 5’6″, and ended up finishing 8th overall and securing our team’s first berth to the district championship. Competitive response is real — and it is absolutely amazing to see our freshman perform so well! Following the men’s high jump was the women’s high jump, where Courtney Smith won the event with her 5’0″ leap, and freshman Liliana Meissner finished 5th with 4’6″, both qualifying for districts. Congrats to all our floppers getting over higher bars!
4x200m Relay Squad
Onto the women’s 4x200m relay, where Trinity Cress, Sy’nia Williams, Emma Wijsman, and Sena Pittman threw down a new season’s best of 1:47.43 to finish 3rd overall and make the district meet line up. Our milers were next, with Connor and Brennen Rickey first running in the boy’s race. Connor ended up finishing 4th overall — rebreaking his own freshman record — in 4:24.52, and Brennen ran to an 11th overall finish in 4:32.15, both making the district lineup. Kate Yahn took on the girl’s 1600m, finishing 8th overall with a 5:06.53 and making the cut for the next week. An amazing showing for our Wednesday crew, setting us up for more success as we move forward!
Sebastian Powers (2nd) and Toren Garcia (5th), 110m hurdles
While Wednesday brought sun, Thursday brought a familiar rain. After making the finals in the 110m hurdles on Wednesday, Sebastian Powers and Toren Garcia started our Thursday off strong finishing 2nd (16.62) and 5th (17.14) overall — finishing in the top 6 and automatically making it to the district meet. Our 100m girls took to the track next, where Sy’nia Williams and Emma Wijsman finished 3rd and 4th, respectively, both with shiny new PRs of 13.12 and 13.08 (run in prelims on Wednesday).
Domfo Abekah, Triple Jump
On the field side of things, we saw freshman jumping phenom Domfo Abekah take 3rd overall in the triple jump (32’7″), which was a 5″ PR over the mark set two weeks ago. Senior Mercedes Tinder took on the women’s shotput, finishing 2nd overall with a throw of 33’11”. Both of these athletes finished atop the podium, congrats to both!
To start Friday’s finals, we began with the women’s pole vault, where Rebekah Oberlander punched her ticket to districts with a vault of 9’6″ to finish 5th. On the men’s side, Dexter Zablocki blew his PR out of the water, finishing 3rd with a newly minted PR of 11’6″. In the women’s javelin, Mercedes Tinder finished 3rd and advanced to districts, while both KJ Strunk (3rd, 151’8″) and Wyatt Chollman (10th, 139’2″, PR) threw to qualify for districts. An awesome showing for our pole vault and javelin crews to start the day off strong!
Our boy’s 4x100m relay of Ethan Blazer, Joseph Talluto, Ian Campbell, and Tanner Geraci finished 7th overall with a time of 45.31, advancing to the district championship, while our girl’s team of Anna Boone, Sy’nia Williams, Emma Wijsman, and Daytona Crowe matched their earlier 4x200m performance with another 3rd place finish, this time in 50.97. In the 300m hurdles, Toren Garcia finished 2nd in a time of 43.62, just off his PR he set during the prelim of the event on Thursday (43.02). Senior Kiera Hanson also medaled in the 300m hurdles, finishing 3rd with a PR (49.39). Joining Kiera at the district meet will be senior Anna Boone, who finished 10th overall in 51.66.
Kate Yahn competing in the 1600m
To the men’s 800m, where Caleb Murphy shattered his old PR of 2:00.53 with a blazing 1:57.88 to finish 7th overall and make it to districts. A frequently mentioned name in this blog post, Sy’nia Williams and Sena Pittman both stormed to 3rd and 5th place finishes in the 200m final, both locking down their districts trip. Then came the men’s and women’s 3200m, where Brennen Rickey (6th – 9:55.49, PR), Benjamin Konopka (7th – 9:58.20. PR), and Jerald Imai-Takemura (8th – 10:02.77) all secured spots to districts, while Kate Yahn (5th, 11:03.02, PR), Jane Harig (11:07.89, PR), and Liv Jensen (11th, 11:34.38, PR) will join them.
Final two events of the night were the men’s and women’s 4x400m. On the men’s side, Greyson Pike, Connor Rickey, Josh Delgadillo, and Caleb Murphy threw down a 6 second season’s best, running 3:30.51, all of them achieving personal bests for their relay split. This blazing time was good for 3rd overall, and is 9th ranked time in 4A state — this bodes extremely well for next week’s district championship. The women’s team of Sena Pittman, Daytona Crowe, Sophia Mydlil, and Anna Boone also improved the season’s best by 7 seconds, running 4:16.76, good for 5th overall.
Boys 4x400m and team celebrating after big PR
Girls 4x400m squad
As the team scores were totaled, the men’s team finished 7th and the women’s team finished 4th. All complete results can be found here.
Looking ahead to next week, the Issaquah Eagles will be travelling north to Lake Stevens HS both Wednesday 5/18 (field events begin at 5, track at 6) and Friday 5/20 (field events begin at 5:30, track at 6:30) to compete in the WesKing Bi-District state qualifier. From that meet, the top 5 athletes in each event will be advanced to the state meet (5/26-28), as well as anyone who hits the autoqualifying mark in the meet’s competition.
It was all around an amazing meet for all of our athletes, and we are very excited to see some more incredible performances next week! Until then, Fly Eagles, Fly!
The final week of our regular season culminated with Issaquah Eagles showing up and showing out at Liberty High School two nights in a row, first at the ISD Meet and next at the Liberty Twilight distance carnival. Between the two days, we saw a total of 103 PRs set, 12 event wins, and an all-around great final meet for some and a great tune up for the Kingco championship for others.
Our pole vaulters began our positive momentum, with Rebekah Oberlander and Dexter Zablocki both winning the men’s and women’s pole vault competitions, which were held on Wednesday. Dexter matched his PR of 10’6″, and Rebekah launched herself to a new PR of 10’6″ — breaking her previous PR (10’3″) set in May of 2021. Awesome job by them!
Thursday’s meet began with Emma Wijsman winning the 100m in 13.38m, while Sena Pittman took home the 200m in 27.21 and the 400m in 1:04.24. Both of these were amazing tune ups for their individual events for Kingco. Greyson Pike on the men’s side won the 400m in 52.69, running nearly half a second off his previous best time. Mackenzie Bice took home the women’s 3200m in commanding fashion, soloing a 13:09.78 and trimming 14 seconds off her previous best.
To the field, sophomore Wyatt Chollman heaved a major breakthrough in the javelin, eclipsing his previous best mark of 113′ by 14.5′ to thorw 127.5′, qualifying himself for the Kingco Championships. Mercedes Tinder continues to throw beyond her competition, tossing the shot put 34’7″ for the win. Carson Naehr stuck the landing to a new PR of 5’6″, also qualifying himself for the Kingco championships. Amazing job by all of these athletes showing up when it really counts!
To Friday night, where 19 teams gathered to see 1600m and 3200m PRs fall, the Issaquah Eagles showed up in dominating fashion. Winning their heats of the mile were Ty Lauritzen (4:53.18) and Caleb Murphy (4:42.64). Connor Rickey finished 4th in the final boy’s heat of the night in 4:27.01. Kate Yahn, in the final girl’s heat of the night, took the field by storm, unleashing her finishing kick with 300m to go and run a new PR of 5:01.60. Incredible efforts by all eagles who attended!
With the focus now turning to the post-season, the Issaquah Eagles will travel to Juanita High School Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (11-13) to compete in the Kingco Championships. Field events begin at 3:30, track events at 4.
Travelling back to Shoreline stadium, our TEAM took on what is historically one of the most competitive meets of the regular season. In that pressure, many Issaquah Eagles created performance diamonds. As a result, we saw 12 PRs, 13 trips to the medal stand, and 1 class record fall.
Junior Ben Konopka started our day in the boy’s 3200m open section, where he ran an amazing race to dip under the 10 minute barrier for the first time (9:59.75). Not to mention, he also won his race. This moves him to 11th in Kingco. Congrats on the amazing race, Ben!
Our stellar girl’s 4x200m relay of Anna Bonne, Trinity Cress, Emma Wijsman, and Sy’nia Williams finished 4th overall (1:49.38) in a near-season’s best effort. Similarly, our girl’s 4x100m of Anna Boone, Sy’nia Williams, Daytona Crowe and Emma Wijsman finished 5th overall (51.24) in a new season’s best time. Currently, our girl’s 4x200m sits 3rd in Kingco and our 4x100m sits at 4th. This is amazing momentum leading into our post-season!
Frosh Connor Rickey during his record-setting performance in the 1600m at Shoreline (photo courtesy of TheRunnerWA)
Junior Daytona Crowe, member of the 4x100m squad, running the 400m at Shoreline (photo courtesy of TheRunnerWA)
Senior Sy’nia Williams, member of the 4x200m and 4x100m squads, running the 200m at Shoreline (photo courtesy of TheRunnerWA)
Both DMRs did extremely well, with our boy’s team of Jerry Imai-Takemura, Greyson Pike, Max Ganske, and Brennen Rickey putting up a stellar performance that was good for 2nd overall (11:11.67), and our girl’s team of Darwin Hanson, Giada Oliva, Sarah Burke, and Clara Tubbs finishing 5th (13:45). These times puts the boys at 4th in school history and the girls at 6th. Congrats to them!
In the field events, Courtney Smith returns to a familar place–the podium–for a 4th place finish with a jump of 5’0″. Similarly, Rebekah Oberlander in the pole vault finished 7th overall with a jump of 10’0″. Mercedes Tinder also threw a near-personal best (32’7″) in the shot put for 7th overall. KJ Strunk, sophomore class record holder in the javelin, threw 147’9″ for 6th overall. Amazing performances all around!
In freshman style, our own Henry Tait finished 8th overall in the boy’s freshman 1600m with a new personal best of 4:54.12, while Liv Jensen ran 5:27.70–best her PR by 7 seconds that was set on Wednesday–in the girl’s freshman 1600m for 4th place. In the elite sections of the 1600m, Connor Rickey shattered the freshman record with a time of 4:24.91 (4:26.33 previously held by Luke George ’18), which puts him as 3rd fastest freshman in the state and 18th in the country. Junior Kate Yahn similarly saw success in the 1600m event, running a 5-second PR in a time of 5:03.38 which was good for 4th overall. Connor moves to 4th in Kingco rankings and 13th in 4A state, whereas Kate is placed at 3rd in Kingco and 7th in 4A state. Congrats to both of them on their spectacular performances!
Kate Yahn running the 1600m at Shoreline (photo courtesy of TheRunnerWA)
Josh Delgadillo, member of the 4x400m, running the 800m at Shoreline (photo courtesy of TheRunnerWA)
Toren Garcia, member of the 4x400m, running the 300m hurdles at Shoreline (photo courtesy of TheRunnerWA)
To close out our medal performances, our boy’s 4x400m of Toren Garcia, Greyson Pike, Joshua Delgadillo, and Caleb Murphy were able to finish with a time of 3:36.52, good for 6th overall. This is a near-3 second improvement on the previous season’s best. Keep up the work — awesome job!
6th place finish for the boy’s 4x400m at Shoreline (photo by Coach Mike)
We had nearly 40 athletes compete throughout the day, many of them with PRs and great learning experiences. Awesome job to all of our athletes who left it all out there and are keeping the momentum going into this week and the weeks to come! Follow this link to full results.
This week we split our team into two meets. Thursday 5/5, most of our team will be competing in the ISD Meet held at Liberty HS. This is a last hoorah for our JV squad and a final preparation meet for our varsity team, events begin at 4pm. Friday 5/6, most of our distance team will be attending Liberty Twilight, for a night of 1600m and 3200m races, going after big PRs and great competition, events begin at 6pm. Congrats to all on an incredible regular season — on to post-season!
Issaquah High School XC and Track & Field 