The Kingco Championships was contested Friday the 12th and Saturday the 13th at Renton Memorial Stadium. Enduring the heat, 65 Issaquah Eagles qualified for the meet, and ended up finishing 3rd for the girls team and 4th for the boys team. Along with the team success, we secured 4 individual Kingco championships, 38 athletes scoring at the meet, 45 PRs, and lots of fun in the sun! Detailed below are all top-3 performances.

Our first top 3 performance came from the girls 4x200m of Daytona Crow, Shanthi Hall, Domfo Abekah, and Sena Pittman. These girls ran a 1:45.66 for 3rd place overall, which is a seasons best for these ladies. Sophomore Toren Garcia started his weekend with a 3rd place finish in the 110m hurdles, with a new PR of 16.07. Senior Shanthi Hall went on to win the 100m hurdles, with a new seasons best of 15.59. Our boy’s 1600m was a see of gold, as 6 athletes ran, led by Connor Rickey who finished 2nd overall with a near-best effort of 4:20.13. Sophomore Carson Naehr was our second individual Kingco champion of the meet, winning the boy’s high jump with a leap of 6’0″. Finally, Sena Pittman ended Friday evening with a huge PR in the 400m, running 58.07, which ranks 5th all time for Issaquah HS and puts her at 5th in the 4A state rankings.

Saturday successes started with the girl’s high jump, where senior Courtney Smith secured her second straight Kingco title in the girl’s high jump, matching her personal best of 5’0″ for the win. At the boy’s triple jump, Ben LaFramboise finished 3rd overall with a hop, skip, and a jump of 40’11.25″, and in girl’s triple, sophomore Domfo Abekah finished 2nd overall with a mark of 33’7″. Back to the track, Issaquah’s winning ways continued with the 300m hurdles, where sophomore Toren Garcia won the event with a new PR of 40.42. In the girl’s 300m hurdles, senior Sophia Mydlil finished 3rd with a PR of 48.27. In the 800m, where we had 5 boys and 5 girls in both events, Connor Rickey finished 2nd overall in a new PR of 1:55.58 and Sena Pittman finished 3rd in 2:15.73. To follow up an amazing performance shortly after the 800m, Sena Pittman finished 2nd in the 200m, running a 25.80. To wrap up the evening, junior Mary Jane Harig finished 2nd in a tactical 3200m, with a time of 11:18.72. Our final event was the 4x400m, where the boys team of Greyson Pike, Elijah Miller, Toren Garcia, and Nicolas Talluto finished in a photo finish to Eastlake, running 3:29.88 for 2nd.

There are so many amazing performances, PRs, and inspirational moments from the meet to highlight, but the results will have to speak for themselves. Those are linked here.

Issaquah High School returns to Renton Memorial Stadium for the District I/II championships, set for Wednesday the 17th and Saturday the 21st. Top 4 from each event will qualify for the 4A State Championship in Tacoma the following week. Events on Wednesday will begin at 2pm, and on Saturday at 10am. Fly Eagles, Fly!

To many, Sunfair is a grueling behemoth of a course, but to Issaquah, it is an athlete-favorite that challenges our runners and creates team bonds. Our team rose to said challenge, recording an individual win, multiple team wins, and both varsity squads coming home with hardware and trophies.

Our freshman group started the day with a 2 mile course on the historic Franklin Park. Amelia Ryan (6th, 14:37) and Sailor Storey (9th, 15:30) led the way, along with Jaelyn Jeon (11th, 15:48, 2 mi PR), Rosemary Shimao (12th, 15:49), and Alexandra Clarke (17th, 17:13) also scoring for the Eagles. In the team scores, Issaquah scored 33 to Richland HS’s 39 points to finish first. To the frosh boys, where Nate Laursen (1st, 11:33) and Nicolas Talluto (2nd, 11:37) led the way, followed by Makoto Sasaki (5th, 11:43), Owen Kang (6th, 11:49), and Anay Dhamankar (7th, 11:51) to round out our scoring 5. The freshman boy’s crew scored a perfect 15 points over West Valley’s 64 points. Awesome showing by our newcomers!

Junior varsity girls were up next, who were led by sophomore Amanda George (7th, 22:37, 3 mi PR), junior Mackenzie Bice (13th, 23:24), sophomore Lorelai Beernink (18th, 23:58), junior Faith Dougherty (20th, 24:15), and junior Julianna Cullen (27th, 25:19). The girls ended up scoring 81 points for third place, behind Lincoln HS of Oregon (15 points) and Eagle HS of Idaho (80 points). With the junior varsity boys, senior Ty Lauritzen (3rd, 17:47, 3 mi PR) led the way, followed by senior Hayden Stowe (5th, 17:50, 3 mi PR, junior Elle Miller (8th, 17:57, 3 mi PR), junior Oscar Ruiz (9th, 17:57, 3 mi PR), and sophomore Robert Fischer (13th, 18:08) rounding out the scoring 5. In the team competition, the boys finished second in a close battle with Lincoln 33 to 38. A great showing by our developmental group!

On to our varsity girls, who raced as pairs in flights against their respective standing on the team (for example, numbers 6 and 7 race all other teams 6 and 7, and so on). First up was freshman Clara Michael (22:18, 3 mi PR), who was the second place #7 to cross the line. Senior Ellie Roberts (22:05) had an amazing showing representing us as our #6 runner, finishing fifth place in the standings. Junior Rachel Dennie (26:43) finished seventh in the races against #5s, and junior Giada Oliva (23:17, 3 mi PR) finished eighth against the #4s. Junior Clara Tubbs (20:28, 3 mi PR) and junior Jane Harig (19:43, 3 mi PR) both finished third against #3s and #2s, respectively, and senior Kate Yahn (18:47, 3 mi PR), who raced alone against all other team’s #1 runners, won the overall race and ran the fastest time of the day. The performances by these ladies was enough for them to finish third as a team, totaling 29 points, finishing behind Lincoln HS (9) and Eagle HS (18).

Our boy’s varsity also raced in the flighted format, where sophomores Alex Yahn (17:14, 3 mi PR) and Henry Tait (16:50, 3 mi PR) both finished second against #7s and #6s, respectively. Sophomore Elliot McIntosh (17:15, 3 mi PR) finished third amongst #5s, and senior Jonathan Liu (17:12) finished fifth against #4s. Senior Ben Konopka (16:30, 3 mi PR) was second for the #3s, and sophomore Connor Rickey (16:21, 3 mi PR) finished third against #2s. Brennen Rickey, racing as our #1 runner, finished seventh overall with a time of 16:16, an over 30 second improvement on Sunfair’s course from last year. The boy’s finished third, tying with Lewis and Clark HS for second, but losing on a tie breaker at 24 points. Lincoln HS (7) finished first in the team competition.

Full results are here. Photos by Eisenhower’s Ivan Alfaro are available here. Photos by Ken Fischer are here (will update once available).

Looking ahead, Issaquah travels north to Hole In the Wall, hosted by Lakewood High School of Arlington on October 8th. Frosh/Soph boys will be our first race of the day at 9AM.

Fly Eagles, Fly!