MARYSVILLE Two days after hosting the defending state champion Everett track team, the Marysville squad proved their regional mettle in the 21-team Kent-Meridian Invite with the top score in coed competition.
The girls racked up 12 first-place finishes at home March 27 and the boys another four.
Two Tomahawk boys and the girls 4×400 relays came out of the week with consecutive wins senior Blake Lovell improved in the javelin from 149-3 at Quil Ceda Stadium to 153-6 at Kent-Meridian, while high jumper Brandon Greene took first as well, clearing six feet in the home meet. With a mark of 4:12.87, the girls 4×400 of Cali Cull, Haley Nemra, Alisha Oden and Nicolette Runyan beat Thomas Jefferson High by a seven-second margin.
The girls gave M-P a fourth event victory in the March 29 Kent invite as Michaela Caldwell cleared 9-6 in the pole vault to win the event. She edged teammate Robin Mueller, who won the Tomahawks home meet with a 10-3 leap.
M-P coach Randy Davis credited big meets like the Kent-Meridian Invite for fostering competitiveness in his athletes.
One of the things too, you need to learn how to win. Thats why we go to meets like this, bigger teams, bigger competition. The kids were aggressive, he said. Our team is fully developing character and personality in terms of how feisty of competitors they are. When they blow the gun or call their names for a jump or a throw, they go for it. If they do that, good things will happen.
Marysvilles performance at Kent was buoyed by a slew of top-five finishes. Runyan was also part of a Tomahawk 4×100 relay that took second, while the senior sprinter also placed third in the 100-meter dash. Cull also proved her strength in several events, running the first leg of the 4×100, taking fourth in the underclassman 100 and second overall in the triple jump with a 34-3 1/2 mark.
On the boys side, sophomore Mark Pangilinan and teammate Sam Christopher went 3-4 in the underclassman 100, while Pangilinan took fourth in the 110 high hurdles as well.
Other notable finishes included Travis Sanderson, who took second in the 300 hurdles; the girls 4×100 and 4×800 relays, which also took second, and Nemra, who took second in the 800.
In the three-team home meet against Cascade and Everett, first-place finishers included Runyan in 100, Oden in the 200, Nemra in the 400, sophomore Kaylie Kimmell in the 1,600, junior Alex McDonald in the 300 hurdles, all three girls relays, senior Jade Hanson in the high jump, Cull in the long jump and junior Tyler Wigington in the triple jump. On the boys side, juniors Andy Abadam (long jump) and Michael Stone (pole vault) joined Lovell and Greene in victory.
With spring break on the horizon, Davis wants to see his team get a chance to catch their breath and get ready for the second half of their schedule. After a small league meet at Stanwood April 3, the Tomahawks take a breather before traveling to Bellingham for the Birger Solberg Invite.