Columbia hosts Bruin Invite; girls win, boys third

Columbia showcased its boys and girls teams at its own Bruin Invite on Friday in White Salmon. After the meet had concluded and the seven senior athletes had been honored, the 1A District 4 form chart continues to sway in the Bruins’ favor. District supremacy won’t be settled until Thursday, May 19, a week after the Trico Sub District Meet.

To continue to peak toward those late-season meets, the Bruins competed in three events this past week: April 20 at a Trico League meet in La Center; April 21 at the Mt. Adams Invitational in Glenwood; and the April 22 Bruin Invite. As might be expected, there were individual highlights at each location.

Team depth usually decides things at the district level and Columbia continues to fill in potential district-meet placers in more and more events as the season progresses. As an example, frosh Amya Shaw cleared 4 feet, 6 inches on Friday at home; her mark ranks her tied for third place with teammate Helen Hoskins in the Trico thus far this season. She also is ranked third in the triple jump, after bounding 27-6 in the meet at La Center. Sophomore teammate Madeline Allen had a PR at La Center of 26-7 and is ranked No. 5 in league.

Junior Piper Hicks moved up to fifth on the Trico depth chart in the 100 with her PR 13.82 effort at La Center. Teammate Sequoa Cohen is now sixth in the Trico 100 after the frosh was a lean behind Hicks in the race in 13.82. Frosh Saylor Hauge ran a PR 1:05.1 on Friday which is the third best time in the Trico.

Columbia has its individual district title contenders, as well, and each had their moments this past week. Sophomore Jessica Polkinghorn threw two personal bests at home on Friday. The Trico leader in three events, who has been flirting with the century mark in the discus for some time now, surpassed it with a throw of 100 feet, 11 inches. She added a six-foot PR, 111-1, in the javelin later in the meet. Polkinghorn is also the Trico leader in the shot put, which she won for the sixth time this season on Friday.

Columbia hurdlers Chanele Reyes and Ella Zimmerman continue to push each other in their specialties, as well as run legs on the Bruin relays. They finished 1-2 at the Bruin Invite; Reyes won the highs at La Center while Zimmerman was second in that race and first in the lows. Reyes’ times on Friday - 17.43 and 49.82 – were season bests. Zimmerman’s times of 18.08 and 49.92 were lifetime bests. The teammates rank 1-2 in district in the hurdles.

Hannah Pokinghorn won the sprints on Friday and ran legs on Columbia’s first place 4x100 and 4x400 relays. The Bruins also won the 4x200 to make it a sweep of the relays, helping them score 77 points to easily outdistance runner-up Hockinson’s 32. Those relays will be key to winning the league and district titles – for any team. Columbia’s 4x200 squad of Hicks, Mariberth Fies, Hauge and Cohen won in a season-best 1:53.76. That time is just shy of league-leading La Center, which it posted at its home meet, where Columbia was disqualified.

The meet at Glenwood gave the lesser-experienced Columbia athletes a chance to compete. Among the highlights were frosh Damarys Alvarez’s PR 6:37.04 in the 1600-meter run and frosh Charles Ebbert’s 99-6 personal best javelin throw. Alvarez also ran a lifetime best in the 3200 at the Bruin Invite and her time is now among the top eight marks in the Trico.

At their home meet on Friday, the Bruins produced 22 personal bests, including 11 by the Columbia boys. They were led by Benjamin Allen who ran legs on Columbia’s two relay teams, was fourth in the long jump with a PR 17-7.5 best and was fifth in the high jump. The CHS 4x400 relay team of Calvin Andrews, Jace Greenwood, Allen, and Noah Slayton won in 3:53.9.

Slayton, a freshman, was one of two boys winners for Columbia. He won the 800 in 2:21.68. The other winner was hurdler Andrews, who won the 110-meter highs in a personal-best time of 17.91 and later was third in the intermediate hurdles in 46.43.

Greenwood was busy with a leg on the short relay (which failed to get the baton around cleanly), was third in the 100 in a PR 11.97 and fifth in the 200. Howard was second in the 400 in 56.65 and third in the 200 in a personal-best 24.24.

Distance runner Dakota Tama was second in the 1600 and third in the 800 – both in personal best times. Frosh Charles Ebbert PR’d in the javelin and triple jump; he was third in the latter event. Two days earlier at La Center, Andrews won the high hurdles and was second in the javelin.