Columbia High’s girls track and field team capped its 2022 season with a third-place finish in the meet’s final event — the 4x400-meter relay — to place fifth at last weekend’s Class 1A state meet at Eastern Washington University in Cheney.
Coach Jim Anderson’s Bruins scored 34 points, including six in the relay which included seniors Chanele Reyes and Hannah Polkinghorn, who were competing in their final high school competition. Earlier in the meet, Reyes and Polkinghorn combined with Piper Hicks and Sequoia Cohen to finish second in the 4x100 relay.
The two seniors also contributed team points in individual events, as well. Polkinghorn finished second in the 200 meters in 26.25 seconds and was sixth in the 100 in 12.99. Reyes finished eighth in the 100-meter high hurdles in 17.43 seconds. Columbia’s other senior, Maribeth Fies, ran a leg on the Bruins’ non-placing 4x200 relay, which was 12th in the preliminary round.
The combined 1B, 2B, 1A meet played out over three days in progressively worsening weather at Eastern Washington’s Roos Field. Athletes enjoyed 70-plus degree weather on Thursday, but temperatures never surpassed 60 when most of the finals were held on Saturday.
Columbia’s 34 team points placed it ahead of district rivals Castle Rock (32.5), La Center (29), and Montesano (27), which finished 7-8-9. King’s, led by pole vault champ Regan Parnell, won the meet with 51 points. Bear Creek, led by four-event winner and 40-point scorer, Braelyn Baker, was second with 43 points. Zillah scored 39 points and Deer Park 38 to round out the top four placing teams.
King’s of Seattle entered the 4x400 relay tied with Bear Creek with 43 points and simply needed to finish the race to win the championship.
Columbia also received state-meet points came from versatile sophomore thrower Jessica Polkinghorn, who competed in two field events. Polkinghorn had a PR in the shot put on Friday, finishing second with a best throw of 36 feet, 2.75 inches. That eclipsed her previous best of 35-6.5, which she threw at district two weeks ago. In Saturday’s javelin final, Polkinghorn threw 100 feet, 2 inches for a ninth-place finish.
Reyes advanced to Saturday’s final in the 100 hurdles with her effort in Friday’s preliminaries. Reyes finished fourth in a fast second heat in 17.40 seconds and was the sixth-fastest qualifier. Zimmerman, running in the same heat, ran 19.10. The two Columbia hurdlers also competed in Thursday’s 300-meter low hurdle prelims, but neither advanced to Saturday’s final. Zimmerman ran 50.21 for 10th and Reyes was 16th in 55.61.
Reyes was a double district champion this season in the hurdles, winning the shorter race in 16.98 seconds, dipping under the 17-second mark for the first time in a race.
District 200-meter champion, Hannah Polkinghorn, qualified for the 100-meter final by earning the eighth and final spot in Thursday’s prelims. She was much more emphatic in the 200 prelim on Friday, qualifying second behind eventual state champion, Baker of Bear Creek. The two matched that finish in Saturday’s final.
Columbia had two of its three qualifying relays make it to Saturday’s finals. The Bruin girls 4x100 relay team of Reyes, Cohen, Hicks, and Hannah Polkinghorn ran 51.56 in the prelims and 51.69 in the final. The Bruins quartet finished the season with best of 51.47, set at the district championships. Deer Park won the short relay in 50.42.
The Bruin 4x400 peaked at state, as Hannah Polkinghorn, Hauge, Reyes, and Zimmerman ran to a season-best time of 4:17.64 in the prelims to qualify second behind favorite Cascade (4:12.22) for the final. Columbia raced to another season best in the final in 4:16.58, finishing third behind Cascade (4:11.5) and King’s (4:15.28).
The Columbia boys were led at state by their 4x400 relay. The relay team, which finished second at district in 3:44.02, raced to a 3:44.08 clocking at state, finishing 14th in the preliminaries. Team members were junior Joshua Steele, Calvin Andrews, Jace Greenwood and Ryan Howard.
Andrews also qualified for state by finishing third in the district 300 intermediate hurdles in a personal record 45.04 seconds. He powered past that time at state, finishing in a PR 43.77 — a non-qualifying 10th in the prelims. What’s more, Andrews bested La Center’s Will Simmons (43.83) and King’s Way’s Colin Trang (43.91), both who had finished ahead of the Columbia junior at district.
Teammate and fellow hurdler, Camden Uffelman, also qualified for state in the high hurdles, after placing third at district in 17.41. Uffelman ran 18.75 in Friday’s state preliminary round — 16th overall — and did not advance to Saturday’s final.
Connell won the boys 1A meet with 59 points.
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