Bruin junior Samantha Evans (left) on the podium at the WIAA Class 1A state track and field meet May 28. Evans took second in the high jump, clearing 5 feet 4 inches. Contributed photo
Bruin junior Samantha Evans (left) on the podium at the WIAA Class 1A state track and field meet May 28. Evans took second in the high jump, clearing 5 feet 4 inches. Contributed photo
WHITE SALMON — Junior Samantha Evans placed second in the girls high jump to pace the Columbia High School girls team at the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) Class 1A state track and field meet May 28-30 in Yakima, Washington.
Evans cleared 5 feet, 4 inches to finish second for the second straight season. The 2026 winner, Kamdin Carlton, jumped 5-6. Evans scored eight of the Bruins’ 14 team points with her effort. Columbia finished in a tie for 17th place with 14 points.
Senior Sara Miller was the top placer on the track for the Bruin girls, finishing in a school record 25.57 seconds in the 200-meter preliminaries on May 29, when she had the fourth-fastest time. She then lowered that school-record time a day later in the final to 25.47 and finished third.
In the May 29 open 400, she raced to a 1:01.18 clocking in the preliminary round (11th best time). Miller also did not qualify for the 100 final, running the May 28 preliminaries in 12.82 — the 14th best qualifying time.
Miller had a short turnaround time of about an hour after the 200 heats to get ready for the 4x400 relay heats. Mariela Casarez, Olivia Allen, Lilah Zimmerman, and Miller ran 4:17.57 in the long relay, which bettered the group’s previous season best (4:17.59 run at the Panther Twilight earlier this spring) but wasn’t fast enough to get them into the May 30 final.
Five other Columbia High athletes competed in individual events at state. Senior Hunter Wang ran 42.23 to place 10th in the prelims of the boys 300 hurdles. (The top eight finishers qualified for finals.) Casarez ran 52.47 in her heat of the 300-meter hurdles, Zimmerman was 11th in the 1600 meters in 5:26.3, senior Hailey Tolbert ran her heat of the 100-meter hurdles in 17.46, and Maya Tama ran the 800 in 2:32.42.
Columbia High qualified 10 athletes, including seven from the third-place district girls team. King’s won the 1A girls team title and Lakeside won the boys crown.
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