Columbia track and field opens at Wildcat Relays

Columbia’s girls team, which finished fifth in last year’s Class 1A state meet at Eastern Washington University, had an especially good showing at La Center. Five Bruin athletes, who earned state-meet experience a year ago, are back for CHS, led by junior thrower Jessica Polkinghorn. She finished second at state in the shot put and also qualified for state in the javelin.

Polkinghorn won all three throws in La Center, two with personal-best performances. She won the shot put in a personal record of 39 feet, 2 inches, and also won the javelin in a PR 123-9.

Polkinghorn’s shot put improvement was three feet better than her previous best; and she improved 11 feet in the javelin. Both of those marks are leading the state of Washington — at all classification levels — three weeks into the season.

Columbia won five of the six field events, as sophomore Helen Hoskins won the high jump, and freshman Sara Miller tied for top honors in the long jump at 15 feet.

Junior Madeline Allen gives CHS a solid 1-2 punch in the shot and discus; at the Wildcat Relays she threw a personal best 26-2 in the shot to finish seventh and was fourth in the discus at 80-9.

The 4x100-meter relay of Piper Hicks, Saylor Hauge, Sequoia Cohen, and Miller won in 52.73 seconds. Sophomores Hauge and Cohen, and senior Hicks, were part of three state-qualifying Bruin relay teams in 2022 (along with senior Ella Zimmerman, who did not compete last week).

“I was really happy with that time,” Anderson said of the 52.73 clocking. “That was a really good time, especially for the first one of the season. We’re just a second off what our 4x100 did last year that finished second at state. We clean up some exchanges we might be right where we were at last year.”

Columbia also won the 4x100 throwers relay at the Wildcat in 1:04.13 and ran a 2:07.68 in the girls sprint medley relay (100, 100, 200 and 400). The sprint medley included Hicks, Cohen, Hauge, and Miller.

On the boys side, Columbia’s top finish in the field came from junior Levi Wamsley, who threw a personal best of 131-7 to finish second in the javelin. Also in field events, senior Troy Muehlbauer was fifth in the discus at 101-8.5, a 10-foot personal best. First-year competitor, senior Michael Smith, led the way for CHS in the shot put with a throw of 34-6 (seventh place).

Seniors Calvin Andrews and Joshua Steele were fourth and seventh, respectively, in the javelin for the Bruins; sophomore Garrett Kock finished eighth in the long jump at a 17-3.

On the track, the Bruins had two third-place relay teams. The 4x100 squad of Wongani Schlegel, Joshua Steele, Petey Schlegel and Dylan Nortz ran 47.85; and the sprint medley team of the Schlegels, Aiden Fitzgerald and Levi Childers clocked 1:57.29.

“They ran a really good 4x100, and again it was the first time we ran a full speed 4x100,” Anderson said.

The Bruins will compete next at Saturday’s 25-team Tiger Invite in Battle Ground beginning at 10 a.m.