Fair weather for Wolves
Published 2:13 pm Friday, March 21, 2014
If only the rest of the season were this easy.
Getting their third meet in before spring break, Sequim’s track and field squads played rather unaccommodating hosts to the Klahowya Eagles last week, dropping their Olympic League brethren easily in both boys and girls team scores.
Frank Catelli won four events, Chase O’Neil and Allison Cutting each won events in their first meet in two years as Sequim posted some of the Olympic League’s best early-season marks.
"We have some fantastic kids this year," Sequim coach Brad Moore said while poring over the numbers.
Big numbers are what he saw from Anna LaBeaume. The defending state 2A shot putter launched a 41-foot, 1-inch toss that was the best in the state as of March 24. (Her mark since has been eclipsed by two athletes from bigger, Seattle-area schools.)
LaBeaume also posted a strong finish in winning the 200-meter sprint (26.8 seconds, tied for the fourth-best among all 2A athletes) and threw the discus 100 feet, 6 inches, the Olympic League’s best mark so far by more than 12 feet.
"She’s just learning (to throw the discus)," Moore said. "If she really gets it, look out."
O’Neil had a pair of jumps past 31 feet in the triple jump, showing little effect from a concussion that kept her out of action in 2009.
Cutting, a state cross country champ and four-time state track and field medalist, posted a 2:23 finish in the 800-meter race, the third-best time among state 2A athletes and 11th in the state among all females.
"That’s an excellent time for this point of the season," Moore said.
Catelli, a sophomore, won the javelin, discus, shot put and – in his first try at the event – the triple jump.
Catelli’s 177-foot javelin throw is eighth-best in the state and tops among 2A boys.
"He’s still learning how to throw it," Moore said. "When he gets the delivery right on that, it’s just going to go, go, go."
Alex Clifford posted a pair of strong runs in winning both the 1,600- and 3,200-meter races.
Moore also praised newcomer Travis Decker, who threw the javelin 159 feet and helped both boys relays post strong finishes, and Stephen Stilts, whose 16.4-second 110 high hurdles is one of the top-five marks among 2A boys.
Fellow senior Samantha Whiteside had another strong showing, winning the long jump and pole vault. She owns the league’s top pole vault mark (fourth in the state), long jump and third-best 100-meter time.
Freshmen Haleigh Harrison, Heather Murray and Nicole Pino made big contributions to the Wolves’ cause last week. Harrison ran the 400 for the first time and posted a 1:03 finish, the third-best time in the Olympic League so far. Murray clocked the metric mile in 6:10, the league’s best early-season mark. Pino posted strong finishes in 100- and 200-meter sprints and ran the second leg of Sequim’s 4×100 relay that finished in 55.7 seconds.
The Wolves are on spring break until April 8 when they travel to Bremerton to take on the host Knights and North Kitsap Vikings.
Sequim is at Port Angeles on April 15.
Reach Michael Dashiell at miked@sequimgazette.com.
