SHS sports preview: Track & Field
2015 record in league, overall: Boys — 11-1, second at league meet, second at districts, 4th at state (best in school history, two state champions, five medalists overall); Girls 11-1, third place at league meet, 13th (tie) at districts, 23rd at state (two medalists)
Head coach: Brad Moore (22nd year)
Top returning athletes: Boys — Logan Habner (sr.), Oscar Herrera (sr.), Wendall Lorenzen (sr.), Jackson Oliver (sr.), Jason Springer (sr.), Kane Stoddard (sr.), Chris Whittaker (sr.); Girls — Cheryl Armstrong (jr.), Emma Beeson (so.), Telicia Busby (so.), Mattie Clark (sr.), Molly Early-Crecelius, (jr.), Rylee Gray (jr.), Gretchen Happe (sr.), Hilary Holtrop (jr.), Hannah McVay (so.), Katie Rogers (sr.), Audrey Shingleton (sr.), Waverly Shreffler (sr.), Mercedes Woods (jr.)
Key league competition: Boys — North Kitsap, Olympic, Kingston, Bremerton; Girls — North Kitsap, Olympic, Port Angeles, North Mason
One thing head coach Brad Moore said he likes about track and field at Sequim High is that there’s at least one positive thing happening at any given time.
Last season, there were a lot of positives for the Wolves with multiple state qualifiers, two state titles and nearly a third.
Sequim’s boys won the 4×400 meter relay at state after posting their fastest time of the season in the finals with Oscar Herrera, Jason Springer, Miguel Moroles and Alex Barry.
Moroles and Barry, who also won the 2A state javelin title, graduated but Moore feels they are just one piece away from returning to state in the relay.
They’ll start the season running the relay with Herrera, Springer, Jackson Oliver, second-place finisher in the 2A state high jump, and Kane Stoddard, whom Moore said was Sequim’s best 400-meter runner prior to an injury last year.
Herrera, who placed fourth in the 2A state 300 and sixth in the 110 hurdles, said they’ve set a goal to go back and win the relay again. He and others have trained with assistant coach BJ Schade on things like speed work. He’s particularly inspired this year because he’ll be practicing with two freshmen on hurdles for the first time. Herrera said people typically avoid hurdles because they are afraid of falling.
“I’ve learned if you’re going to fall, you’re going to fall. You just get up and keep running,” he said.
For Oliver and the high jump, he’s looking to keep momentum going throughout the season. Last year he took second at state with a 6-4 mark but in one more attempt than champion Max English from Kingston. Oliver set a personal record at 6-5.25 at the first meet of the season but never improved on it despite several attempts at Sequim’s school record of 6-6 by Jayson Brocklesby.
Also looking to make some distance for the Wolves are hurlers Logan Habner and Chris Whitaker, both of whom qualified for districts in the discus (and Whitaker in the shot put).
The Wolves are in rebuild mode though with boys and girls pole vault. Following the graduation of two-time state meet qualifier Josh Cibene, Moore said Sequim is rebuilding the program from the ground up.
“Every six or seven years we have to do that,” Moore said. “Right now we have 10 but all of them are new. They look good on drills and I think there’s some good potential but it’s one of those long games with slow progression.”
Girls set to go
Like the boys, several key components remain for Sequim girls’ team to succeed this year, too.
Senior Waverly Shreffler, who placed fourth at state in the 800 meters and eighth with the 4×400 team, said she remains cautiously optimistic about breaking two of
Sequim’s school records. Her best times are slivers away in the 400 at 58.7 and the record at 58.4, and she’s at 2:20 in the 800 and the record at 2:17.
Like Herrera, Shreffler has done a lot of running and weight lifting in the offseason, Shreffler said.
“It can be hard to get motivated in the winter with the weather but it’s nice when teammates are invested, too,” she said.
The 4×400 team lost senior Heidi Vereide but retains senior Gretchen Happe and junior Mercedes Woods and brings on sophomore Emma Beeson. Happe, who has done a lot of training through a select soccer team, lifting and river runs, said she sees a potential with this year’s relay.
“Sadie (Woods) is showing a lot strides and Emma is looking really good, too,” she said.
Happe plans to run the 4×200 relay and 400 meters as well and said this season rather than conserving energy she plans start quick and finish with whatever she has left.
Sequim brings back top hurdler Mattie Clark and No. 2 100-meter hurdler/high jumper Katie Rogers along with top thrower junior Cheryl Armstrong, who earned district berths in shot put, discus and javelin.
SHS opens its season at the Port Angeles Invitational on March 19 and hosts its first and only meet on April 20.
