Nine Whatcom County track and field teams gathered for the 54-team, all-classification Birger Solberg Invitational at Civic Stadium on April 8, and local athletes emerged with nine event wins.
It was a gray, blustery day that made the meet more about a big-meet experience than anything else, Sehome coach Kevin Ryan said.
“Times don’t mean much yesterday, because of the wind,” Ryan said. “It really wasn’t about marks yesterday; it was about competing.”
Class 3A Shorewood captured both team titles, as its boys group finished with 76.5 team points and the girls with 71. Sehome and Lynden Christian’s girls teams tied for sixth place (36) while the Nooksack Valley boys finished 10th (24) and the Ferndale boys tied for 13th with Meadowdale (21).
The meet featured five schools from Class 1B — including Lummi Nation — two from 2B, 11 from 1A, 10 from 2A, 14 from 3A and seven 4A schools. There were also four teams from British Columbia and one team from Alaska (Sitka) present.
With the chaos of a large meet — and Sehome hosting it — Ryan said it was a good warm-up to the postseason with most athletes not having much immediate coaching or guidance.
“We don’t mind that, because it’s great for them to go through that experience,” Ryan said. “It was a really fun day.”
Sehome’s girls group was led by first-place finishes from junior Alina Kravtsov in the 400-meter dash (1:02.45) and sophomore Bella Connell in the 100-meter hurdles (16.45 seconds).
Ryan said Kravtsov’s performance — edging Oak Harbor’s Audrey Hart for first by one-hundredth of a second — was one of the highlights of the Mariners’ meet in a few ways.
“It’s her first year running track … for her to come out and win a 400 at a huge invite like that was really cool to see,” Ryan said. “She’s just getting better every week.”
The larger field of athletes makes the Birger Solberg Invitational one of the lone opportunities athletes have a chance to race the 2K steeplechase.
Sehome senior Julie Gill shattered the previous school record of 8:12.00 with her time of 7:58.70, placing second behind Anacortes’ Jessica Frydenlund (7:11.48).
“We don’t run it as often as other events, but a school record is a school record, right?” Ryan said.
On the boys side, the Mariners were led by a new personal record and event win from senior Habib Bello in the shot put. Bello, in rough conditions, got the win with a mark of 48-01.50 on his final throw of the day.
“That was really kind of the highlight on the boys side for us,” Ryan added.
NV and LC each nabbed two first-place finishes, while Ferndale had its twin duo of Andrew and Adrian Finsrud tie for the top placement in the boys pole vault (13-00.00).
Senior Kate Desilets finished first in the girls 100-meter dash for the Pioneers with her time of 13.09 seconds.
“She didn’t have a great start in the 100, and she’s a pretty good starter, usually,” NV coach Tyler Perry said of Desilets’ performance. “She was able to hang on in that back half of the race.”
NV junior Joey Brown also notched a new personal record and event win with his 152-05 mark in the boys javelin.
LC’s girls 4X100 relay team of sophomores Morgan Delgatto, Avery Vanweerdhuizen, Josie Hendricks and freshman Estela Hernandez captured first out of 24 teams, and junior Tabby DeJong won the girls shot put with a new personal record mark of 35-11.00.
Senior Wesley Sluys, Squalicum’s only finals finisher, captured second in the boys 800-meter run with a new personal record time of 1:57.69, besting LC senior Andrew Luce by .13 seconds. Luce has the second-fastest time in Class 1A this season at 1:57.07.
Bellingham sophomore Hunter Deschenes placed fifth in the boys 300-meter hurdles with a new personal record time of 43.07 seconds, while junior Wyatt Stephan took sixth in the boys long jump (19-02.50).
Mount Baker was led by senior thrower Ethan Larson, who set new personal records in the shot put (third, 45-02.50) and javelin (10th, 137-08).
Lummi Nation had three athletes participate in event finals but did not have any finishes inside the top 40.
Sehome, Bellingham and Squalicum were without some top athletes who were at the Arcadia Invitational in Arcadia, California — an event that hosted athletes from more than 400 teams from across the U.S. and Canada.
Local teams return to standard meet scheduling on Wednesday, April 12, and Whatcom County schools will be spread across five events between April 12–15.
Perhaps the most crucial event in terms of a preview to districts will be the LC-hosted 1A meet with the Lyncs, Blaine, Meridian, Mount Baker and Nooksack Valley at 4 p.m. Thursday, April 13.
