Faulkner and Caro medal at state track meet

Blaine athletes Ben Caro and Elee Faulkner took home medals from the 2A Northwest Conference Track and Field Championship on May 23-24 at Mount Tahoma High School in Tacoma.

Blaine senior Ben Caro took second place in three events: wheelchair javelin, wheelchair discus and wheelchair shot put. Breaking a state record was another highlight of his experience in Tacoma. His discus throw of 41 feet, 2 inches lasted as the best in the state for about five minutes, before his opponent Jacob Heileson bested it with a 43-foot, 8-inch throw.

Caro also made personal best throws in javelin (40 feet, 8 inches) and shot put (15 feet, 4 inches). Blaine head coach Gabe Bolton attributed Caro’s personal records to both his hard work over the season and the tough state competition; Caro doesn’t often get to compete against other athletes in a wheelchair division.

“It’s obvious in his marks for throws that it really helped him,” Bolton said. “It was definitely overall a positive experience for him to have someone other than Spencer (Asakura from Sehome) to compete against.”

Blaine freshman Elee Faulkner capped a great postseason with a big personal best in the 300-meter hurdles. Her time of 45.01 seconds put her in third place and beat her previous personal record by about a second.

“She has been PR’ing almost every race,” Bolton said. “I think she’s pretty stoked. She was the only freshman on the podium so it’s pretty exciting for her.”

Faulkner was also the only freshman in the entire finals for 300-meter hurdles.

Blaine senior Brynn Hallberg also went to state for the first time, though her javelin throw of 107 feet, 9 inches, was not enough to medal.

For coach Bolton, bringing athletes to the state championship was a successful end to his first season coaching track at Blaine High School.

“There were some challenges but I think it went well. I think the program is moving in the right direction,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll keep expanding and take more people to state.”