By Oliver Lazenby Brynn Hallberg, Ben Caro and Elee Faulkner are the only Blaine athletes headed to the state track meet this week after top finishes at the 2A Northwest Conference District Championship at Lakewood High School on May 15-17.
Despite five personal bests and some close finishes at districts, the track season is over for all but three Blaine track and field athletes.
Hallberg came through with a huge personal best in javelin to earn fourth place. Her top throw of 117 feet, 3 inches beat her former personal best by nearly 10 feet. Her other throws at districts suggest that she might be able to repeat that distance at state.
“She ripped a couple off that were over 110 feet,” said Blaine head coach Gabe Bolton.
Caro is going to state in three events. He placed second in the 100-meter wheelchair with a personal best 34.56 seconds; first in wheelchair shot put with a throw of 13 feet, 8 inches; and first in wheelchair discus with a personal best throw of 38 feet, 3 inches.
For Caro, state is a rare opportunity to compete against other wheelchair athletes. At districts he only had competition in the 100 meters and in that event he beat his former personal best time by nearly two seconds.
“I think having competition helped a lot and kind of pumped him up,” Bolton said.
Faulkner managed to break two personal records at the district meet. First, she ran the 100-meter hurdles in 16.06 seconds during prelims, finishing in third place. That time would have qualified her for state, but in the finals she ran a half-second slower and finished in sixth place (the top four go to state).
In her main event, the 300-meter hurdles, Faulkner finished second in the finals in a personal best 46.13 seconds.
The bright side of not qualifying in the 100 meters is that she only has to run one event at state. Much of her competition in 300-meter hurdles will be running both 300- and 100-meter hurdles.
“I think she’ll be feeling fresh and raring to go,” Bolton said.
The state meet is on May 23-24 at Mount Tahoma High School in Tacoma.
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