State track notes from Scott, Frank

TROUBLESOME WIND: One thing that will be an ongoing nuisance is the wind-tunnel effect of a facility that sits on an elevated area and is aligned with natural north-south breezes. Even during some of the most pleasant spring weather you can imagine, wind-aided marks dominated the results.
Meet officials too often hastened the annoucement of results before wind readings were checked, resulting in several “meet records” that were not really so. This isn’t a stat-geek formality, wind readings are required by the national high school federation at all state meets to validate records.
Nearly every Saturday sprint race registered over the allowable 2.0 meters per second. Brett Blanshan’s dazzling 10.60 race, while still the crowd-pleaser of the day, hit 3.3 on the gauge. Fortunately his 10.67 prelim on Friday measured 1.5 and will serve as the 2A meet record.
As for Blanshan, you really need to see his 4×100 anchor to believe it. And you can at http://www.flotrack.org/results

NUMBERS GAME: Making my Saturday more interesting than it should have been was confirming Jonathan Buchanan’s winning shot distance during Friday’s competition. His clutch final throw and first career 60-footer was announced twice at the event as 60-1.25, but when the awards were handed out later in the stadium it was announced as 60-7.25. That’s a huge deal in this case because 60-7 is the all-time Valley record held by Jonathan’s grandfather, Bill Buchanan.
Sounds like the tech people misread the ‘1’ for a ‘7’ but the error wasn’t caught overnight, and after Jonathan placed second in the discus the next day some were thinking he might have thrown that far. And it was, in fact, listed as 60-7.25 on the official results.
Thankfully, in a frazzled and busy environment where officials don’t want to be bothered by the media, there was helpful meet manager Bill Harris. He took the time to dig out the sheet, which was buried in stacks of files, and we confirmed the 60-1.25.
How amazing that when Bill Buchanan won the state title for Moxee High in 1957 with a throw of 60-7, it took 52 years for another Valley thrower to exceed 60 feet and it was his grandson. On his last throw.

And in Cheney, where copy editor Frank Purdy once again covered the 1A, 2B and 1B proceedings for us, here are a few interesting tidbits…

ALL’S WELLS THAT ENDS WELLS: Athletes like jumper Kyle Gartrell, thrower/jumper Derek Byrne and sprinters Delwin Bazilme, Kent Gartrell and Scott Shively played huge roles in Riverside Christian’s Class 2B boys championship. But to them, the heart and soul of the team was senior and multiple state champion Dana Wells.
“We wanted to send him off with a bang,” said Shively. “Last year it was for Aaron,” said Bazilme of Dana’s older brother, who ended his career last year with a gold in the triple jump and a silver in the long jump. “This year it was for Dana.”
Dana, of course, didn’t disappoint last weekend. He ran away with the 110 and 300 hurdles, almost nipped favored Maurice McNeal of Tacoma Baptist in the open 100 and brought the state champion 4×100 team from third to first with his anchor leg.

FAR, BUT NEAR: Trout Lake-Glenwood stars Neola Putnam and Anna Schmid are going far away next year, but they’re staying close to each other.
They plan to room together at Cedarville University, a Baptist-affiliated school of about 3,000 students in Cedarville, Ohio, about 25 miles east of Dayton.
Putnam, a multiple track and cross country Class 1B state champion, plans to run for Cedarville. Schmid, who won three events last weekend in at the state meet in Cheney, intends to play soccer. The school, now NAIA, is aiming to move up to NCAA Division II.

NOT AGAIN: It wasn’t exactly a players’ strike, but the Class 1B boys 300 hurdlers did question authority and finally get their way at the state meet in Cheney last weekend.
It came when No. 1 seed Tyler Cope of Trout Lake-Glenwood rammed into the second hurdle and slammed into the track as No. 2 seed Andrew Veneman of Bickleton, running in an outside lane, streaked to victory. Cope finished, but well behind in eighth place.

A judge rule Cope had interfered with other runners during his fall, and meet officials announced the race would be rerun.
That went over about as well as a chemistry class on Christmas Day. The athletes, nearing the end of two days of state-level competition in near-90-degree heat, employed a baseball term and balked.
The hurdlers simply were not inclined to repeat an event that requires a uniquely taxing combination of speed, endurance, technical skill and mental concentration; they said enough was enough, that they were fine with the results. The coaches went along, recognizing the athletes had pretty well laid it out in what was, for most, their final event of the competition. Meet officials rescinded the order, and the results stood.