Coupeville Sports

Sorry, South Whidbey. You can’t catch us! (Eileen Stone photo)

Wolf senior Madison Tisa McPhee went out with two Top-5 finishes at her final state track meet.

They were the perfect mix of experience and youth.

Using two seniors and two freshmen, and backed up by a sophomore and another freshman, the Coupeville High School 4 x 200 relay squad stepped onto the track oval at the 1A state meet in Cheney Saturday and proved they belonged.

Dropping their time from Friday’s prelims by nearly two seconds, the quartet of Madison Tisa McPhee, Jai’Lysa Hoskins, Sylvia Hurlburt and Makana Stone exploded to a fifth-place finish.

They leapfrogged three teams — including Island rival South Whidbey — after grabbing the eighth and final spot in the finals a day before.

Their time of one minute, 47.65 seconds was shy of the school record they set earlier this year, but less than two seconds off the winning time put up by Connell (1:45.98).

The strong showing capped off a stellar state meet, and track career, for Tisa McPhee.

Returning to the site of where she had finished 8th in 1A in the 100 hurdles as a sophomore, the senior went toe-to-toe with the best and refused to back off.

Battling eventual champ Arielle Walden of Newport (15.55) and runner-up Courtney Porter of Bellevue Christian to the tape, she claimed 3rd in 16.23, while South Whidbey freshman Tera Applegate finished 6th.

“It was a really fun two races,” Tisa McPhee said.

As a team, Coupeville finished 26th out of 47 teams. Cedar Park Christian/Bothell won the team title.