Coupeville Sports

Plus, she’s nice to babies, too. So there’s that.

The best track runner at Coupeville High School might be going under the radar.

With a lot of attention being paid to the never-before-seen start put up by freshman sprinter Makana Stone (14-0, something Wolf greats Kyle and Tyler King and Natasha Bamberger were never able to do in their initial bow), senior hurdler Madison Tisa McPhee just keeps on keepin’ on.

She’s unbeaten in her specialties (100 and 300 hurdles) and in relay races, with her only “losses” being a third in the 100 and a couple of high jump performances.

But calling them losses is deceptive. In the high jump, which she had never competed in before this season, she actually has the 4th best height in District 1 this season.

Tisa McPhee’s calling card, of course, is the hurdles and in those she is not only highly-ranked in the district (1st in 100 hurdles, 2nd in 300 hurdles) but in the state. She currently has the 6th and 8th fastest times of all 1A hurdlers.

She is the only Wolf individual to be ranked in the top 10 in any event in the state at the moment, but all three CHS girls’ relay teams are also state-ranked.

The 4 x 200 (Jai’Lysa Hoskins, Tisa McPhee, Stone, Sylvia Hurlburt) smashed the school record and has the 3rd best time in 1A, while the 4 x 100 (Marisa Etzell, Tisa McPhee, Stone, Hurlburt) and the 4 x 400 (Etzell, Stone, Hoskins, Tisa McPhee) both have the 9th fastest times this season.

While Stone has blown foes away, she has yet to face King’s freshman Anna Parker, who has the top times in District 1 in both the 100 and 200. Stone currently ranks 3rd in the 100 (Hoskins is 5th) and 200 and 2nd in the 400.

On the boys side of the track, several Wolves are in the top 10 for the district, led by Josiah Campbell (5th in the high jump and 6th in the triple jump) and Nick Streubel (7th in shot put and discus).

Brandon Kelley has the 6th fastest time in the 300 hurdles, Carson Risner has the 9th best throw in the discus and the 4 x 100 (Kelley, Jared Helmstadter, Dalton Martin, Campbell) and 4 x 400 (Campbell, Helmstadter, Matthew Hampton, Sam Landau) are currently ranked 6th and 7th.

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Makana Stone: A legend in the making. (John Fisken photo)

Legendary.

That’s where Makana Stone seems to be going. If she’s not already there.

The Coupeville High School freshman has won the first 14 races of her high school career. She’s run the 100, 200 and 400 three times each, ran a leg on a 4 x 100 squad and twice each run as part of a 4 x 200 and 4 x 400 team.

She doesn’t know what second place looks like.

Which got me to thinking — how does she compare to past Wolf greats? So I did a little (emphasis on little) research and what I found is this, she’s freakin’ awesome.

Kyle and Tyler King are the gold standard for CHS track athletes. Both won state titles (Tyler added a state cross country title) and both currently run on scholarship for highly-ranked Division 1 universities (Oklahoma and Washington).

There are other greats, as well, as track and field has a stellar history at CHS, from Kyra Ilyankoff to Jon Chittim to Jennie Cross to Natasha Bamberger and beyond.

But the easiest to judge, thanks to athletic.net, the clearing house for high school track results in recent years, are the King brothers.

And what did I find?

Tyler won 21 events as a junior, 19 as a senior, while Kyle topped out with 24 event wins as a senior, including a state title in the 3200.

That senior year, he went 24-14, finishing second eight times, third three times, fourth once and sixth twice.

It was an amazing season, and you can’t necessarily compare the two as Kyle ran distance races and relays, while Makana runs sprints and relays. You also can’t tell from just the basic wins and losses what their competition was.

And, of course, there are state titles, which are still off in a possible future for Makana. Win in the big race and it means far more than winning in the first meet of the year.

So, nothing is equal.

But still, in his best year, his senior year, one of the greatest track athletes this Island has ever seen, didn’t do what this freshman is doing.

That’s something to think about.

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Dalton Martin seems to be enjoying himself. (Kerry Rosenkranz photos)

Jake McCormick is a little more mysterious.

Erin Rosenkranz goes for the burn.

Makana Stone in repose.

Track is a tricky sport.

It’s a team sport, but it’s also very much an individual sport. Ultimately, what you do as an individual matters more than what the team scores are at the end of the day.

This is especially true for a smaller school like Coupeville, which doesn’t have the raw numbers to win team battles with the big 2A schools in the Cascade Conference.

Which doesn’t mean the Wolves can’t kick ATM and Cedarcrest’s tushies one at a time, whether it’s Makana Stone in the sprints, Madison Tisa McPhee in the hurdles, Nick Streubel in the throwing events or any of a dozen other CHS athletes.

We also have moms like Kerry Rosenkranz, who are willing to traipse off on the road, following their sons or daughters, and snap pictures while they’re doing it. Those parents, they might just be the biggest winners of all.

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     How fast is Makana Stone? Fast enough this is the only photo we’ve been able to get of her. (John Fisken photo)

I would hazard to say this is unprecedented locally.

With four more wins Thursday, Coupeville freshman Makana Stone improved to an astounding 14-0 as a high school track runner.

The scary thing? She’s getting faster.

Running against competition from Archbishop Thomas Murphy, South Whidbey and host Granite Falls, Stone blitzed all comers in the 100, 200 and 400 — setting PR’s in the first two events — then ran a leg on a triumphant 4 x 100 relay squad.

Lifted by Stone and superb senior Madison Tisa McPhee, who swept both hurdles events and joined Stone, Marisa Etzell and Sylvia Hurlburt on the relay unit, the Wolf girls toppled a very strong South Whidbey squad, finishing second in the team standings.

While the Wolves simply don’t have the raw numbers to tangle with 2A power ATM in team results, knocking off their 1A arch-rivals is huge. Falcons may fly, but they didn’t run very fast Thursday.

On the boys side, the lone win on the afternoon came in the discus, where Nick Streubel topped the field.

Complete results:

GIRLS:

100 — Makana Stone (1st) 13.45; Sylvia Hurlburt (6th) 13.94; Marisa Etzell (9th) 14.18; Kirsten Pelroy (14th) 14.71; Rachel Wenzel (15th) 14.89; Courtney Allard (25th) 15.59

200 — Stone (1st) 27.68; Hurlburt (5th) 29.45; Pelroy (8th) 30.49

400 — Stone (1st) 1:04.78

800 — Erin Rosenkranz (6th) 2:47.74

1600 — Rosenkranz (3rd) 6:10.42

100 Hurdles — Madison Tisa McPhee (1st) 17.77; Pelroy (2nd) 20.97; Allard (4th) 22.30

300 Hurdles — Tisa McPhee (1st) 50.79; Allard (2nd) 1:10.66

4 x 100 — Etzell, Tisa McPhee, Hurlburt, Stone (1st) 53.63

4 x 200 — Etzell, Wenzel, Hurlburt, Nicole Becker (2nd) 1:59.14

4 x 400 — Anna Bailey, Rosenkranz, Pelroy, Wenzel (3rd) 4:44.05

Shot Put — Heni Barnes (6th) 26-01.50

Discus — Barnes (3rd) 76-08; Becker (10th) 51-04

Javelin — Barnes (5th) 72-04; Wenzel (6th) 68-00

High Jump — Tisa McPhee (3rd) 4-08.00

BOYS:

100 — Brandon Kelley (14th) 12.62; Sam Landau (15th) 12.64

200 — Jared Helmstadter (3rd) 25.60

400 — Helmstadter (3rd) 58.79

800 — Manuel Lopez-Santillana (9th) 2:28.86

1600 — Landau (3rd) 5:33.77

3200 — Jake McCormick (7th) 13:09.89

300 hurdles — Kelley (2nd) 47.94

4 x 100 — Kelley, Helmstadter, Dalton Martin, Josiah Campbell (3rd) 47.80

4 x 400 — Campbell, Helmstadter, Matthew Hampton, Landau (2nd) 3:56.43

Shot Put — Nick Streubel (3rd), 41-04.25; Caleb Valko (4th) 38-07.50; Carson Risner (7th) 34-07.25; Martin (11th) 28-08

Discus — Streubel (1st) 115-00; Risner (3rd) 104-03; Martin (5th) 96-07; Valko (7th) 83-10

High Jump — Campbell (5th) 5-06

Long Jump — Lopez-Santillana (13th) 15-03.00

Triple Jump — Campbell (3rd) 35-04

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