After the pandemic stole away the 2020 season, Catherine Lhamon is one of the few Coupeville High School track stars with prior experience. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)
From young guns to old pros.
Thanks to the pandemic, the last time Coupeville High School track and field athletes competed was nearly two years ago.
Way back on May 25, 2019, as the state tournament wrapped up, Ja’Kenya Hoskins and Logan Martin were freshmen.
Now, after a lost spring and a long wait, the duo are juniors and have gone from supporting crew to frontline stars.
Hoskins is the only active Wolf track athlete to have a state meet medal — she was part of a 4 x 200 relay squad which finished 3rd in Cheney in ’19.
Now, with all of her former relay mates having graduated, she’s likely to be running sprints and doing jumps, said longtime CHS track guru Randy King.
“Ja’Kenya is back and eager to begin competing again!”
Martin, who spent many of the 650 days between track seasons working on his skills, is primed to have a breakout as a thrower.
Older brother Dalton, who won four state meet medals during his CHS days, holds the school discus record.
Now lil’ bro is coming for big bro’s best marks.
“Logan has worked both last spring and this fall and winter to improve his throws, and looks destined to do extremely well,” King said.
“The discus is jumping out of his hand and he appears to have mastered a new technique in the shot put,” he added. “I expect his discus throws to have improved by over 30 feet since his freshman year.”
Logan Martin is coming for all of older brother Dalton’s throwing records.
Hoskins and Martin lead a squad which has 24 athletes as it preps for its debut in the Northwest 2B/1B League.
In this pared-down season, Coupeville is set to host the season-opening meet March 4, and the season-closing rumble April 3.
Other returning athletes include Megan Behan and Aurora Cernick in the throwing events, and cross country state meet vet Catherine Lhamon in the distance races.
On the boys side of things, the move from 1A to 2B pushes soccer from spring to fall, allowing Wolf booters to join the track squad.
That has netted the squad at least three cross country-hardened runners in Sam Wynn, Mitchell Hall, and Aiden Wilson.
“We are excited to have them out,” King said. “Kudos to Coach (Elizabeth) Bitting and Coach (Jon) Gabelein for their work with our distance runners this school year.
“They have been training for quite a while and are hitting the track season “in stride”!”
With the missed season, a fair amount of the team is made up of newcomers, some of whom intended to compete last spring before COVID shut down Washington state schools.
On the girls side, Maylin Steele (jumps and javelin), Erica McGrath (javelin), Camryn Clark (hurdles and sprints), and Cristine McGrath (jumps and hurdles) are all brand new to high school track.
The most-promising youngster may be basketball brawler Carolyn Lhamon, a sophomore who was a top-notch track performer in middle school.
“Carolyn looks great in the shot put for us, and can be counted on to give a gutsy performance in the 400-meter run,” King said.
Freshman Tate Wyman and Josh Guay, sophomore Dominic Coffman, Alex Murdy, and Reiley Araceley, and senior Ben Smith are all expected to have impact for the boys team, as well.
During this pandemic spring, Coupeville will compete against league mates, and won’t have a chance to attend any invitationals or large meets as in years past.
That means the Wolves will mainly vie with La Conner, Concrete, Mount Vernon Christian, and Friday Harbor.
Darrington doesn’t field a track team, while Orcas Island is skipping spring sports and waiting until its students are back in class before competing.
MVC track, especially on the boys side of things, is a state-title-winning powerhouse in 1B, while La Conner is always tough.
But for King, who retired as a teacher last year but stayed on as the school’s longest-tenured coach, the chance to get back out to the track oval is about what his athletes can accomplish, not who they have to face.
“They have been a fun group to work with!,” he said. “Our team is young, so it will be great to see how our season develops.”
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