Katrina McGranahan (top) is joined by (l to r) Maya Toomey-Stout, Mitchell Carroll and Lindsey Roberts. (Maria Reyes and John Fisken photos)
Life is made up of moments.
Today, as we open the doors to the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame, we’re going to immortalize four such pieces of time, and the athletes who crafted them.
So, let’s pay tribute to Lindsey Roberts, Mitchell Carroll, Maya Toomey-Stout and Katrina McGranahan for crafting events which, after this, will sit at the top of the blog under the Legends tab.
Pop up there, scroll down past Athletes, Coaches and Contributors, stop on Moments, and viola, there they’ll be, forever alive on the internet.
And in the memories of those who created them.
Our first two moments came at this year’s West Central District 3 track and field championships, though one of the two has a footnote (which we’ll get to in a second.)
But we start at districts, where Roberts, a CHS sophomore, and Carroll, a senior, chose the same meet to smash school records which were set before either of them were born.
Roberts sailed through the 100 hurdles in 15.97 seconds, knocking Jess Roundy (16.06) off the track big board, where her name had resided since 1999.
When Lindsey’s name goes up to replace Jess, it will give the speedy supernova her third appearance on the board, as she’s already a member of 4 x 100 and 4 x 200 relay units which own school records.
With half her career ahead of her, Roberts is tied with Chad Gale (long jump, 110 and 300 hurdles) for most school records, two shy of Makana Stone (200, 400, 4 x 1, 4 x 2, 4 x 4) for total track board dominance.
Carroll exits having won a 5th place medal in the triple jump Friday at the 1A state track and field championships, while also ensuring his name will live on (at least for a bit) at the entrance to Coupeville’s gym.
In our second Hall o’ Fame-worthy moment, he sailed 43 feet, three inches at districts, knocking Virgil Roehl (42-11.50 in 1994) off the record board.
The change erases the last touch of the ’90s from the male side of the Wolf record book, as all the records now are either holdovers from the ’80s or were set between 2000-2017.
Not content to stop, though (this is that footnote), Carroll erupted for a jump of 43-11.75 at state, adding eight-plus inches to his record and ensuring it has just that much more chance to live as long as Roehl’s mark did.
Our third magic moment isn’t really one moment, but we can fudge things a bit since it’s very much a milestone.
Toomey-Stout, AKA “The Gazelle,” is on her way to putting her name up on the record board, having come dangerously close to busting school records in the 100 and 4 x 2 in her first go-round.
What she did accomplish though is nothing short of amazing, as she became the first Wolf girl in the 117-year history of the high school to qualify for and compete in four separate events at one state meet.
Bouncing from event to event in the blazing Cheney sun, Toomey-Stout ran in the 100, 200, 4 x 1 and 4 x 2, and was still bouncing sky-high at the end of her first (but I doubt last) trip to state.
For our final Hall-worthy moment, we step away from track and head to the softball diamond.
McGranahan has been pouring in strikes for the Wolf sluggers since she first stepped inside the CHS pitcher’s circle three seasons ago.
Her junior campaign was her finest though, as she used her arm and booming bat to lead Coupeville to a 19-5 record, the second-best mark in program history.
Along the way, she faced six teams which made it to state — South Whidbey, Lynden Christian, Sequim, Friday Harbor, Chimacum and Bellevue Christian — blitzing four and battling to the final out with the final pair.
We could talk about the frequent out-of-the-park home runs, the electrifying strikeouts, the steals (she has wheels to go with her strength, leading the team in pilfered bags) and her quiet leadership skills.
But today we honor McGranahan for a moment which stands as a testament to her inner strength.
Having made a 90+ mile trip with her teammates to Tacoma for the district playoffs, she threw every pitch for the Wolves across four games in little more than a day.
Coupeville split those four contests, two of which went to extra innings, falling a single out short of state in a 10-inning battle royal with BC in the tourney finale.
The Vikings went on to win twice at state, the best showing of any Wolf foe to make the big dance.
By the time she was done, her throbbing arm encased in a cool-down mechanism, McGranahan had hurled pitch after pitch, racking up 33 innings in just under 26 hours.
None of the other five teams at districts played more than three games, and Killer Kat’s pitching duties included a tourney-opening nine-inning win over Vashon, followed by a second game against a fresh BC squad literally five minutes later.
The Wolves had time only to walk from one field to the other, with no food or water break, as the start time for the second game had already passed thanks to game one going to extra innings.
Every one of Coupeville’s players put in supreme effort during districts, overcoming illness, injury, fatigue and heat in their quest to get to Richland.
But McGranahan deserves a special tip of the cap, since, as pitcher, she was literally the focal point of every single moment on defense.
While still finding time to clear the fences yet again with a home run in a win over Seattle Christian.
Time and again, Katrina reached down and found something maybe even she didn’t know was there, and her performance stands with the best the softball program, and her school, has seen.
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