Jacob Smith is among the best in 1A this spring in the 100 and 200. (Deb Smith photo)
What have you done for me lately?
Track and field is a fickle world, and while Coupeville High School has athletes with Top 10 performances in eight different categories in 1A this spring, not all of those Wolves are guaranteed to be competing in two weeks at Districts.
For example, Jacob Martin has the 7th best performance in the long jump among all 1A boys, but it came back on Mar. 16 at the Island Jamboree.
A fourth-place finish at the Olympic League’s Sub-District meet Saturday, where he missed his PR by two feet, puts him, like several of his teammates, in a precarious position.
Only the top three finishers at Sub-Districts are guaranteed berths at Districts May 19-20 in Renton.
Fourth-place finishers, like Martin, have to wait until the Nisqually League holds its Sub-District meet next weekend.
After that, the #4 finisher in the OL will be compared to the #5 finisher from the NL, with the better time or place grabbing the 8th and final slot to Districts.
It would be cruel if Martin, or high jumper Cassidy Moody or the CHS girls 4 x 100 relay team, which dropped a baton at Sub-Districts, were denied a chance to go to Districts, but it’s possible.
High school track and field both honors those who excelled early in the season and then ignores your credentials and demands you produce at every step in the postseason to keep moving forward.
Which, in the end, is no different than say, an undefeated baseball team taking its first loss at state and being denied a championship.
We’ll see how track plays out in the next four weeks, but, for now, we stop to pay tribute to those who, postseason results or not, currently sit among the best that 1A has produced in 2017.
Rankings valid as of 10:12 AM Sunday:
Girls:
100 Hurdles — Lindsey Roberts (8th) 16.17
4 x 100 Relay — Lauren Grove, Mallory Kortuem, Maya Toomey-Stout, Roberts (9th) 52.11
4 x 200 Relay — Grove, Kortuem, Toomey-Stout, Roberts (4th) 1:48.62
High Jump — Cassidy Moody (6th) 5-00
Boys:
100 — Jacob Smith (8th) 11.32
200 — Smith (5th) 23.05
Long Jump — Jacob Martin (7th) 20-07
Triple Jump — Mitchell Carroll (6th) 42-06.50
