Watch that Wolf run
Newcomer Wilson sprints to 3 gold medals in Washington
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| Bill Barrett photo Timberland?s Ieashea Johnson-Myles runs the anchor leg of the 400-meter relay during the GAC North Track & Field Championships in Washington on Thursday. The Wolves? winning time in the 400 relay was :52.96. |
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A newcomer at Timberland, Wilson has been a standout in the sprinting events since the season began, and she got off to a good start during the second day of the GAC North championships Thursday at Washington, winning the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.62 seconds. Duchesne freshman Jenny Howard placed second in 12.82, and Timberland freshman Dessi Drury was third in 13.04.
"Getting first in my first race, the 100-meter dash, just kind of gave me a little extra push to do better," Wilson said.Which was bad news for the competition. Later in the day, Wilson captured first place in the 200 with a time of 25.92. Then in the 1600-relay, the last event of the tournament, Wilson ran a strong opening leg as Timberland cruised to the conference title in the 1,600-relay in 4:07.64, nearly seven seconds ahead of the nearest competitor.
"Jalessa has done really well," Timberland coach Ami Schulte said. "She did great in the 100-meter dash, she did wonderful in the 200, she's a very strong leader in our relays, and we get to sit down and make some tough decisions as far as what we want to put her in next week at districts, because she has so many opportunities to do well in so many events. It's a nice problem to have."
And Wilson's efforts helped provide a nice boost for the Wolves, who placed second in the girls team standings with 163 points. Washington earned 177 points to finish first, followed by Timberland, Warrenton (117), St. Charles West (90), St. Charles (57), Fort Zumwalt North (44) and Duchesne (32).
"It's been a good meet," Schulte said. "The girls went out and ran as hard as they possibly could, and they've gotten a lot of good results out of it. A lot of school records fell and I've had a lot of (personal records broken). So they've gone out and run well, and thrown well, and jumped well. They're really setting themselves up to look good next week."
Timberland was looking pretty good on the boys side as well. Paced by GAC North championship efforts from senior Derrick McKee in the 800 and junior Alex McDonald in the discus, the Wolves earned 137 points to place second in the team standings. Washington finished first with 191 points, followed by Timberland, St. Charles West (117), Fort Zumwalt North (108), St. Charles (60), Warrenton (40) and Duchesne (27).
"Other than about two things, we've had everything go pretty well for us, and I'm proud of what these guys have done," Timberland boys coach Cary Eldredge said.
Midway through the 18-event tournament, the Timberland boys trailed Washington by just three points, but the host Blue Jays were able to pull away.
"They're loaded," Eldredge said of Washington, who last year finished seventh in the Class 4 team standings at state. "They're just a really good team, and they're well coached. They're good in almost every event, and it's hard to beat a team like that. We had some things that could have gone better, and we were still staying close. That is a real testament to our kids. They were competing hard."
McKee, who is fighting off the lingering effects of an illness, won the 800 with a time of 2:00.07. Earlier in the day McKee finished the 1,600 in 4:33.94 to place second behind Washington's Josh Buschling (4:30.71).
"I was kind of tired going into (the 800), but I did what I wanted to do," McKee said.
"If Derrick is physically capable of doing what you ask of him, it's going to happen, because there's nobody that works harder or tries to do the right thing more than him," Eldredge said. "He got out, kind of stayed with the group, then made a move with about 300 (meters) to go, and that's what we talked about. He did it and he was able to hang on, got his best open time of the year."
With a throw of 156 feet, 9 inches, McDonald was able to repeat as the GAC North discus champion, but his bid to capture gold in the shot put fell short as he placed second with a throw of 48-6.25, more than two feet behind St. Charles West senior Micah Hagood (50-7.5).
"Sometimes, you just have those days, and it probably was just one of those days," Eldredge said. "I expect that Alex is going to use this as a motivator to help him in these next three weeks, and hopefully we'll be talking about big things from him after this week."
Junior Olivia Koehler provided big points for the Timberland girls by placing first in the long jump (16-5.5), second in the 100 hurdles (16.73) and third in the 400 (1:02.48), which Schulte said is not a normal event for Koehler.
"I asked her, 'Will you please run the 400 for me? I need a couple points,' and she goes and takes third and breaks our school record," Schulte said. "She's one of those kids that will go out there and get me results whenever I need them."
Junior Kelsey Kennedy, a sectional qualifier in the triple jump last season, won the GAC North championship with a jump of 34-0.
"She's starting to peak at the right time this year, so I expect good things out of her in the triple jump, and hopefully we'll get to see her at state in that," Schulte said.
In other field events, juniors Kim Vahey and Amber Schrader tied for third place in the high jump, while sophomore Ally Grubbs finished third in the discus.
Kennedy joined senior Deidra Davis and juniors Katie Nickols and Ieashea Johnson-Myles to place first in the 400-relay with a time of 52.96. Wilson, Drury, Johnson-Myles and junior Jade Clarice teamed up to capture the 1,600-relay gold. Drury and fellow freshman Darby O'Shea finished second and third, respectively, in the 300 hurdles behind Washington's Anna Holtermann. Johnson-Myles placed second in the 200 behind Wilson.
For the boys, freshman Ellis Maise placed second in the 400, while senior Marcus Kiner finished third in the 100. Senior Paul Snyder took second place in the 300 hurdles, one spot ahead of sophomore Cory Jones, and Snyder also placed third in the 110 hurdles, one spot in front of junior Greg Klossner. Junior Darian Wilson and sophomore Chase Cresong placed third and fourth, respectively, in the high jump, and Cresong also placed third in the long jump.
"There aren't very many events where I will tell you that we are great, but I can tell you in almost every event, we're competitive, and that allows us to do well in a meet like this," Eldredge said.
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