M-P girls win home tri-meet

The M-P girls won 10 of 18 events to edge Stanwood and the boys seven more for second place behind Arlington when Tomahawk track hosted the nearby rivals April 17.

The M-P girls won 10 of 18 events to edge Stanwood and the boys seven more for second place behind Arlington when Tomahawk track hosted the nearby rivals April 17.

The Tomahawk girls won all three relays while the boys won one of just two to bolster their standings. In one of the meet’s largest margins of victory, the girls 4×400 relay of Cali Cull, Alisha Oden, Haley Nemra and Nicolette Runyan finished a full 10 seconds faster than the Stanwood A squad.

In addition to winning the long jump, junior Andy Abadam ran a leg of both boys relays, including the winning 4×400. He was joined in the relay victory by Ryan Lanphere, Shawn McPherson and Dylan Knudson. Lanphere was M-P’s lone dual champion, defeating Arlington’s Luke Passalacqua to win the half mile in 2:01.62 and fellow Eagle Paul Simbeck in the 3,200.

M-P junior Alex McDonald was more than a full second faster than Arlington’s Kylene Swegle to win the girls 100 hurdles, but finished about the same margin behind 300-hurdle champion Sarah Jackson of Stanwood for second place in the longer event.

As they have already done several times this season, Runyan and Oden won the sprints for the Tomahawks, although this time they switched events. Oden, who competed at state last year in the 200-meter dash won the 100 while Runyan took the 200 over her usual 100.

The duo weren’t the only ones to try something a little different in their home meet; Nemra, usually a middle-distance runner, won the 1,600 while miler Lauren Ainsworth won the 800.

Basketball teammates Blake Lovell and Brandon Greene continued to show that they are more than one-sport talents by, once again, winning the javelin (155-5) and high jump (5-10) respectively.

Senior pole vaulter Taylor Gibson nabbed his first win of the season, clearing 13 feet in his first meet back from an injury that has plagued him. Gibson’s mark was a foot higher than a trio of Stanwood vaulters who finished behind him at 12-0.

Senior high jumper Jade Hanson cleared 5-3 to handily win, with a jump seven inches higher than the rest of the competition. Junior thrower Jenna Welsh rounded out the Tomahawk field victories by taking the javelin with a throw of 130-10, 121 inches farther than the second-place finisher.