Track: 53rd Shaner Invitational; Braverman & Sowers dominate, Bears win it all

5/7/17

Complete Individual Results for both boys & girls from Athletic.net

(Tumwater, WA) The Shaner Invitational on Friday night was one of the final prep meets in the State to get Track Athletes ready for Districts and State. Despite a steady cold win for the most part the rain that poured on Thursday and Friday morning had moved on and only a little shower at the beginning had to be contended with setting up some spectacular performances led by Josh Braverman of River Ridge and Heidi Sowers of NW Christian, both setting meet records.

Josh Brav erman trouncing the field in the 110 hurdles

Braverman was simply awesome in both the 110 and 300 hurdle events blowing away the meet records. He broke his own record of 14.25 in the 110 by nearly eclipsing the 14-flat mark at 14.09. That is by far the fastest time in the State in all classifications the next fastest is Germaine Barnes from Chiawana with a 14.43 time.

In the 300 hurdles Braverman bested the mark held by Yelm’s Jake Hanson at 37.97 by finishing in a time of 37.87. That time set the Shaner meet mark but was not his fastest, Braverman has topped out at 37.62 the only one in the State in all classifications with a sub 38-second time. The 2nd fastest time in the state is West Seattle’s Cass Elliott at 38.27.

Braverman was also part of the winning 4×100 River Ridge relay team with Drayden Alexander, Alex Coleman and Tyler Robinson. The Hawks ran a 43.67 and although does not crack the top 10 in all classifications for 2A boys they are in the top 3. He was named the boys Athlete of the Meet and there is little argument after his 3 1st place finishes and record shattering evening.

Heidi Sowers of NW Christian was named the female Athlete of the Meet and she ran some impressive times including tying the meet record of Olympia’s Shannon Bryan with a 15.14 time in the 100 hurdles. She also won the 300 hurdles, placed 3rd in the Triple jump and 6th in the Long jump. Sowers won the Athlete of the Meet award for the 3rd straight year.

However, there was discussion over that award and Timberline’s Keshara Romain and Makenna Hansen were the topic of that discussion. Romain and Hansen each took home 4 Gold medals.

Blazers 4×200 in lane 1 pulls away to win handily

Romain won the Triple Jump with a leap of 38-03.75 a PR, good for 7th in the State in all classifications. Romain also PR’d in the Long Jump with a leap of 17-01.75. Romain also ran the anchor leg of the winning 4×100 and 4×200 relays. Hansen, Rachel Izuagbe and Ashley Babkirk joined Romain in dominating those 2 relay events. Hansen also won the 100m in a time of 12.6 and the 200 in 25.86 and collected 4 Gold medals on the day.

Some of the other outstanding performances from the boys meet included an exhibition runner from Adna. Austin Apperson ran in the 1600 and 3200 and was granted an exemption to run in those two races but his finish would neither count in the individual or teams standings. Apperson finished 3rd in the 1600 and 2nd in the 3200. Luke Schilter of NW Christian won both of those races. Schilter also took 3rd in the 800 and ran on the NWC’s 4×400 relay but they did not finish in the top 8.

Yelm’s Cole Harrison set a PR in the 100m nosing out Black Hill’s Kyler

Nygren. Harrison also took the 200m and ran on the Tornado’s 5th place 4×100 team and the 4×400 relay that also finished 5th.

In the boys 400, Bryan Sidor of Aberdeen broke the tape first and in the 800 Capital’s Tanner Stipic beat Tumwater’s Evan Groat in a tight finish in the 800, both set PR’s in that race. Groat was part of the winning Tumwater 4×400 relay and ran the anchor leg for his team that included Rashaun Tate, Grant Pierce and Brad Blackburn.

In the field events, Black Hills’ Austen Daisa took the shot over Braden Castleberry-Taylor whose PR was still more than a foot shy of Daisa. Olympia’s Ryan Underland ended up 3rd but may have been closer had he not scratched on a few throws.

Joshua Dohring of Shelton won the Discus over Capital Elliot Gegen, both PR’d in that event. The Javelin went to Cody Hall of Shelton with a toss of 168-01 over Jordan Claridge of Black Hills.

In the jumps, Joshua Kennedy of River Ridge and Cody Barnett of Olympia both got 6-feet in the High jump but Kennedy wins it because it took him few attempts. In the Long jump the top 6 PR’d but it was Kyler Nygren of Black Hills with the win with a leap of just over 23-feet. Tim Fisher from Capital was 2nd and Jaylen Taylor of Timberline was 3rd. In the Triple Jump Taylor was the winner with Kennedy 2nd while Centralia’s Layne Pertzborn was 3rd. And in the Pole Vault Shelton’s Cody Simon cruised to a 2-foot win and set a PR clearing 14-06.

In the Girls meet let’s start with the field events and in the Pole Vault WF West took the top 2 positions with Megan Flexhaug winning it over team mate Jillian McCarthy. Tumwater’s Emma Stetler finished 3rd but all 3 clear 8-06 but Flexhaug did it in fewer attempts than both and McCarthy in fewer attempts than Stetler for 2nd place.

In the jumps, as mentioned earlier Keshara Romain won the Triple in PR fashion over Blazer teammate Rachel Izuagber and NWC’s Heidi Sowers all with PR’s in fact the 9 of the top 10 set personal bests. Romain also win the Long jump as the Blazers swept the top 3 positions with Izuagbe 2nd and Arianna Bush 3rd. The High jump went to Olympia’s Lauren Bush with a leap of 5-06 in a personal best while Jessica Neal from Timberline was 2nd and WF Wests’ Kaelen Bach was 3rd in a PR for Bach.

The Javelin saw Kendra Bottenberg of WF West win it while teammate Megan Pallas was 3rd and NWC teammates Elizabeth Stottlemyre was 2nd and Lauren Dominguez was 4th. Olympia’s Beatrice Asomaning won the discus and Yelm’s Carissa Stovall was 2nd and in the shot Freshman McKenzie Salazar-Fox served notice it could be a long 4 years for those who have to compete against her with a toss of 37-10.75. Yelm’s Carissa Stoval, a Soph took 2nd.

The distance races went to NWC’s Eliana Summers who pulled off a double winning both the 1600 and the grueling 3200. She was also on the NWC 4×400 relay that took 4th. Tumwater won the 4x with Tiana Cole, Bella Wallerstedt, Codi Short and Bella Foos.

In the 800 Megan McSheffrey of NWC outfinished Erika Brumfield of WF West in a hotly contested stretch run. McSheffrey also had a battle on her hands in the 400 and came away with the victory over Aberdeen’s Faith Cardenas.

In the sprints Makenna Hansen took both the 100 and 200 as mentioned before in the 100 fellow Blazer and Frosh Ashley Babkirk took 2nd while in the 200 it was Capital’s Regie Grady just nosing out Tumwater’s Bella Foos for 2nd.

The meet awarded 3 trophies for team awards and they were a combined boys and girls point total. But if you are curious, the top 3 boys teams were Black Hills, Capital and Olympia and the top 3 girls were Timberline, NW Christian and Olympia. But the overall Champion went to the team that was most consistent the Olympia Bears. Timberline was 2nd and Capital finished 3rd.

Photo Gallery