River Ridge’s Braverman gets the state title he barely lost a season ago
Josh Braverman wanted a state record, but he’s satisfied with a state title.
Running against some wind in Tacoma on Friday, the River Ridge High School senior won the Class 2A state title he barely missed out on last year.
“I was thinking about it throughout the whole day today, but I stopped thinking about it before I tripped myself up,” Braverman said.
“It really helped knowing that I had that fire from last year to put into this race.”
Braverman, who will run for the University of Iowa next season, finished the 110-meter hurdles several strides in front of the rest of the field at Mount Tahoma Stadium.
He clipped a hurdle or two, and his knee on his trail leg was bleeding following the race. Still he posted a time of 14.07 seconds to win the event at the 2A track and field state championships.
Last season, Bellingham’s Benjamin Doucette edged Braverman for the title by two-tenths of a second. That memory was enough to propel him during in his final season.
“I really wanted the title, because I felt like I should have had it last year,” Braverman said.
Braverman has been the state’s top-ranked hurdler all season in the 110 and 300 hurdles.
His personal-best time of 13.99 in the 110 hurdles, set at the 2A West Central District championships last week in Renton, is ranked 34th in the nation.
Braverman set a 2A state meet record in the prelims at Mount Tahoma on Thursday at 14.04.
But, the overall state record, 13.84, set by Steilacoom’s Daniel Zmuda in 2013, remains safe. Braverman is still qualified to break it until the end of July, but he’ll settle for a state title for now.
“I’m happy I got the win,” he said.
Braverman is the defending 2A champion in the 300 hurdles, and is the top seed entering Saturday’s race. He breezed to a 38.08 finish in the prelims, nearly two seconds ahead of the second-place finisher in his heat.
“The game plan coming in to (Saturday) is just to come out and do what I’ve been doing, and finish the race with a good time,” Braverman said.
His personal-best time of 37.62, set in March, is the best in the state and ranked 43rd nationwide.
Braverman said it would be a bit of a stretch to break the overall state record in the 300 hurdles, 36.57, set by Garfield’s Mark Phillips in 1986. But, you never know, he said.
He will also run the anchor leg of River Ridge’s 4x100 relay team, along with sophomore Drayden Alexander, senior Alex Coleman and junior Tyler Robinson.
The Hawks ran a season-best 43.23 in the prelims, won their heat, and are seeded second behind Pullman (43.08) in Saturday’s final.
Other highlights:
▪ Not the start Keshara Romain wanted to have in the 3A girls triple jump, but she was happy with the finish.
During a run through, the Timberline junior tweaked her left hamstring, and had her leg wrapped following the event.
“It hurt really bad, but I decided to pull through,” Romain said. “I wanted to finish.”
Romain still popped off a jump of 36 feet, 10 inches to finish third, which is her best state finish. She took fourth in the event in 4A last season.
Garfield’s Lyric Harris, the top-ranked jumper in 3A, won the event at 38-7 1/4. Romain’s personal best is 38-3 3/4, set earlier this month at Tumwater’s Shaner Invitational.
Romain said she was still pleased with her finish, and anticipates she’ll be OK to compete in two finals on Saturday.
She is the No. 5 seed in the 3A girls long jump, and runs a leg of Timberline’s 4x200 relay team, which qualified for the finals on Thursday, and is seeded fourth.
▪ In Cheney, Mary M. Knight sophomore Kaylee Sowlee had a banner day on the second day of the 1B track and field state championships at Eastern Washington University.
She defended her high jump title, besting her own meet record from her freshman season at 5-6. That tied her personal best height, which is ranked third statewide with five other jumpers.
Sowlee also won the long jump, setting a personal-best mark of 17-10 1/4, which beat the second-place finisher by nearly a foot. The jump also erased the record Mount Vernon Christian’s Carla Van Rooyen set in 2014 by eight inches.
Sowlee is the top seed in Saturday’s triple jump final, and the No. 2 seed in the 100 after posting a personal-best 12.84 on Friday.
Ian Frost, Sowlee’s teammate, also won a title for the Owls. He launched a 156-8 in the 1B boys discus over Northport’s RJ Plum (139-0) by a large margin.
▪ Also at Eastern, Northwest Christian senior Heidi Sowers took second in the 2B girls triple jump, posting a 36-0 on her final attempt. Napavine’s Mollie Olson (36-5 1/2) won the event.
Navigators senior Elizabeth Stottlemyre was the runner-up in the javelin, tossing a 126-7. Kalama senior Kaelyn Shipley won the event at 163-6, setting a new meet record. Her mark, a personal best, is also now the top throw in the nation.
This story was originally published May 26, 2017 at 7:13 PM with the headline "River Ridge’s Braverman gets the state title he barely lost a season ago."