Sowers, Northwest Christian set new 2B bests

No meet records fell at the 52nd Bob Shaner Invitational on Friday night.

But Northwest Christian’s Heidi Sowers did her part to set a few different ones.

She had three first-place finishes in the meet at Tumwater District Stadium. All three, in the 100-meter hurdles (15.77 seconds), the 300 hurdles (46.11) and 4x400 relay (4:08.6) are the top-ranked marks in the 2B classification.

“It all just came together today, and I got the speed, and I finished really hard,” Sowers said.

Not surprisingly, Sowers, a junior, was named the girls athlete of the meet for the second year in a row.

“It feels really good, but I owe it all to my coaches and to God and my teammates for supporting me,” Sowers said, “but I’m really happy.”

Northwest Christian finished second in the meet – which combines the boys and girls scores – with 187 points. Olympia took first with 215 1/4, and Capital had 157 to take third.

The Navigators had nine first-place finishes – the most of any team – and the girls had six of those alone. Luke Schilter also had three first-place finishes in the 800 (1:59.65), 1,600 (4:22.35) and 3,200 (9:41.47).

“It’s really looking strong, lately we’ve been coming on really well,” Sowers said. “I think we have a shot at winning state this year.”

River Ridge’s Josh Braverman was the boys athlete of the meet. No athlete beat a meet record, but Braverman tied one. His 14.25 finish in the 110 hurdles tied Jake Hanson’s (Yelm) mark set in 2004.

“I’m happy with what happened, I just wish I would have been a little bit faster,” Braverman said. “I wanted to break the records this meet, but I’ve got next meet.”

He also set a new personal best in the 300 hurdles at 38.17. He is still ranked No. 1 in Washington state in that event.

“That one I practiced a lot on my second hurdle, shortened my stride because I was going too fast,” Braverman said. “That didn’t really work and it slowed me down, and then I stumbled. So, I took some time off, but I still PR’d.”

Other developments:

▪  Capital’s 4x100 boys relay team continues to drop time.

It is now ranked third in 3A after posting a winning, season-best time of 42.97. After struggling with handoffs earlier in the season, anchor Willie Broxton said the combination of Tim Fisher, Zach Smith, Jason Turner and himself has made tweaks.

“It’s amazing to see what we could really do,” Broxton said. “Running a 43.6 and then running a 42.9 – it just let’s us know that, what we were putting out before, there was something wrong with it. Now, after this meet, it’s really starting to click.

“We plan on dropping every week from here on out.”

Capital has climbed in the 3A rankings as the season has progressed.

“We treat every single meet like it’s the state finals,” Smith said. “ … We’re really getting it into our minds that we need to go out and win every single time and compete at the best of our abilities every single time.”

▪  Last week, David Woodward’s incentive from his coach for hitting 180 feet in the javelin was pizza.

This week?

“Through the goal post is ice cream,” Woodward said.

Not quite, but the Olympia senior did win the event, and set a new personal best at 187-04. Woodward did it on his final attempt, and said favorable crosswinds helped.

“I was a little tired, but (my coach) just said get it through the point and get it up and it’ll catch a little bit,” Woodward said.

He is currently ranked second in 4A in the event.

▪ 

The Tumwater girls 4x200 relay combination of Sydney Smith, Codi Short, Peyton Russell and Bella Foos kicked off the meet with a season-best 1:45.9 – that is No. 2 in 2A.

This story was originally published May 6, 2016 at 11:31 PM with the headline "Sowers, Northwest Christian set new 2B bests."