A little anger gives Romain a big lift in WCD girls long jump

Keshara Romain continues to learn interesting things about herself in the heat of track and field competition.

This week’s lesson: She jumps better for Timberline High School when she is agitated.

Romain, a junior, made it a clean sweep of her two individual events, capped by a win in the Class 3A West Central/Southwest bi-district girls long jump Saturday afternoon at Sunset Chev Stadium.

Her jump of 17 feet, 8  1/2 inches on the last attempt of finals was a personal-best, eclipsing the previous mark of 17-1, set earlier this season. She defeated teammate Arianna Bush (17-2  1/2) for the title.

Even though there were plenty of close calls, Romain was the only local winner Saturday.

And she learned when she returned to the site with her teammates that meet officials had ruled to rerun the 4x200 girls relay after a protest on a lane obstruction from the race Friday.

“During one of my jumps, I had to go over and do the relay,” Romain said.

Needless to say, she wasn’t happy about it. The Blazers won that race as well with the top time: 1 minute, 45.19 seconds.

Then she returned to pop the big jump.

“Just jumped with anger,” she said. “It helped me get into the zone.”

What happened in the final event Saturday certainly gives Timberline’s Jaylen Taylor motivation heading into the 3A state meet next week at Mount Tahoma Stadium.

With the No. 2 boys triple jump mark in Class 3A, Taylor was the clear favorite to win the bi-district title. But he was upstaged by first-year jumper David Njeri of Wilson.

The action-packed finals went back and forth.

After Taylor went 47-2  1/4 on his second attempt of the finals to grab the lead, he let out a big yelp as he landed in the sand pit.

But Njeri was up to the challenge. He soared to a state-best 48-2 immediately after Taylor, which was a career best by more than 4 feet.

“I am pumped. I want to get him back,” Taylor said. “I will get everybody at state.”

Yelm’s Cole Harrison feels fortunate just to be back at state after an injury-filled postseason in 2016.

Now he is fit and fast, winning his boys 200 meters heat by leaning past the finish against Wilson’s Elijah Jones.

Jones got out of the gates first. Harrison caught him with 25 meters to go as the two sprinters raced side by side the rest of the way. Both were timed in 22.30, but Harrison got the heat victory.

“My coaches remind me that I am a second-half runner,” Harrison said. “(Jones) had a killer start, and I had to play catch-up.”

In the next heat, Gig Harbor’s Jurrian Hering grabbed the overall top 200 time at 22.29. Harrison placed second.

“Hey, I was just off my (personal record time), so I know I can run faster next week,” Harrison said. “We’ll see what happens.”

Timberline’s Makenna Hansen also finished as the runner-up in the girls 200. Her time of 25.32 was a personal best, just behind Gig Harbor’s Hannah Carroll (25.26). Hansen also placed second in the 100 meters.

Then came the interesting — and irritating — day for North Thurston’s Donovan Fenwick, who came into the meet as the favorite in the high jump.

But Fenwick literally couldn’t see because his contact lenses kept falling out of his eyes during his attempts. He still cleared 6-0, second best to Mountain View’s Garrett Davies (6-5).

“Man, my eye is messed up,” Fenwick said. “But I will be OK. I want 6-6 next week. That was my goal from the beginning of the season.”

Olympia senior Lauren Wilson, who is one of four high jumpers in Class 4A tied for the top-ranked spot, advanced to next week’s 4A state championships on Saturday at French Field in Kent.

Wilson — whose season-best mark is 5-6 — topped out at 5-3, finishing third at the 4A West Central/Southwest bi-district meet. Camas junior Madison Peffers won the event at 5-5.

Ryan Underland, a senior, also qualified for Olympia in the discus. He tossed a 151-5 to take third, while Skyview’s Connor Jensen won the event at 169-3.

Underland’s season-best mark of 152-6  1/2 is ranked 10th in 4A.

Olympia’s 4x400 boys relay team of Kei Sinthavong, Will Anderson, Cody Barnett and Chase Suting ran a season-best 3:26.67 to place fourth and advance.

The squad is now ranked ninth in 4A.

River Ridge senior Josh Braverman continued his season-long dominance in the hurdles on Saturday at Renton Memorial Stadium.

He won a 2A West Central District title in the 300 hurdles at 38.11, a bit off of his personal-best time of 37.62 which he ran in March.

Alex Coleman, a senior, took third in the triple jump at a season-record 43- 3/4.

River Ridge’s 4x400 girls relay team of Jadynne Thomas, Ashlan Dunaway, Raquel Robinson and Alexis Crowl took third, advancing to state with a time of 4:16.97.

During Friday’s portion of the meet, Braverman also won a district title in the 110 hurdles, posting a personal-best 13.99. He remains the state leader in both hurdling events.

Coleman also won an event the day before, this time it was the long jump, in which he posted a 21-10 1/4. Coleman is ranked in the top 10 in Class 2A in both jumping events.

Braverman and Coleman also each ran a leg of River Ridge’s winning 4x100 relay team, which also included Drayden Alexander and Tyler Robinson.

The Hawks ran a season-best 43.31, which is ranked third in 2A.

This story was originally published May 20, 2017 at 8:32 PM with the headline "A little anger gives Romain a big lift in WCD girls long jump."