Nearly 500 freshmen from 33 schools in Washington and Oregon descended on the Hub City on Saturday for the 49th annual Freshman Invitational, and the hosts made sure the day ended with a bang.
After 33 events wrapped up, the last one on the list was the boys 4x400 relay, which saw the Centralia quartet of Eli Baldwin, Tristin Henning, Adam Leon, and Evan Thummel go step-for-step with a team from Lake Oswego (Ore.) for all 1,600 meters, edging out the Lakers by one one-hundredth of a second with a time of 4:05.69.
Outside of his dramatic anchor leg in the relay, Thummel had the best day on the home track for the Tigers, taking second in the boys 1,600 meters with a time of 5:02.79, and finishing fourth in the 800 at 2:17.70. On the girls’ side, Irais Carrillo-Montenegro was ninth in the 100-meter hurdles for Centralia (19.91).
Four other area schools joined the in on the fun as well. Napavine’s squad led the way for the locals, especially on the boys’ side, where the 2B Tigers landed nine top-10 finishes, with Case Vankooten earning the area’s only individual win in the 110-meter hurdles (18.42). Opposite him, Maddie Dickinson showed out for Napavine as well with runner-up spots in both the girls 100 (13.53) and 200 (27.81)
Adna’s Noah Hellem took third in the boys javelin (115 feet, 9 inches), while Megan Price was 4th in both the girls 100 (13.73) and 200 (28.45) and sixth in the 400 (1:07.37).
Tenino saw Austin Johnson run the 200 meters in 24.42, good for fourth, while Kyra Dirks placed ninth in the girls 800 at 3:01.54.
Rounding out the day for the area, Dominic Delgado represented Rochester with a sixth-place finish in the 200 (24.96) and a seventh-place one in the 100 (12.20).
