The gap between Grandview’s Titus Jeffery and the T-Birds’ Malijah Tucker is now under two inches after the Washington State football recruit unleashed a new lifetime best toss of 59 feet, 4 inches to win the shot put at Thursday’s Class 2A District 4 meet held at Columbia River High School.
It sets up a showdown next week at the three-day state meet between Jeffrey and Tucker. The PR throw came on the last throw in the prelims and his first throw in the finals was 59-03. It was part of a day for the Thunderbirds that featured them as a team runner-up with 143 points.
Sprinter Blake Kirkpatrick was a part of both the 400 and 1,600-meter relays taking home first plus claiming the open 100 and 200-meter dashes. His time of 21.85 in the 200 was a new PR for the senior.
Cash Short, also on both relays alongside David Malroy, won the open 400 while Aaron Paul secured the high jump.
Also in the team race, W.F. West was sixth with 39 points while Centralia (nine) and Black Hills (eight) placed 11th and 12th, respectively. The Bearcats had a trio of third place finishers in Maddox Sampson (110 hurdles), Hayden Niemi (300 hurdles) and Ryan Hilliker (pole vault).
Ezra Harris took third in the javelin with a new PR of 161-05 for the Wolves while Jacoby Corwin placed fourth in the high jump for the Tigers.
On the girls side, Tumwater won the team title with 140 points behind a clean sweep in the 400, 800 and 1,600-meter relays. Cassidy Hedin, Ava Jones and Reese Heryford were on all three and teamed with Ashlyn Hufana in the sprint relays and Alexandra Broome anchored the mid-distance quartet.
Broome also ran a new lifetime best of 2:16.39 to win the open 800. Jones crossed the finish line first in the 200 and Hufana won the long jump. Abigail Krause and Paige Henderson won the shot put and discus, respectively.
Amanda Bennett was the other district champ. The W.F. West senior won the javelin and took second in the pole vault. Its top distance runner Ashlen Gruginski set another PR in the 3,200 at 11:35.76.
Centralia’s Desiray Crockett, Ava Jones and Elyse O’Dell nabbed two top-10 finishes apiece while Black Hills had all three relays place top-eight, as did Hailey Tinsley in the javelin.
