Yellow Pages
TACOMA — Chelsea Genther, Michelle Kennedy, Alicia Shapiro and Kinsey Davis finished a 400-meter relay run good enough to win a state title. They just didn’t know if they had won.
When the results of the photo finish came across, the Burlington-Edison girls had claimed their third straight state championship in the event at the Class 2A State Track and Field Championships.
“This is the best feeling ever,” Shapiro said. “It’s a perfect ending.”
Shapiro, Davis and Kennedy are all seniors. Shapiro was on of the other two state championship relays, as was Kennedy. Davis hadn’t run with either team. Genther has been the only constant on all three squads.
Running without Davis much of the year due to a torn hamstring, the Tigers competed without her. This weekend marked the first time she had run with the unit, which changed several positions in the lineup.
There wasn’t much room to spare. Cheney crossed the line in 49.66 seconds, one-hundredth of a second behind, and River Ridge was just three-hundredths back.
“I just didn’t know,” said Genther, who ran the final leg. “It was so close. I felt her creeping up.”
Genther added a pair of third-place finishes, in the 100 (12.43) and 300 hurdles (44.51). She had taken second in the 110 hurdles earlier in the meet.
The Tiger girls weren’t able to repeat as team champions, coming in third behind Northwest Conference rivals Blaine (56) and Sehome (51.5). Burlington-Edison had 45.5 points, helped by a sixth-place finish from Brienna Palmer (10 feet) in the pole vault and an eighth from Kennedy in the 200 (27.24), as well as a seventh in the 800 relay and a fourth in the 1,600 relay.
On the boys’ side, the Tigers cracked the top 10 with 28 points, tying for eighth.
Tyler Williams had a pair of third-place finishes, in the 800 (1:56.98) and 1,600 (4:24.85). The Tiger junior said running both on the same day was challenging.
“It was a lot harder than I thought it would be,” he said. “At a meet like this, four hours goes by pretty fast.”
Also finishing third was the Tigers’ 1,600 relay squad (3:26.86). Jeff Adams also took fifth in the 300 hurdles in a race that was run twice. He originally took sixth, but the race had to be redone because one hurdle in lane one had been set too high. Blaine’s Shayne Moore won both times.
Anacortes’ Thomas Kassa, who came in as the high seed in the 200, finished fifth in the event (22.2). He also anchored the Seahawks’ 400 relay team, which moved up from eighth in qualifying to take third along with Daniel Codd, Caranza Farrell and James No (43.76).
Stanwood’s Robert Hanke had the top finish among area boys, taking second in the 300 hurdles (38.57), finishing behind only champion Adam Scelesse of Kelso (38.46).
Also scoring points for the Spartans was freshman Kaci Jones, who took fifth in the javelin at 127-3, and Kale Schmidt, who was seventh in the long jump (22-41⁄2).
Tia Brogna picked up a pair of places for the Mount Vernon girls, taking fourth in the 400 (58.2) and eighth in the 200 (26.28).
The Sedro-Woolley boys had a pair of finalists Saturday, as Logan Johnson finished seventh in the 400 (50.57) and Cody Pohren was eighth in the 300 hurdles (41.26).
• Eric Francis can be reached at 360-416-2131 or by e-mail at
