WASHINGTONIANS: what are your favorite memories of past state meets?

Allen Wood, grad of Tacoma '04..... AMAZING!!!!

I agree with Fuller, that was pretty amazing.

The other would be Jesse Fayant holding off Chris Lukezic in 2002 in the 3200. He led the whole damn thing and Lukezic put several moves on him over the last 800, but he always surged back and he held him off all the way to the line.

It's even more impressive now seeing where Lukezic has gotten himself.

Fayant owned Lukezic that year, in XC and track

Becca Noble splitting 52 on her anchor 4x4 leg to win state. She seriously made up about 100 meters on the leader. It was like throwing a Varsity Male 400M runner in the girls 4x4; and watching how much ground he could make up.

Okay, I'm older than everyone so far, but not that old.

1995, Skiy DeTray of Mead beats out teammate Micah Davis in a tight 1600 race. They both run 4:08, which, that year, put them in the top 5 nationally. Micah I think ran 4:07 earlier in the season or at a post-season meet. Then, the next day Micah beats Skiy in a photo finish in the 3200. They ran the number 1 and 2 times in the nation, 8:58 for each. There was someone in that race who ran 9:00 and I can't even remember his name.

Another favorite was JaWarren Hooker, running 10.3, 21.1 and 46.4 in 1997 on a wet track in crisp weather.

ME winning the state title in the Discus throw in 1985!!!!!! :0) Runner-up in Javelin

John Hedengren from Richland ran 9:00 in that race.

what made fuller so impressive was that he did it on his own track and when he crossed the line, the place went nuts.

I always got a thrill out of watching Anthony Buchanan.... it was fairly shocking when J.K. Haines handed him his ass in 1999

Carl Moe's solo 4:05 1600 was amazing

Anything with Brie Felnagle was fun to watch

Shrink wrote:

Okay, I'm older than everyone so far, but not that old.

1995, Skiy DeTray of Mead beats out teammate Micah Davis in a tight 1600 race. They both run 4:08, which, that year, put them in the top 5 nationally. Micah I think ran 4:07 earlier in the season or at a post-season meet. Then, the next day Micah beats Skiy in a photo finish in the 3200. They ran the number 1 and 2 times in the nation, 8:58 for each. There was someone in that race who ran 9:00 and I can't even remember his name.

I remember that. The year before (1994) Micah Davis & Detray were part of a 1-2-3 sweep in the 3200 with Rob Aubrey winning, and the day before Greg James won the 1600 with Aubrey second and Micah missing out on the sweep in 4th.

My buddy Chris Ledford slipped up to beat Micah, and for a second it looked like he could win it all as he followed James to pass Aubrey with 200 meters to go. The whole stadium gasped. Aubrey passed Chris back on the stretch and James held on to win.

James also placed 2nd in the 800.

I remember hearing that Aubrey and James tied for the state meet TEAM win with just their points.

If you looked at the track and field news rankings at the end of the year all 4 of those guys were ranked in about the top 14 in the country in at least one of those two events.

What was most impressive is that their best runner (2 time defending champ in both the 1600 & 3200) was watching it all, injured. That was quite a team, I'm not sure any team will beat that performance. A shame Matt Davis wasn't healthy and in it. At that time me and all of the west coasters hated Mead, but later I met them in college and they were good guys. I think Matt continued with his injury for most of college.

I am dating myself, but my favorite memory was Andy Maris (from White River) running a solo 9:10 (or thereabouts) in the 3200, and telling the Seattle Times that he could have broken 8:50 (or was it 8:40?) if he had been pushed. Good times.

paranoid android wrote:

Becca Noble splitting 52 on her anchor 4x4 leg to win state. She seriously made up about 100 meters on the leader. It was like throwing a Varsity Male 400M runner in the girls 4x4; and watching how much ground he could make up.

was that the time she chased down Felnagle and Amanda Miller?

Is it me, or has some of these distance races now lost some of their luster b/c of the move to Pasco? Not only with the new schedule they follow at the meet, but the time of day. There was nothing like some of those nice nights at Lincoln Bowl in the Spring watching these races.

With that being said, 7 guys under 4:15 in '02 was a good show

I've got to throw in two more favorites:

Isaac Hawkins in 1997. Jason Fayant ran some amazing times behing Isaac in the 1600 and 3200, but didn't really challenge him. Hawkins' times were 4:07 and 8:55, or was it 4:05 and 8:57. Anyway, smokin', made me forget that I was really tired as I had just run considerably slower in the AA races right before his.

The other was the 1996 AA 1600. There were a lot of guys in that field who had been under 4:20 or 4:15 already. Kel Giffin was the early season national leader with a 4:12 in what was probably about his first race of the year. Giffin was assigned row 2 of lane one (behind, not next to, row 1). At the start, instead of trying to run through the guys in front of him he ran out to the right, around the field, and back to the left to get into the front. In the end, I think it was an incredible waste of energy, but interesting to watch and you have to hand it to him for trying something different. The whole race was full of interesting tactics and lots of lead changes. It ended with a tight pack coming through at 3:10 for 1200 with Matt Pearson outkicking everyone for a 4:10.

Mickelson of Newport (1995) losing the 1600m to those Mead guys (he ran 4:10 at Arcadia that year), coming back to defend his title in the 800m over two very good Eisenhower runners - Chris Schafer and I forget the other guy's name.

what might be better memories are some of the gsl-big 9 regional meets that often only qualified 3 or 4 to state. check out jcrawford.net to see some of the times. i remember guys running 4:15 and 9:11 and NOT MAKING IT TO STATE if the year was particularly deep. one memory from the 1600 in 2000, also the year fuller won the 3200, was the 3 week sequence of gsl districts, regionals, and state. kiter won districts (went on to run 8:55 and make FLXC and 25min in college), max schmidt won regionals (qualified for the indoor mile and ran 3:44), and cam schwehr won state as a sophomore (went on to run 3:45). that 3 different guys won these qualifying races and went on to have pretty successful careers is pretty interesting.

Chris Martin and Sean Knapp in 1999......

Moe's 4:05 was incredible, that was the loudest I've heard a crowd that I can ever remember. My memory may be failing me, but wasn't he almost on pace for sub-4 through 1200? I was a freshman that year and was just in awe of even being at state, so my memory might be embellishing it a bit.

Enjoyed watching O'Reilley make sub-11 runners look like JV runner, and watching Becca Noble was always exciting, especially that 4x4 already mentioned. Barbosa and Bergman were fun to watch too. None of these really compare to that 4:05 though, that was what really got me fired up about running.