The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON - Dayton High School's Kaitlyn Andrews won the girls' 100 meter dash, shot put and javelin events at the year's first track and field meet on March 16. The meet at Hanford High School in Richland, featured teams from Dayton, WP, River View, Sunnyside, Prosser and Hanford High Schools.

WP's Owen Lanning won the boys' 300 meter hurdles finals and was sec­ond in the triple jump.

Andrews, a junior, domi­nated in the javelin with a winning throw of 119 feet, six inches. Her closest com­petitor had a best throw of 92 feet. Athletic.net lists her winning throw as the second longest in the state among 2B athletes so far this year. Last year, Andrews finished fifth in javelin at the state 2B track and field champion­ships.

Andrews' winning shot put was 29 feet, 6 ½ inches. She took the 100 meter dash with a time of 13.5 second. She also finished fifth in the long jump, with a best leap of 14 feet, ½ inch.

Dayton coach Dan Nechodom said his team didn't set high expecta­tions for this meet, since it was windy and many athletes were at their first meet. "Kaitlyn was focused on the javelin and 100m, working on tightening form and technique," he said.

Lanning's winning time in the 300 hurdles was 44.9 seconds. He also competed in the 110 meter hurdles, finishing fourth, with a time of 17.6 seconds. Lanning, a junior, had a triple jump of 40 feet, 6.25 inches - one- quarter inch behind the win­ning jump.

"Owen did have a very good time in the 300h," WP coach Jeff Bartlow said. "His time in the 110h was a disappointment to him, but he came back and competed and did very well in his other events. His Triple jump was 40 feet and that is outstanding."

WP's Kobie Brown, a sophomore, cleared five feet, eight inches in the high jump, taking second place, but matching the winning jump. Brown also competed in the 100-meter dash, fin­ishing

13th. "Kobie Brown stood out in the sprints and lead our team," Bartlow said. "He also high jumped well."

E.J. Meserve, WP's dis­tance specialist, took second in the 3,200 meter run, with a time of 11:52:01, less than a second behind the winner. Meserve also finished sev­enth in the 1,600 meter run with a time of 5:30:14.

"I was proud of E.J. and the preparation he has put into this team and into his winter training," said Bart­low. "He came in prepared and in shape, and it will pay dividends now that the sea­son has started."

For the WP girls' side, freshman Emily Adams had a strong performance in the 400 meter run, finish­ing fifth, with a time of 1:09.3. Adams also finished seventh in the 100 me­ter dash, at 14.5.

Bartlow said he was also pleased with the perfor­mances of Blanca Quiroz in the 200 meter dash (35.4 seconds), Beka Adams in the discus at 73'8", and Selina Benito, who took fourth in the Javelin at 74'8".

Bartlow also pointed out the windy weather. "It was really howling and never let up; from the beginning to the end, it was very poor condi­tions," he said. "All the times and jump were affected by the weather."

For Dayton's boys' side, Nechodom said he was par­ticularly proud of Levi Laib. "Having raced the 800 me­ters all last year, he made a respectable first effort in the mile," he said. "He knew he wanted to get a baseline feel for racing the mile, know­ing from cross country that racing is way different than practicing."

Both Dayton and WP track and field teams were set to compete in the first 2B District 9 meet in Clarkston on Wednesday.