The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

MOSCOW - The WP Cardinal track and field team faced some tough competition last Friday and despite missing some key athletes who were competing at the Pasco Track Invite, still came out second overall for the men's team. The women's team placed tenth.

WP traveled all the way to Bear Field in Moscow for the Moscow Twilight meet. WP faced Moscow, Grangeville, Lewiston, Logos, Pullman, Kamiah, Colfax, Potlatch, Highland C and Gar Pal/Colton.

Head coach Jeff Bartlow said the weather was great on Friday and he was proud of his team.

Standout thrower Eshom Estes did not compete on Friday for the Cardinals, but WP's James Thompkins and Billy Brown racked up the points in the sprint and hurdle races to bring WP to a respectable second-place finish.

Thompkins, as reliable as ever, placed first in the 100-meter race, 200-meter race and 400-meter race. He earned a personal best in the open 400-meter race with a time of 51.53.

Brown held his own in the hurdles with second place in the 110-meter hurdles and second in the 300- meter hurdles. He had a personal best in the 300-meter hurdles. Brown was also a big part of the WP relay team that took second in the 4x100-meter relay, along with teammates Alex Dill, Logan Wanous and Logan Dozier.

In the 4x400- meter relay, Brown and Dill, Wanous and Roy Ebong placed fifth.

Dill also placed sixth in the 100-meter race, followed by Dozier in eighth place.

Ebong also took seventh in the 800-meter race.

Despite Estes not competing, WP's Ben Shafer added some points to the Cardinal men's team.

Shafer took second in the shot put and sixth in discus.

Brendan Donovan placed second in high jump, and ninth in shot put. Owen Lanning is keeping up with the jumpers. He placed second in the long jump and sixth in the triple jump, which was a personal best for him in the latter.

For the women's team, WP last Friday was lacking veterans Kristin Potter and Ronnie Hulce, who always earned points for their team. The pair was at a basketball tournament.

WP's Emily Skay had a good day in Moscow. She placed seventh in the 400-meter race, 15th in the 200-meter race, 26th in the long jump and was part of the 4x100 relay team that took eighth.

Stacia Deal, Blanca Quiroz and Yesenia Escalante were also on that relay team.

Hannah Helms took seventh in the shot put and had a personal record of 28.5 feet, and she placed 12th in the 100-meter hurdles.

Maddy Witt had a personal record in the long jump, 13-feet, 7-inches.

"Overall it was an outstanding meet and the kids had a lot of fun," Bartlow said.