Hofstee wins 1,600, 3,200 titles in span of one hour
SPOKANE - A runner-up finish at the 2A state cross country meet this last fall was a good indication of where East Valley's (Spokane) Logan Hofstee stood amongst the state's top distance runners.
This past Saturday, Hofstee continued to make her name present, coming away with two wins at the Howard Dolphin Invite at West Valley High School in Spokane.
The sophomore phenom kicked off the day winning the girl's 3,200 in a new personal best time of 11 minutes, 6.66 seconds winning by 38 seconds over second place opponent. An hour later, she returned to the track to win the 1,600, also in a personal best time of 5:10.30. Both marks currently rank top three in 2A as of now.
“I did not expect coming in to run 11:06 and I didn’t know what the mile was going to look like after,” Hofstee said.
“Coming into the two mile, I felt fresh and felt good. My goal was just to hang on for as long as possible. Then in the mile I felt alright and the last two laps kicked my butt a little bit.”
Hofstee then completed the day running on the Knights' 4x400 relay team that took fifth overall running 4:35.05.
The Mead boys and girls came away with five wins between four athletes. Sprinter Therisa Niven led the way with two wins in the 100 and 200, running 12.80 and 26.71. Niven edged out Ridgeline's Preslie Young in the 100, and then outkicked Rogers' Ellabelle Taylor in the 200, who was also third in the 100.
“Honestly I just wanted to cross that finish line and get it done,” Niven said laughing. “My times were a little slow, but this is just the beginning and I think it was all good.”
Niven's teammate Teryn Gardner debuted in the 800, running a tactical race crossing the finish line in 2:22.28. Gardner sat on St. George's Maggie McLaughlin 500 meters into the race before making a surge on the back stretch to take full control of the race to the end.
Mead's Charlotte Cullen and Olivia Ferraro placed second and third behind Gardner, running 2:24.34 and 2:26.07.
Keenan Kuntz kicked things off for the Mead boys winning the 100 in his return to West Valley High School for the first time since transferring up north a couple of months ago.
Out of the blocks, Kuntz was well out front and on his way to run another sub 11 performance. Right at the finish line, Kuntz grabbed his hamstring in pain but was able to run 11.01 for the win. He would sit out the remainder of the meet.
Mead's Brycen Gardner won one of the most interesting races of the day in boy's 1,600. What started off as a slow race for the first two laps then turned into a kickers race in the end with Gardner closing the race in 63 seconds on the last 400 and clocking an official time time of 4:38.55 to edge out Chewelah's Zeke Crockett.
"I didn't know what to do," said Gardner. "It was just a weird race, and the splits were not right. It's whatever though since it's the first race of the year. It just feels good to be back."
Lakeside (NMF) twins Colby and Jacob Splichal each came away with wins in their respective races. Jacob hopped on the track first to win the boy's 300 hurdles in a personal best 42.63, and then it was Colby's turn in the 800 where he ran 2:01.57.
Rogers' (Spokane) Anthony Dearfield beat Mead's Colby Danielson at the line in the boy's 200 running 23.26. North Central's Jonah Aden won the boy's 3,200 running a personal best 9:50.24.
Moscow came up with four wins of its own, three of which came in hurdle races. Zachary Skinner won the boy's 110 hurdles in a personal best 15.73, and Hannah Marcoe swept both the girl's 110 and 300 hurdles, running 17.53 and 48.79. Megan Poler won the girls 400 in 60.96.
Washington's top finisher in the boys 110's was John Talarico of Mead running a personal best 16.45. On the girl's side, it was East Valley's Makenzey Gillespie in the 110s (2nd, 17.78), Clarkston's Alyssa Whittle in the 300s (2nd, 52.38), and Clarkston's Avah Griner in the 400 (2nd, 63.24).
University's Larry Trefry won the boy's 400 in a personal best 53.30.
Valley Christian's Lauren Fields won both the wheelchair 100 and 400 races in 22.70 and 1:18.52, and then Elizabeth Floch won the wheelchair 800 and 1,600 races in 2:21.58 and 4:38.23.
For more results from the Howard Dolphin Invite, click here.
For more photos from the invite, click here.
Comments