SHELTON — Several North Olympic Peninsula track and field athletes had personal bests and set some of the top times in the state at a very fast 62nd annual Shelton Invitational this weekend.
Thirty-six boys teams and 39 girls teams competed in the event, including a number of 3A and 4A schools. The Sequim girls finished 12th out of 36 teams with 22 points, while East Jefferson was 20th and Port Angeles 34th. Among the boys, the Port Angeles boys were 17th with 11 points, while East Jefferson was tied for 24th with six points and Sequim was 28th with five points.
Numerous competitors picked up top-five finishes with athletes from bigger schools winning most of the events.
There was one local winner, Colby Ellefson of Sequim, who came in first place in the freshman/sophomore mile with a time of 4 minutes, 49.07 seconds. East Jefferson’s Soare Johnston was fifth in the same race with a time of 4:52.26. Both times were personal records.
Ellefson also won the freshman/sophomore 1,600-meter race in a time of 4:47.39.
Sequim’s Riley Pyeatt set another personal record in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:14.29, finishing a close second to 4A Olympia’s Katelyn Rigg, who won at 2:13.67. Pyeatt’s 800 time is No. 1 in the entire state among 2A girls.
The Sequim 4×400 girls relay team also finished second with a time of 4:09.59. The quartet of Eve Mavy, Kaitlyn Bloomenrader, Emily Carlier and anchor Pyeatt set the No. 1 time in the state among 2A girls Saturday.
Jack Gladfelter set a personal record in the 3,200-meter run at 9:28.85, good for third place. That is the fourth-best 2A 3,200 time in the state. Gladfelter also came in fourth in the junior/senior mile in 4:23.49.
Aliyah Yearian of East Jefferson was third in the girls 3,200 in a personal-record time of 11:22.72, good for the No. 2 time in the state among 1A girls.
Sequim’s Bloomenrader was fourth in the girls mile at 5:37.89 and her teammate Adrian Brown was fifth in the 300 hurdles at 41.77, a personal record and good for seventh in the state among 2A boys. Brown was also eighth in the 100 hurdles at 16.39.
Port Angeles’ Jason Hawes was sixth in the freshman/sophomore 100-meter run at 12.28.
In field events, Sequim’s Jolene Vaara was third in the girls high jump at 5 feet even and East Jefferson’s Tusker Behrenfeld was fourth in the javelin at 160-0. Behrenfeld was also 10th in the discus at 121-2.
East Jefferson’s Ellise Gardner was eighth in the girls javelin at 96-5 and her teammate Lia Poore was eighth in the triple jump at 33-0½.
