Sunday, May. 31, 2009

Ki-Be's Leavitt, Lotze win state track titles

By Bruce Blizard, Special to the Herald

CHENEY -- Whitney Leavitt is a young woman with a strong sense of responsibility.

So when she won the 100- and 200-meter championships at the state 2A meet as an aggressively precocious ninth grader back in 2006, she did not necessarily set her sights on winning the same two events at every state meet during her high school career.

She simply thought it was something she should do.

"You never get used to winning at state," the Kiona-Benton senior said after completing her fourth-straight double win at the state meet with a characteristically dominating performance in the 200 and an uncharacteristically ragged race in the 100. "It's just that I felt obligated to do it. This was something I needed to do."

Leavitt became just the second athlete in the history of Washington state track and field to win the 100 and 200 in four state meets. Appropriately, she capped her stellar career on the same track where it began, Woodward Field at Eastern Washington University.

Leavitt's double win nearly overshadowed state titles won by two other mid-Columbia athletes at the 1A-2B-1B state championships that concluded here Saturday.

Her Ki-Be teammate, Katherine Lotze, finally got the championships that eluded her last year with wins in the 100-meter hurdles and the triple jump, which were every bit as dominating as Leavitt's.

And Waitsburg-Prescott's James Lehr added a 2B discus title to the shot championship he won Friday, once again besting Willapa Valley's Will Rocket, the state 2B leader in the event.

Lotze took control of the 1A hurdle field by the fourth hurdle and powered away to win by more than a half-second over Connell's Brianna Casper, who charged through the field over the last three hurdles to place second.

Lotze had already put the triple jump out of reach, extending her Ki-Be School record to 36-11 -- on her first jump. She reached 37-1 in the fifth round to win by nearly two feet.

"This year I just didn't worry," Lotze said after the hurdles. "I told my self all year 'You can do it.' This was my day, my race."

What makes Casper's performance so remarkable is that she was the only hurdler in the field who took four steps between hurdles. It is generally unheard of for hurdlers at the state level to succeed taking four steps.

"I know I don't have that advantage," Casper said. "I knew Katherine was probably going to win, but, of course, I wanted to get her."

Just as in the shot put Friday, Lehr entered the 1B discus competition a huge underdog to Rocket. And, just as in the shot, Lehr came up big, this time with a 162-8 throw to best Rocket by more than 11 feet.

"There always someone to push you," Lehr said of Rocket. "I knew I had a shot. Anything's possible at the state meet."

Royal's Blair Collins missed defending his 1A long jump title, despite a personal best of 22-4. Al Lang of Seattle Christian was one-quarter inch better. Collins also finished second in the 100 meters for the second straight year. Morgan Baker of Waitsberg-Prescott placed second in the 2B boys 300-meter hurdles.

Lind-Ritzville's Jordan Bilodeaux placed third in the 1B 100-meter hurdles (16.23), and Waitsberg-Prescott's Wyatt Withers placed third in the 1B long jump (20-11).

In the 1A 100, Leavitt overcame a head wind that approached 6 mph, a shaky start, and a determined challenge by Stevenson's Amanda Stump to win in 13.05, her slowest time in more than two years.

Stump was second just four-tenths of a second back.

The 200 was a different story. Leavitt powered to a 5-meter lead over Stump on the first 100 then extended her advantage to win in 25.49, this time into a friendlier headwind.

"I knew Stump would be tough," she said. "But I also knew that if I concentrate on myself, I would win it."

Despite the 40 individual points scored by Leavitt and Lotze, Ki-Be just missed securing its second straight state meet trophy. The Bears finished in fifth, just one-half point behind Kings.

The Waitsberg-Prescott boys finished third in the 1B team standings with 51 points.

Lind Ritzville missed winning a trophy by two points, pacing fifth with 33 points.

In addition to their state titles, Leavitt and Lotze ran legs on the Bears 4x200-meter relay, which paced fourth (1:48.0).

The Bears' Jose Marcial moved up one spot from last year to place fifth in the 3,200 in 9:57.66.

Royal sophomore Ethan Tonnemaker was eight in the same race (10:09.25).