Kamiakin girls 4-peat at state track and field

Kamiakin High School is going to have to build a bigger trophy case.

The Braves, behind four gold medals from junior Heather Donais, cruised to their fourth consecutive 3A girls state team title Saturday at Mt. Tahoma High School.

Kamiakin rolled up 92 points to beat second-place Holy Names Academy (71 points) for the third year in a row.

“Everyone was talking that we lost Ellie (Heiden) and Megan Beauchene, but they forget we had others who were here too,” Kamiakin coach Cheryl Schauble said. “They were placing second and third behind them. The girls have the mindset that this is what they are training for. They haven’t lost a dual, district, regional or state meet in four years. That is crazy.

“Track people know how hard it is to get here. These kids are amazing.”

Kamiakin, which had an 11-point lead over Kelso and Holy Names after Friday’s action, opened Saturday morning with a victory in the 4x200-meter relay, turning in a time of 1 minute, 41.20 seconds.

Mirannda Shulman came out of the blocks and was the first to hand off to Sami Raines. Raines and Lindsey Schauble had a clean handoff, and when Schauble handed off to Donais, they had the lead over Mercer Island — albeit a small one

“I saw her — I saw her shadow coming,” Donais said. “My soccer instincts kicked in.”

“It was a great way to start the day,” Shulman said.

Raines, who took a break from the pole vault to run, said she was nervous about how well she would run.

“I think warming up in the pole vault calmed me down,” said Raines, who finished fourth in the pole vault at 12-3.

Coach Schauble was impressed with Raines’ performance.

“That was stressful for her,” Schauble said. “She pulled it together.”

The Braves continued to dominate on the track with Donais and Lindsey Schauble going 1-2 in the 300 hurdles.

Donais held off Schauble, crossing the finish line in 43.94. Schauble clocked a 44.16.

“I saw her and said, ‘ No!’ ” Donais said. “I love her, but ...”

Donais then turned to Shcauble and said, “I’m glad it was you there.”

“Our whole team is like a family,” Schauble said. “We get along so well. The only thing we fight over is gold medals — that’s a good problem.”

After Raines finished the pole vault, she was back on the track for the 4x100 relay with Shulman, Lexi McQueary and Donais. The Braves had a score to settle with Southridge, which handed them their only loss last weekend at regionals.

Running neck-and-neck the whole way, Raines pulled away from Marissa Berry down the stretch as the Braves won in 48.57. The Suns clocked a 48.79 for second.

For Donais, it was her fourth gold medal of the weekend.

“Four golds, that’s crazy,” Donais said. “This is the best weekend ever. My first gold (110 hurdles) was the best, and that still hasn’t sunk in yet.”

Kamiakin picked up an additional three points in the 100 meters, where Raines placed sixth.

The Braves rounded out the meet with sisters Andrea and Allison Stapleton going 3-4 in the triple jump. Andrea was third with a leap of 38-2, while Allison’s best jump was 37-10.

“I am so happy,” Andrea said. “This morning we had no idea how we would do. We had an 11-point lead. We all had to come here and do our best today.”

Richland’s Lindsey Bradley, who had a disappointing third-place finish in the 1,600 on Thursday, destroyed the field in the 3,200 in a time of 10:30.66 for her first state track and field gold medal.

“I was so determined,” Bradley said. “This is unreal. I had some redemption to do. I’m super excited. It’s a nice way to end my high school career.”

Bradley ran with the lead pack the entire race, then started to pull away during the final lap. With 100 meters to go, Bradley turned on the jets and beat Brenna Peloquin of Gig Harbor by 2 ½ seconds.

“Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect,” Bradley said. “I knew Brenna would be there to the end. I’m glad I had a kick left to take it.”

The Richland’s girls 4x400 relay team finished fourth in a school-record time of 3:54.95, taking nearly 4 seconds off their prelim time.

“We were going for that school record,” said anchor runner Dani Castillo. “I have wanted it for three years. We are so happy. This is a dream come true.”

The Richland and Walla Walla girls tied for 13th in the team standings with 21 points.

Pasco’s Christian Young, who was in the finals of four events Saturday, started out with a second-place finish in the 100 meters with a below-average time of 10.96.

“It was slow; we all were,” said Young, who is headed to University of Washington in the fall.

Young, who said he got about 5 hours of sleep because he was nervous for the day, had the anchor leg on the 4x100 relay — his second event of the day.

The Bulldogs had the lead when Eric Orange handed off to Ryan Best, and Best had a step on the competition as he approached Young. But before he could make the handoff, Best fell and Pasco was disqualified.

“I don’t know what happened,” Best said.

Young drew from the strength of his 6-foot-2, 205-pound frame to hold off the competition in the 200 meters. He finished second to Phillip Moore of Eastmont with a time of 22.08, while Chiawana’s Dre Dorton was third in 22.16.

“We push each other,” said Young, who earned all 20 of Pasco’s points. “We have been doing this for seven years.”

“I did better than last year. I’m happy,” said Dorton, who also was fourth in the 100 meters (11.03). “The times were slower than we wanted. It was a slow weekend.”

Young also placed fifth in the 400 (49.39), fading the last 20 meters. Walla Walla’s Ethan Gardner was third in 49.15.

“I wanted to do better in the 400,” Young said. “That was garbage. Every year at state, I get killed in the 400, but this was better than last year (he was 8th). The 400 field was stacked, but I expected that with it being state.”

The Richland boys got a second-place finish from Taylor O’Toole in the 4A javelin with a toss of 189-1. Walla Walla’s Andrew Granchuckoff was fifth with a throw of 180-6.

In the 3A boys 300 hurdles, Hanford’s Austin Davis ran to a third-place finish in 39.47, with Southridge’s Brian Yale sixth in 40.28.

“I’m extremely excited,” Davis said of placing in his first state meet. “I knew 2-3-4 were close, I was just trying to stay with them.”

In the 3A boys 100 meters, Hanford’s Joe Gauthier was fifth (11.17), and he also ran a leg on the 4x100 relay team that was sixth (43.47). The Falcons, who finished 20th with 14 points, also got an eighth-place finish in the high jump from Daniel Pfaff, who cleared 6-2.

The Hanford girls got a sixth-place finish from Kara Shibley in the 3A shop put with a heave of 37-4.

Maddy Sirmon won a gold medal for Walla Walla in the 4A girls javelin with a throw of 143-0, while teammate Madi Doepker was fourth at 126-3.

The Prosser boys had Scott Blakney pick up a sixth-place finish in the discus (145 feet), while Logan Hatfield was seventh in the triple jump with a leap of 43-4 ¾.

For Grandview, Steven Razo was fifth in the 300 hurdles (39.64), while Gunner Chronis was seventh in the high jump at 6-2.

This story was originally published May 30, 2015 at 6:41 PM with the headline "Kamiakin girls 4-peat at state track and field."