Alejandre and Schilling place at state

Two senior Raiders ended their high school track and field careers last week by placing in their events at the state track meet in Cheney.

At the WIAA State Track Meet in Cheney, LR was represented by Senior throwers Katelynn Schilling and Octavio Alejandre.

"The competition was very tough, and they brought home hardware!" Raider Head Coach Lori Adkins said.

In the meet at Eastern Washington University Friday, Alejandre competed in the shot put against the best field in years for State B. He switched his form from rotational to glide in the finals to throw his best of 48 feet, 2 inches. That earned him fifth place.

Schilling competed in discus later the same afternoon. She threw 95 feet, 2 inches on her second throw of preliminaries to advance to finals. There, she was unable to improve on that throw and came away with ninth place.

On Saturday, Alejandre and Schilling switched events. Schilling heaved the shot 33 feet, 2 inches in prelims to qualify for finals. At first there was a mixup on who was moving on and in what order. Schilling was confirmed as being in the finals field, but needed a bigger throw to ensure a placing finish. On her last throw of finals, Schilling secured seventh place with a toss of 33 feet, 11 inches.

In the discus, Alejandre was not able to find his groove and finished 14th overall with a throw of 113 feet, 10 inches.

"We are very proud of our senior Track & Field athletes," Adkins said. "Katelynn and Octavio performed well at the State Track & Field Championships, and that symbolizes much hard work and dedication over the years."

Almira/Coulee-Hartline came home with second place overall for the 1B girls. Katie Emerson is the 1B State Champion for the 100- and 300-hurdles, along with the 800. Emerson and Berlyn Hunt both competed in the javelin, where Emerson placed third with a throw of 107 feet, 1 inch. Hunt came in 10th at 91 feet, 6 inches.

Hunt placed fifth in the 100-meter dash with a time of 13.81 seconds, fourth in the triple jump at 32 feet, 5.25 inches, and second in the long jump at 16 feet, 8.25 inches.

"We would also like to thank our families and the students and staff that were able to attend the meet, their support means so much," said Adkins, who also coached Emerson and Hunt.