Small Town News

Youth may be served when it comes to Cheney girls track success

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Cheney girls' track head coach Tom Stralser is used to reloading each season, rather than rebuilding the program. This year is no different, except that the Blackhawks' firepower is younger than ever before.

Whereas last year's Cheney team that captured a second consecutive Great Northern League and District 7 title was pretty senior laden, this year's team getting ready to defend the crown has just three members of the class of 2011 - Sydney Brock, Jewell Palmer and Savannah Phelan. All three will provide scoring on the track, mainly in the distance events.

Where the Blackhawks' firepower lies is in a talented group of juniors and sophomores. Leading this pack is sophomore Sanne Holland, whose competitiveness and cross-country experience have already landed her three first places finishes in as many races. Teaming with her will be juniors Amie Zachman and Kali Klotz-Brooks and freshman Mariah Brenton, making Cheney a pretty tough cookie in the distance races.

Sophomore Janessa Day came on last year in the sprints and along with freshman Chae Brown should provide a high-scoring punch in the shorter races. Junior Alexa Shaw, returning after having missed all of spring 2010 due to an ACL injury suffered in soccer, will also factor in here as well as possibly the hurdles.

The hurdles and sprints is where the Blackhawks lost a lot from last season, but also hope to see new talent this year. Leading the way is Joanna Sherman, who Stralser said has already dropped time in her two early season hurdle races.

In the field events Kinsey Pease, Kendall Case and Amanda Ward are looking pretty good in the javelin while Chaz Diomede, Brown and Brenna Foucault should score high in the horizontal jumps. Michala Youmans will be a factor in the vaults, along with Erin Clark, and on relays. Stralser hopes his team gets even stronger, especially in the sprints, short distances and relays when Katie Haslebacher and Briana Estrellado make it back from offseason injuries.

"We're young, you know," he said. "I think we can be a decent big meet team. In the GNLI think we'll be competitive, competitive in vying for another championship."

So far the Blackhawks have been a work in progress. Cheney placed eighth at the 13-team West Valley Invitational two Saturday's ago and endured wet, slippery conditions to finish seventh last Saturday at the 12-team Ram Relays in Yakima.

Holland led the Blackhawks on the field, winning the 3,200-meter run in 11 minutes, 22.78 seconds with Brock in ninth in 13:00.49. Zachman was seventh in the 1,600 in 5:47.26, with Klotz-Brooks 10th in 5:55.34 and Brenton 14th. Sherman was 12th in the 300 hurdles.

The 4x400 relay team of Brown, Kelsey Filmore, Day and Pease took second with a time of 4:19.85. The 4x200 team of Day, Youmans, Pease and Shaw was fourth in 1:58.59 while the 4x100 team of Diamede, Shaw, Courtney Schwendiman and Youmans was sixth in 55.92.

In the field Pease captured the javelin with a toss of 103-2, with Ward eighth at 85-00 and Ashia Mundt 13th. Brown took first in the triple jump with a leap of 32-10, with Schwendiman seventh at 29-07 and Diamede 15th.

Schwendiman was 10th in the discus at 68-01. Sammy Young finished in a five-way tie for ninth in the high jump at 4-04, with Haley Pontier 15th, Clark was in a three-way tie for ninth in the pole vault at 7-00 and Diamede finished tied with Mount Spokane's Jasmine Bethely for 10th in the long jump at 14-02.

Cheney is off for the next two weeks, partly because of spring break, and resumes competition April 14 in their first league meet at West Valley with the Eagles and GNL newcomer East Valley.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.



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© 2011 Cheney Free Press Cheney, Washington. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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