While her La Conner Middle School eighth grade classmates were holding a car wash fundraiser on campus over the weekend, Faith Jenkins was cleaning up on the competition at state track and field trials in Yakima.
Jenkins clocked 12.42 seconds to take the 100-meter sprint final at the Washington State 2B girls’ track competition. She also placed second in the 200 meters (25.39) and ran legs of La Conner’s runner-up 4×100 and 4×200 relays, helping the Braves girls secure fourth place in the team standings.
“Faith is a fierce competitor,” said La Conner Head Coach Peter Voorhees. “She showed great maturity. She handled the pressure well.”
Jenkins set a school record with a 12.18-second prelim time in the 100 meters, just 0.08 seconds shy of the state meet record. She pulled away from the field at the 50-meter mark and never looked back.
In the 200 meters, she narrowly lost to Winlock’s Victoria Sancho by 0.03 seconds — after beating her in the 100.
“Faith was disappointed she didn’t win the 200,” Voorhees said, “but the great thing is that as an eighth grader she should have plenty more opportunities.”
Jenkins teamed up with freshman Kiana Jenkins, freshman Nora McCormick and junior Maeve McCormick to break school records in both sprint relays. The 4×100 squad ran 50.43 in prelims and 50.83 in finals, just behind Brewster’s 50.77. In the 4×200, they posted 1:46.37 to finish second to Freeman High.
Nora McCormick also placed sixth in the 100-meter hurdles (16.57), keeping La Conner in contention for a trophy. Assistant coach Linda Gudmundson calculated the Braves needed a third-place finish in the pole vault to clinch fourth place.
Maeve McCormick, vaulting for the first time this season, cleared 9-09 — a personal best — to earn third.
Only St. George’s, Freeman and Cle Elum-Roslyn finished ahead of La Conner. Junior Izzy Villard placed 16th in the discus (80-11).
On the boys’ side, junior Flint Huizenga set a personal best in shot put (42-3.5), placing 13th. He also finished ninth in javelin (153-02) and 14th in discus (124-08). Senior Alex Dowry was 12th in the javelin (142-06), also a personal best.
La Conner’s 4×100 boys’ relay team posted a season-best 44.91 after overcoming a fall and re-run delay.
With Jenkins’ win, La Conner has now been crowned a state track champion four years in a row.
“That’s pretty big,” Voorhees said, “because in track only the top four teams at State get trophies, and we wanted to bring home some hardware.”
Bill Reynolds: bill@laconnercommunitynews.org. Bill is a general assignment reporter who covers Town government, schools, and spot news.
