Kasen Williams leads Spartans to win at track invitational
April 20, 2010
Kasen Williams won two events April 17 as he led the Skyline High School boys track and field team to first place in the Eason Invitational at Snohomish.
Skyline finished with 54 points to beat out Federal Way for the top spot. Federal Way had 46 points. Issaquah finished 17th with 18 points and Liberty was 18th with 16 points.
Williams won the high jump, soaring 6 feet, 8 inches. He captured the triple jump, going 47-8. Williams also placed second in the long jump, going 22-1, and ran as a member of the Spartans’ 1,600 relay team that finished second in 3:23.10. Alex Lee, Dustin Bratten and Drew Matthews were other members of the relay team.
The Spartans had some other top efforts, too. Bratten finished third in the 100 and fourth in the 200. Matthews was fifth in the 400 and Kyle Branch was sixth in the 3,200.
Liberty, Issaquah track teams run to victory
April 16, 2010
NEW — 12:05 p.m. April 16, 2010
The boys and girls track teams for Liberty and Issaquah high schools won their KingCo Conference meets Thursday.
Joshua Gordon had three first places as he led the Liberty boys past Interlake 91-55. Gordon won the 200 meters in 23.7 seconds, went 6-feet to win the high jump, and leaped 20 feet, 6 1/4 inches to take the long jump.
Peter Stacy, Devin Bennett and Troy Solly each won two events for Liberty. Stacy captured the javelin and the discus. Bennett won the 400 and the triple jump. Solly won the 110 hurdles and the 300 hurdles.
Track Roundup
April 13, 2010
It was a big week for the Liberty High School track program. First, the boys and girls teams each placed first in a KingCo Conference three-team meet April 8 at Lake Washington. Then, both the boys and girls teams finished first April 10 in the Liberty Invitational.
In the boys KingCo meet, Liberty took the top spot with 94.5 points. Eastlake was second with 62.5 and Lake Washington was third with 24.
Peter Stacy and Joshua Gordon each had three first places for the Patriots. Stacy swept the throwing events. He won the shot put with a throw of 44 feet, 5.5 inches. He was first in the discus with a throw of 139-7 and tops in the javelin with a throw of 171-5.
Gordon won the 100 in 11.3. He took the high jump by going 6 feet and the long jump by going 20-11.75.
Eric Bice, of Liberty, won the 800 in 2:00.4 and the 1,600 in 4:42.7.
Bice was selected as the male athlete of the meet in the Liberty Invitational. He won the 1,600 in 4:34.2 and the 800 in 2:01.8. He also anchored the Patriots’ 1,600 relay, which finished first in 3:32.7. Bennett, Gordon and Troy Solly were other members of the relay.
Bennett won the long jump, going 20-11/4. Stacy captured the javelin with a throw of 172-8 and Gordon took first in the high jump at 5-10. Read more
Eagles win track opener over Mount Si
March 30, 2010
Isaac Robinson (left), Dennis Leigh, Jon Wallis and Turner Wiley race together throughout much of the 1600-meter race March 25 during Issaquah’s track and field meet against Mount Si. They finished 1-4 in that order. — By Greg Farrar
The Issaquah High School boys cross country team was a power last fall, when it won league and district titles en route to a third-place finish at the state meet.
Track season ripe with high hopes
March 23, 2010
Track preview
Haley Jacobson, of Issaquah, anchors the 4x200 relay team to take third place at the state 4A track and field championships in 2009. By Greg Farrar
Troy Solly, a Liberty High School senior, towers over his opponent at nearly 6-feet, 5-inches tall, and he uses his long legs to race down the track.
Solly, who also played lineman and linebacker on the football team and power forward and center on the basketball team, is now in his fourth year on the Liberty track team.
“Originally, I just came out because I didn’t play baseball,” he said.
Last year, he ran in the 400-meter sprint, 4×400-meter relay, 110-meter hurdles and 300-meter hurdles. He recorded the team’s best time of the season in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 41.35 seconds at the KingCo Conference Championships.
He also posted personal bests of 54.34 seconds in the 400-meter run and 17.04 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles.
This year, he looks to participate in the same races and possibly the javelin throw or the triple jump.
He said he loves track because he gets to battle the clock and push himself as hard as he can. Read more
Patriots’ track coach leads by example
June 30, 2009
Michael Smith (right) starts his watch and heads out with other runners June 13 on the 7.6-mile Cougar Mountain Trail series race. By Greg Farrar
A little more than 30 years ago, Michael Smith loaded his running shoes and his other earthly belongings into a pint-sized Honda 600 car and moved to Seattle from his San Francisco Bay-area home.
He never moved back to the city by the bay and the two-cylinder, 36-horsepower micro car bit the dust decades ago.
In the past three decades, Smith has made quite a name for himself in the local running community after winning several Cougar Mountain Trail series and other races. Smith, who coaches the Liberty High School track and cross country teams, can hold his own with runners half his age.
Fresh out of high school, a friend suggested Smith enroll at Highline Community College.
“He said, ‘It’s really green up here and you really have to come here,” Smith said. Read more
