Wahluke's Rafa Mendoza qualifies for state track four times
Wahluke's Rafa Mendoza skims over the barriers to take first place in the 300-meter hurdles at the South Central A Conference East sub-district track meet at Wahluke High School last Thursday. As expected, his stiffest challenge came from Laddie Goroski in second place.
MATTAWA - Wahluke High School's Rafa Mendoza won three events and placed second in another at the South Central A Conference District Track Meet last weekend to advance in all four to the state meet at Cheney this weekend.
Mendoza will be joined by several Wahluke and Royal athletes at the Eastern Washington University Track. Action will get under way at 10 a.m. Friday and Saturday.
District was good to Royal and Wahluke. The Warrior boys scored 67 points for fourth place while the Royal boys had 33 in ninth place. The Wahluke girls totaled 54 in sixth place while Royal's girls had 47.5 in seventh.
Wahluke's Katelyn Peterson nearly matched Mendoza's performance. She made it to state in three events and missed in another by just one place.
Mendoza was dominant two of his victories. He ran away from Kiona-Benton's Gage Leavitt, 15.35 seconds to 15.76 in the 110 hurdles. He blew past Royal's Laddie Goroski, 39.85-41.38 in the 300 hurdles.
Things were tighter in the triple jump. Mendoza's effort of 41-7 was only inches better than the 41-4 leap of Isaac Messenger of Goldendale. In the long jump, Mendoza was edged, 20-6.5 to 20-4 by Jacob Oswalt of Granger.
Peterson ran away from the field in the 400 meters. She clocked 1:02.61 to 1:04.50 for Tiffany Kelley of Zillah.
Peterson was first in the long jump with and effort of 17-7. She got past the 16-0 effort of Tonya Iverson of Royal. She was also first in the triple jump at 33-11, more than a foot beyond Regine Standley of LaSalle.
Peterson just missed state in the 200 meters when she finished fourth. Only the top three girls in each event advanced to state while the top four boys made it.
Besides Goroski and Iverson, others to advance for Royal were:
- Michael Valentine, fourth in the pole vault at 10-6.
- Cynthia Cid, third in the 800 at 2:25.24.
- Breanne Diaz, second in the 1600 at 6:07.60.
- Mariana Alvarez, third in the pole vault at 7-0.
- Brian Edeza, Freddy Ramirez, Jesus Peraza and Cristian Fernandez, fourth in the 1600 relay in 3:38.39.
- For Wahluke, the additional state qualifiers were:
- Alberto Cruz, second in the discus at 136-0.
- Jared Sabin, second in the javelin at 163-7.
- Maripaz Olivarez, third in the 1600 meters in 6:10.97.