Quincy boys solid at CWAC meet in Othello

OTHELLO — Funny thing about Central Washington, the wind blows here. If you can’t compete in the wind you might as well just stay on the bus.

Quincy senior Luis Camacho and David Barajas of Grandview knifed through a gusting headwind in a showcase of competitive talent Thursday afternoon at the Central Washington Athletic Conference track and field meet in Othello. Camacho and Barajas came off the final curve stride-for-stride.

As they powered toward the finish line, Camacho did everything he could to run the Grandview freshman off. As they hit the finish line, Barajas went into a sprinter’s lean, Camacho strided all the way through in a dead heat. No matter how race officials looked at the replay, they could come up with nothing more than 400 amazing meters and two winners. Both Camacho and Barajas clocked 53.14 seconds to tie in what was clearly the most competitive race of the day.

“Never did hear what they decided,” said Camacho as he prepared for the pole vault. “But it was a good race. I had a really nice start. The wind didn’t help much. We went dead into it coming off the second curve.”

Othello junior Ulises Neponuceno was third in 54.33, but for the most part the boys 400 was a two-man race.

“My 400 times have been constant this year, mostly in the 53s and 52s,” Camacho said. “My goal is to get it to a 50 by the end of the year. Today tried to get out strong through the first 200 and keep it strong in the final 200. I try to stay consistent all the way around.”

Quincy boys and girls finished second overall with 176 and 119.6 points, respectively. Ellensburg won the meet on the both sides, while Othello finished fourth in boys with 67.5 points and third in girls with 109.6.

Quincy senior Carlos Sanchez defeated a solid 200-meter field in 23.90. Jack teammate Travis Harris won the 110-meter high hurdles in 17.49 and finished second in the 300 intermediates in 42.71. Ellensburg’s Seth Walker won with a time of 41.76, but Harris was right there. Quincy seniors Alberto Tafoya and Andy Reynolds gave the Jacks a nice one-two finish in the shot put, Tafoya won with a mark of 48-feet, 1 ½ inches.

Reynolds went 41-0 ½ to finish second. Tafoya won the discus, throwing into the wind, with a mark of 138-0 ¼. The Ellensburg distance guys dominated, winning the 800, 1,600 and the 3,200, but Othello senior Ethan Besherse ran a nice little race to finish fourth in the 1,600 meters in 4:59.77.

“It was a pretty fast pace,” Besherse said. “I was pretty close to a PR today. The Ellensburg guys are good, but I’d rather race tougher competition win easy. I try to run my first split under 1:15 and build, but today they went out hard and I tried to stay with them.”

Quincy seniors Samantha Kleyn and Kaitlyn Ramsey broke up Ellensburg’s total domination on the girls side. Ellensburg won 15 of 17 events, but the Jack seniors held their own. Kleyn won the 300-meter hurdles in 47.93.

Ramsey defeated the triple jump field by almost a foot, winning with a mark of 32-1. Othello senior Maria Larios slugged it out with the Ellensburg girls, who finished one-two-three in the 1,600. Larios ran a personal best 6:08 to finish fourth.

“I was working on my pacing this race. My strategy going into the race was to try and stay with the lead pack for as long as I could,” Larios said. “I like to go out medium and and pick it up as I go along, but it was good to have these girls pushing me the whole time.”

The CWAC track and field teams have the Ron Vanderholm Invitational on Friday before heading into the District meet on May 13.

For complete results go to http://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/MeetResults.aspx?Meet=265384#379