Top performances, photos from final day of 4A/3A/2A WIAA Track & Field State Championships

In all, 13 Washington state meet records were broken over the weekend

Author:
Doug Drowley
Publish date:
May 29, 2022 3:38 AM EDT

TACOMA - The third and final day of the 4A/3A/2A WIAA Track & Field State Championships brought more surprises than the first two days combined – some pleasant and others completely unexpected.

In the end, the Lake Stevens boys won their program’s first-ever team title. The sisters Moll (Amanda and Hana) won three total individual titles and, with a little help from a few friends, carried Capital to a 3A girls team title.

In all, 13 meet records were broken over the weekend, including an unexpected pair from a couple of distance runners on Saturday.

Here are the five best moments from the final day of the 2022 Washington State Track Meet:

3,200 Meters to Glory

So often, the 3,200 meters races at these meets are an excuse for fans and other participants to visit the rest room or grab a hot dog at the concession stand. The nearly two miles take somewhere between nine and 11 minutes to complete.

On Saturday, though, Olympia’s Ethan Coleman and Shelton’s Alauna Carstens captured the stadium’s attention down the stretch of the longest race of the 4A boys and 2A girls meets.

Coleman broke the 4A boys state meet record with a time of 8:49.00 and Carstens broke the 2A girls state meet record with a time of 10:44.46.

Korbmacher hits right note for giant upset

The moment was supposed to belong to Lyricc Lopez. The Foster senior dominated the 300 intermediate hurdles all season long, including having set the all-time Washington high school record of 36.26 seconds just two weeks ago.

The Arizona-bound hurdler and sprinter had lofty aspirations for his first state 2A meet. He wanted to take a shot at a sub-36 second race to end his high school career, and he put himself in position with a meet-record run during the prelims on Friday.

Andre Korbmacher had a different idea.

The Squalicum junior seemed to stay glued to the side of Lopez all through Saturday morning’s final, went over the final hurdle next to Lopez and clipped the favorite at the line, 36.30 seconds to 36.33, to take home the 2A title.

“I don’t even know what to say,” Korbmacher said. “Being able to race him, having someone to push me. It was so much fun.”

Korbmacher’s time set a new meet record. Both he and Lopez went under the mark of 36.77 that Lopez set in Friday’s prelims.

It also was a personal best for Korbmacher by more than a second and a half. Previously, his persona record had been a 37.87.

Andre Korbmacher, Squalicum track and field, class of 2023 — Photo by Joshua Hart

Just three wins and a record

Seattle Prep junior Will Floyd had to wait through most of the meet before he really leapt into action. Sure, he took part on preliminary heats on Friday for all three 3A sprint races.

But it wasn’t until Saturday that his first state meet showed a payoff.

Floyd won every time he stepped on the track on Saturday, opening his day with a 10.52 in the 100 meters, going 47.13 in the 400 during the afternoon, then setting a new 3A state meet record to complete his sprint sweep with a 21.01 in the 200.

“A good end to the season,” Floyd said. “I really couldn’t ask for much more.”

Back-to-back 200 meters records

Floyd’s meet record in the 200 erased the mark of 21.24 set by Ellensburg’s Ja’Warren Hooker back in 1997. And it came just minutes after Jacob Andrews from Sehome erased the 2A meet record in the same event.

“Can I go congratulate him (Floyd), please?” Andrews asked while talking to a reporter.

The Mariner had come directly off the track after his 21.25 erased the old standard of 21.37 set by Rodrick Fisher of East Valley (Spokane) from 2017, and stepped down from the awards podium where he’d accepted his blue ribbon for the earlier 400 title he’d won.

“I thought I was going to have Lyricc (Lopez) running beside me,” Andrews said of his 200. “I had taken it a little easy in the 400 to save something. But he didn’t show up for the start.”

A sore foot kept Lopez from running what would have been his third race of the day. The Foster senior had noticeably limped off the track after a third-place finish in the 100.

That left Andrews to challenge one of the state’s best times without his main competition.

“I was excited to have someone to run with,” Andrews admitted. “Lyricc was the closest all year. But I knew if I ran a good race, a meet record was possible.”

A third win for the freshman

Amidst the clamor of the sprints and a second meet record in the 3,200, it almost got lost that the 4A girls high jump was even happening at the south end of the stadium.

But happen it did, and in the end JaiCieonna Gero-Holt proved to be four inches better than anyone in the field. Gero-Holt provided a moment that shouldn’t have been missed but likely was by most of those even in attendance on Saturday, winning the event with a leap of 5 feet, 8 inches.

Reagan Ince of Tahoma and Hazel Gaspaire of Curtis each cleared 5-4.

The victory gave Gero-Holt, a freshman from Emerald Ridge, three individual titles over the weekend. On Friday, she’d won the 100 hurdles and beaten the Federal Way duo of Esther Akinlosotu and Cassandra Atkins in the long jump.