Cruiser track and field has strong opening to season

The Eatonville Cruiser track and field team started off the 2023 season with its first meet at Hoquiam on Thursday.

A mixed classification event that saw six teams from the 1B, 2B and 1A ranks, it was a league meet for the Cruisers as they took on Hoquiam and Montesano. The Eatonville boys came out on top for the overall win while the girls picked up a second-place finish.

The boys picked up first-place finishes in six different events while the girls picked up four first-place finishes.

In the shot put, Eatonville's Kyle Cox took the top spot with a throw of 46 feet, 10 inches, while his teammate Tristan Lewis captured second place with a 38-foot, ½-inch throw.

In the discus, Cox and Lewis traded places, with Lewis taking the top spot with a 124-foot, 3-inch throw, while Cox recorded a throw of 122 feet, 1 inch.

Job Kralik captured the top spot in the long jump with a jump of 19 feet, 6 inches. Joseph Callon grabbed second place with a jump of 15 feet, 11.5 inches.

In the triple jump, Logan Taylor recorded a jump of 40 feet, 5 inches to claim a first-place finish.

The boys' 4x100 relay team consisting of Walker Bruun, Kralik, Ky Nation and Evan Wimbles outran all other teams by a full two seconds to claim first place with a time of 46.57 seconds.

The 4x400 relay team of Oscar Lopez-Diaz, Cameron Peace, Dylan Norman and Joseph Mueller also picked up a first-place finish with a time of 4:03.01, a full six seconds faster than the second-place finishers.

For the girls, Hannah Hanson grabbed first place in the 100-meter run, while Hannah Kralik captured the top spot in the 400-meter race with a time of 1:09.56.

Grace Coonrod outlasted all other runners in the 1600-meter race to claim the top step of the podium with a time of 5:49.26.

The 4x100 relay team of Ella Gendreau, Hanson, Kralik and Jenae Roulst captured first place with a time of 54.35.

On Saturday, a few of Eatonville's athletes were invited to compete in the Rainier Icebreaker Invitational. No fewer than 28 schools — ranging in classification from 1B all the way up to 2A, with one friendly Canadian squad thrown in — came to compete.

The Eatonville boys came 1.5 points away from claiming their second first-place finish in as many meets. They settled for second place behind 2A Clover Park while the girls picked up an eighth-place finish.

Cox claimed the only first-place award on the day for the Cruisers. He grabbed the top spot in the shot put with a 45-foot, 9.5-inch throw.

Other notable finishes were:

• Job Kralik — second place long jump (19 feet, 2.5 inches)

• Logan Taylor — second place triple jump (39 feet, 6.25 inches)

• Cole Bamford — second place javelin (141 feet, 7 inches)

• Riley Storm — third place javelin (141 feet, 1 inch)

• Tristan Lewis — third place shot put (41 feet, 1 inch)

• Brooke Blocker — third place javelin (101 feet, 6 inches)