By GEORGE KUNKE
Raymond romped to victory at the six-team Comet Invite last Thursday at Naselle. The Seagulls scored 179 points to easily outdistance second-place Northwest Christian (147). South Bend was third at 78, followed by Wishkah Valley (41), Naselle (39) and Pe Ell (20).
“We had some excellent weather for our meet in Naselle on Thursday, which led to some outstanding marks and numerous PRs,” Raymond head coach Mike Tully told the Herald. “The boys' team is really coming along, and I'm hoping that we can continue to get better as we wind up the regular season this week. The highlight of the meet was Rayce Newman running to a tie for the school record in the 100 meter dash with a time of 11.1 seconds. This tied Jesse Buchanan's record from 1993. Rayce also ran to victory in the 200, with an excellent time of 23.0.
“Hunter Borden and Jayce Freeman ran to a pair of one, two, finishes in both hurdle races,” Tully said. “It was Hunter's first attempt at the 110's this year, which made his career-best run of 15.4 a bit of a surprise.
“Alex Vaca and Elliott Murdock both ran well in the 400 to finish one, two in that event as well,” Tully said.
“The 4 by 100 and 4 by 400 relays had season-best runs in their victories,” Tully noted. “Ben Meade cleared 10 feet in the pole vault for the first time to finish second. The shot put crew took the top four spots, led by Darol Ratsavongsy.” James Hamilton, Pedro Villegas and Alex Sida were second, third and fourth.
South Bend's Dennis Johnson won the triple jump and long jump, and Spencer Case was first in the javelin and high jump.
The Lady Seagulls finished a strong third in the Comette Invite, which also had six teams compete. Christian won, and South Bend was second.
“The girls team managed a solid third-place finish despite only having one first-place finish from Patty Rojas in the pole vault,” Tully said. “Patty also had big season bests in both hurdles for top 3 finishes.
“Both the 4 by 100 and 4 by 200 relays had season best times in their second- place finishes,” Tully noted. “Our girls team has been very consistent all season long despite their low numbers. I'm excited to see what they can do over the next few weeks.”
Raymond at Shelton
“At the Shelton Invite on Saturday, we had some good marks despite the consistent rain,” Coach Tully reported. “Elliott Murdock ran a strong race to finish fourth in the frosh/soph heat of the 400. James Hamilton also came away with a fourth-place finish in the frosh/soph shot put. He finished with the same mark as the third-place finisher, but was given fourth based on their second-best throws. “The 4 by 400 team finished just off their season-best from Thursday, but were relegated to a 13th place finish against some very tough 2A-4A competition,” Tully said.
“Hunter Borden also had a solid run in the 110's to finish 13th,” Tully pointed out.
Raymond took several athletes to the Pacific County Invite at Ilwaco yesterday. Raymond hosts a meet Thursday with rival Valley one of the competing teams., while the Indians are at Ocosta.
The Sub-district meet is May 14 and 16 at Naselle. Coach Tully is taking his ninth graders to the Centralia Freshmen Invite on Saturday. The District Meet is May 22, hosted by Raymond. The State Meet is the last weekend in May.