TACOMA — Rachel McQuivey’s best hope for a state title might be in the 300-meter hurdles, but it was another race that gave her the most satisfaction Saturday.
“Probably the 100 hurdles,” the Skyview senior said after sweeping both races at the Class 4A bi-district track and field meet at Mount Tahoma High School. “That race and I have been in a fight since my sophomore year.”
McQuivey surged in the second half of the race to win the 100 hurdles, before cruising to a victory in the longer event.
“I started out pretty slow,” she said of the 100 hurdles. “With that race, with the competition ahead of me sometimes I get flustered, which isn’t the best thing to do.”
With the victories, McQuivey advanced to the state meet, Thursday through Saturday, also at Mount Tahoma. She also ran the anchor legs as Skyview’s 400- and 1,600-meter relay teams qualified for state.
The top eight finishers in each event at the 4A bi-district meet earned berths to the state competition, meaning that much of the pressure was eliminated after Friday’s preliminaries. Anybody who qualified for a final on the track had already earned a spot at state.
“Yesterday, my hamstring was getting a little tight,” McQuivey said Saturday after winning the 300 hurdles. “So I was taking it a little easy, still staying ahead of the competition.”
McQuivey won the 300 hurdles in 45.14 seconds, well off the personal best of 43.60 she ran in finishing second at the 2010 state meet. She is ranked second in the state among all classifications in the 300 hurdles, but it not among the top 10 in the 100 hurdles.
In other highlights from the 4A meet:
• Skyview finished second in both the boys and girls team races. The boys title was won by Kent-Meridian with 62.5 points — a half-point better than the Storm. The girls title went to Kentwood, 79-62 over Skyview.
• On the boys side, Skyview got a lift from Brad Michael, who won the 400, finished third in the 200, and anchored the winning 1,600 relay.
Teammate Kevin Boyd was fourth in the 400 and ran the third leg on the relay squad.
In the 400, Michael barely held off Austin Thummel-Gravitt from Rogers of Puyallup, winning in 49.05 to Thummel-Gravitt’s 49.07.
“I could sense he was there,” Michael said. “You start pushing more. You just have to focus on your technique.”
• Union’s Jacob Troupé won the high jump with a mark of 6 feet, 7 inches. Troupé won the state 3A title this year, but Union’s move to 4A puts him in the same classification as Kasen Williams from Skyline of Sammamish, who has a state-best mark of 6-11 this year.
“I’m feeling healthier than I have all season,” Troupé said, looking ahead to the state meet. “I’m not looking for anything less than winning.”
• Forest Russell of Skyview finished second in the long jump, after needing a strong effort on his third attempt to reach the finals.
“My heart was going a little bit, because I needed it to get into state,” he said.
Russell delivered a jump of 22-2, which held up for second place behind the 22-4¼ by B.J. Arceneaux of Kentwood.
• The most emotional moment of the meet came in the 300 hurdles, won by McQuivey. Sarah Toeaina of Kentwood fell early in the race and suffered an apparent ankle injury.
She walked the remainder of the race, gingerly easing over each hurdle, and finished in 2:31.30 amid cheers from the crowd. Having already qualified for a berth to state, Toeaina needed to complete the race to qualify for next week’s competition.
