River coach Alicia Green said she just did not know, for certain if her team would qualify for state — until the Chieftains did just that by winning the district team championship.
“We had performed well as a team, but we don’t have any hot shots on our team carrying us,” Green said. “We have eight or nine girls who are consistently scoring well, but no one who comes in and takes the all-around every meet. The team that wins is the team with depth.”
Green said keeping the streak alive was not the priority this season. She would have been satisfied had the Chieftains peaked at district and still lost, as long as they prepared well and competed strong.
The athletes, though, really wanted to keep this run going into 2014.
“It means everything,” senior Haylee Castro said. “I put extra pressure on myself because it’s my senior year. It was super exciting to go to district and perform well, and to show the younger girls how much it means to us.”
Castro, Miriam Jaffe, Jenna Reis, and Bailee Rogers are the seniors who now know the legacy will continue under their leadership.
Castro said they all got teary-eyed when the Chieftains learned they won the district title.
Green said going to state is the icing on the cake. The goal now is to simply enjoy the experience.
Joining the Columbia River team will be 20 individual athletes representing eight other schools from Clark County.
In the 3A/2A meet, Lindsey Willis of Prairie, Megan Clark of Mountain View, and Kylee Tjensvold of Ridgefield qualified in all four events and are eligible to compete for the all-around title.
In the 4A meet, Nicole Moss of Heritage, and Jamie Nolta of Union are in all four events, as well.
Note: The 3A/2A meet will begin with individual rotations at 9 a.m. Friday. The 3A/2A team competition begins at 1 p.m. The 4A meet (team and individual) begins at 6:20 p.m. The team titles and all-around champions will be determined Friday. Individual event finals for both meets begin at 11 a.m. Saturday.
