For the first time in a while, Clark County won’t have a baseball team or a soccer team playing on the final weekend of the spring season.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t stories to be followed this week.
Camas and Battle Ground softball teams will be at the 4A state tournament in Spokane, Prairie will be at the 3A tournament in Lacey, Woodland will be at the 2A tournament in Selah and La Center at the 1A tournament in Richland.
And there are many, many individual athletes in track and field, golf and tennis who will be chasing state titles this week.
So, this week, we’ll highlight 10 athletes in particular to keep an eye on.
Track and field
We start on the track, and a look at six athletes who head to state having posted state-best marks in their events in their classification.
Steven McCombs, King’s Way Christian: McCombs heads to Cheney having posted the best mark in 1A in the 110-meter hurdles. Nursing a sore ankle, the senior also has a top-three mark in the 300 hurdles.
Jacob Ringold, Columbia River: Ringold heads to the 3A state meet in both horizontal jumps, but it’s the long jump in which he holds the state’s best mark of the year.
Ellie Walker, Columbia River: Fresh off bi-districts wins in the 100 hurdles and high jump, Walker holds the top 3A mark in the hurdles.
Caleigh Lofstead, Camas: Lofstead has won the pole vault in every meet she’s competed in this season, except one. That’s when she finished second in the Oregon Relays with a 4A state-best mark of 12-9½.
Nicole Corbett, Camas: Corbett has the best discus mark in 4A by more than five feet. She’ll also compete in the shot put at state.
Bailey King, Union: King has the best discus mark in 4A by 10 feet. In fact, he’s thrown better than the second-best discus thrower in 4A six times this season.
Golf
Brian Humphreys, Camas: Humphreys won the 4A state title as a freshman and tied for second as a sophomore. Both of those finishes came on his home course, Camas Meadows. Now, he’ll play the Creek at Qualchan in Spokane.
Spencer Tibbits, Fort Vancouver: Tibbits won the 3A state title last year as a freshman. He recently qualified for the sectionals for the U.S. Open. This week, he’ll look to defend his state title at Canyon Lakes Golf Course in Kennewick.
Tennis
Sammi Hampton, Skyview: Hampton is looking to complete an undefeated high school career with her fourth consecutive 4A state singles title at Richland.
Jenn Lewis and Hannah Gianan, Camas: After playing mostly singles during the league season, Lewis and Gianan are back to defend their 4A doubles title in the Tri-Cities.
• • •
These 10 aren’t the only 10 who we expect to make news this week.
Others include Ryan Sturdivan, Akari Baba, Ben Gruher, Peyton Fredrickson, Alissa Pudlitzke, Kaylin Sperley, Dai’lyn and Jai’lyn Merriweather, Said Guermali, Lexington Reese, Jordan Davis, Eli Whitmire, Julia Stepper, Mathew Sheldon and Brandon Campbell.
Did I miss anyone? If I did, we’ll be sure to mention them when they do something big this week.
