Knight breaks national HS freshman record, leads local qualifiers to Junior Olympics nationals

One year after taking the National Junior Olympics by storm, Trey Knight is going back for more.

This time, with a new national high school class record, too.

The 15-year-old from Ridgefield won three events last weekend at the USATF Region 13 Track and Field Championships in Spokane, including setting a new national high school freshman class record in the hammer throw. Knight’s winning toss of 218 feet, 8 inches with the 12-pound hammer broke Olympian Conor McCullough’s freshman class record of 213-0 from 2006. McCullough also owns the national high school sophomore (243-11) and junior (260-0) class records before winning the 2015 NCAA title at USC and representing the United States at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Knight qualified for nationals in all three events, where he’ll aim to win national titles in the shot put and discus for the second straight year. Last year, he set a meet record in the shot put a few weeks after setting a national age-group record in the event.

This year at regionals, using a 12-pound shot, Knight won the event in 58 feet, 9 inches. That was more the 13 feet farther than the second-place finisher in the 15-16 age group.

Knight won the discus at 163-5, nearly 20 feet farther than the second-place finisher.

Knight is among 15 athletes from the Evergreen Storm track who qualified for the National Junior Olympics on July 24-30 in Lawrence, Kan.

David McAndie won the 400 hurdles for 15-16 year olds and also qualified in the 110 hurdles. Abigail Gavora won the 1,500 meters for 9-10 year olds and also qualified in the 800.

The Flanagan Clan Girls Track Club of Woodland qualified four athletes to nationals. Addy Simmer won the high jump for 9-10 girls, clearing 3 feet, 10 1/2 inches.

Jenay McCants qualified in both the 100 and 200 hurdles for the 13-14 age group, finishing third and fourth, respectively.

Local results can be found in the Community Scoreboard.