Foster track ran well at the 2A state meet at Mount Tahoma High School May 25-26.

The best of the runners was the relay foursome of Rashaun Johnson, Adna Mujic, Jemari Hymes and Trent Bell. They took second.

They almost took first.

"We had the lead the first 200 yards, until the curve of the third leg, my leg, and then got caught," said Hymes, who also did well on the Foster basketball team that made state this past March.

Hymes ran his hardest out there, but try as he did, he was not feeling his best out there.

"I hurt my leg earlier in the season," he said. "And pulled a muscle.

Actually, it was more than just a pulled muscle for Hymes.

"The bone popped out, I still feel it when I run," he said. "I don't run as fast as I used to."

But it was good that he did what he did, with the team that beat them, from Yakima's Prosser area, with guys that are going to play Division One football next year. They are good football players, but one was the team's zippy wide receiver and the other was the team's heralded quarterback attending Eastern Washington University next fall.

"Those guys were fast," said Johnson, who is only a freshman on this fast relay team.

It was a close second too, the Bulldogs foursome just missed beating the Prosser foursome, 43.1 to 43.6, so a half second was all that seperated the two going for the gold in high school track's fastest ran even on the track.

It was, in certain terms close. Five yards?

"Yeah, it was about that far apart, five yards," said Hymes, agreeing, repeating the distance between Prosser and Foster for a 2A state relay title. And last year was good for all but Johnson who was at Showwalter Middle School last year winning every race he ran in there.

But it was good for Hymes and the others because..

"We won state last year," said Hymes.

But this year, there was no winning state for the Bulldogs. Was there any reason why, anything of the relay that was imperfect?

"No, the handoffs were good," said Hymes, adding, "The competition did get a lot more from this year compared to last year."

He was talking about teams like Sehome and Prosser, strong 3A track programs last year that bumped themselves down to 2A because they could when their enrollments went down.

Johnson is going to be a superstar at some point one can hazard a guess. The freshman runs a 10.7 100 meter run on the curves in relays. True, curves they say are run faster than straightaways but that is fast. Johnson said he would have run the 100 this year but was injured from football -fractured a fibia, and was not able to get going fast enough in shape to run it competitively this track season.

"I was out seven months, I did not start to compete in track until the middle of the season," said Johnson.

"For a 9th grader, he is real good," said Hymes of his three-year younger teammate, Johnson.

In distance racing, junior, Abdi Giire took fourth, and , that was after he fell midway through the eight-lap race.

"If I wouldn't have fallen, I think I would have taken third," said Giire. He did run his second best time of the season, 9:56 despite the fall and the guy that took third was only four seconds ahead of him.

"It was hard for me to get back up there again," said Giire. He didn't just fall either, it was more than that.

"I was tripped, so I fell back to seventh," said Giire. "Then I had to work my way back and I caught up to two guys."

Giire best race the weekend before at disticts was a 9:41 and he will shoot for that next year.

"Hopefully next year I will be up there," he said. "I messed up my knee in cross country this season. Now I am improving."

Others that competed at state included Lanaya Daniels, 10th in the shotput and sophomore Dominique Ford, 12th in the shot put with a throw of 46-5 And sophomore Sharrod Cradle in the high jump was 14th with a 5-8 clear. And Raianne Rife was 15th in the long jump wtih a 14-2 leap