By Jeremy Martin

Wednesday afternoon the Southwest Athletic Complex played host to day one of the 2014 Sea-king Class 2B and 3A boy’s and girl’s track and field meet as athletes from across the county gathered in the hopes of earning a birth in Friday’s District Championships.

Several area participants, representing Chief Sealth International High School, West Seattle High School and Seattle Lutheran took part in the well attended and festive event.

Though the afternoon events marked the end of the season for some of the student-athletes, others such as Chief Sealth’s Brady Crane will use their performances as momentum heading into the finals.

Crane, a Seahawk junior claimed the final spot in the 3A triple Jump championship with a distance of 41 feet 11.5 inches.

A strong showing Friday at the SWAC may earn him an opportunity to represent Sealth at the 3A State Championships which begin May 29th at Mouth Tahoma High School in Tacoma.

Sealth junior Ronnie Parker also took part in the triple jump finishing with a mark of 41 feet 9.5 inches which was good for a 7th place finish.

The girl’s 800 meter relay saw the Chief Sealth team of Imani Carey, Assa Kaba, Michelle Steele and Berjae Henderson finish fifth among the twelve competing teams, coming in with a time of 1:50.26, just under five second shy of spot in the district finals.

The young squad, made up of three freshmen and a sophomore gained plenty of quality experience against the older teams despite getting beaten out for a slot in Friday’s event.

The same group competed again about an hour later, finishing in 9th place in the 400 relay.

The girls’ time of 52.31 seconds was judged to be just milliseconds shy of Seattle Prep’s time, therefore losing out on the 8th and final district championship slot to the Panthers.

It was a disappointing end to a very busy day that also saw both Steele and Kaba compete in the girl’s 100 meter dash where the freshman Steele finished in 11th with a final time of 13.40 seconds and the sophomore Kaba came in 8th crossing the line at the 13.03 mark.

Kaba would run for a fourth time towards the end of the evening, finishing the 200 meter dash in 11th place with a time of 27.54 seconds.

After a promising start in the Boy’s 400 meter relay, the Chief Sealth team of Crane, Alloney Burris, Ja’Lonzo Smallwood and Dante Smith, all juniors, ending up being disqualified when two batons were passed early.

The DQ disallowed the Seahawk squad from registering a time and added no points to the team total.

West Seattle’s first participant of the day was junior Sarah Cooper who threw for 92 feet 11 inches in the discus. Her sixth place finish was one slot and just under four feet short of an invitation to the finals.

Sealth’s Lorna Sailiai also competed, coming in 10th with a throw of 75 feet 1 inch.

The Wildcats rounded out the night, competing in the meet’s second to last event; the boy’s 1600 meter relay.

West Seattle’s team of freshman John Ursino, senior Isaiah Duncan-Jackson, senior Sam Bell, and junior Chris Nunez finished 9th with a time of 3:40.96.

Nick Lindstrom competed in two of the 2B field events, throwing both the Javelin and Shot Put for Seattle Lutheran.

The sophomore finished in 6th place in the shot put, tossing 32 feet 2 ¼ inches while also finishing in 5th in the javelin with a throw of 118 feet and 10 inches.

As he was the only member of the Lion’s competing, Lutheran gained just 7 points on the afternoon finishing tied for sixth place overall.

The 2B State Finals will take place Friday afternoon at Eastern Washington University in Cheney.