Second best?
Not this year.
After consecutive second-place finishes in the South Puget Sound League North Division, the Kent-Meridian boys track & field team jumped another hurdle on Thursday afternoon at Kentwood High.
Kent-Meridian’s David Jones blazed a path to a pair of individual victories, Derrick Daigre blistered the oval once again, and a handful of freshmen dazzled as the Royals knocked off Kentwood 97-48 in an SPSL North meet.
With the win, the Royals (5-0) brought home the program’s first North Division title since 2001. Since that crowning moment nine years ago, the Royals have found themselves playing second fiddle on more than a handful of occasions. In fact, in the nine years since winning the crown, the Royals have taken second in the North standings four times.
On Thursday, Kent-Meridian wasn’t about to let that happen again.
Jones raced to victory in the 100-meter dash and added another golden performance in the 200, breaking the tape in a personal best 22.50 seconds. Meanwhile, Daigre, the Class 4A defending state champion in the 800, established a new personal best by running a 1:52.86, just ahead of Kentwood’s Tim Pettit (1:53.38), who also established a new best time for the year.
“That was just awesome,” Kent-Meridian coach Ernie Ammons said of the 800-meter dash. “It was the race of the day. Derrick had a plan and went out after it. He took control from the beginning. Pettit is a scary kid. You just don’t know what he’s going to do.”
The future also is bright at K-M. With a handful of regulars (BJ Arceneaux and Brandon Harris) taking the meet off for some much-needed rest, Ammons slotted in four freshmen (Josh Smith, Abu Kamara, Ray Castro and Henry Hammond) for the 4 x 100 relay. The group didn’t disappoint, either, establishing a new K-M freshmen record by breaking the tape in 46.06 seconds.
“That’s a big deal,” said Ammons. “We just keep rolling.”
Indeed the Royals do. And on Thursday, the rolling Royals won 13 of the 17 events en route to capturing the league crown.
“(The title) means a lot,” Ammons said. “We were second two years in a row. It’s definitely something they wanted to accomplish. They came out and they wanted it. There have been so few (team titles) the last few years that hopefully it will spread out to some other programs (at the school).”
Since 2007, Kent-Meridian has been among the elite teams in the North, racking up a 23-4 league mark during that span.
That success showed on Thursday, when the Royals received strong performances throughout.
Louis Garmon proved to be Kent-Meridian’s other big winner, bringing home gold in the long jump (19-11) and the triple jump (42-1). Meanwhile, Kent-Meridian also received victories from Prescott Jackson (400), Matt Bailey (3,200), Elijah Walker (discus), Orlando Alter (high jump), Nick Lemmon (pole vault) and from the 4 x 400 relay team.
As for Arceneaux and Harris, both will be ready for the league meet (May 12-14 at French Field), Ammons said.
“We just wanted them to rest up,” Ammons said. “We want to make sure that everything is firing when it should be. We’re strong, we’re healthy and we’re motivated. We got one of our goals and now we will try and tackle another one.”
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