K-M senior sets his sights on friendly rival from Garfield in pursuit of a Star Track blue ribbon<\/b><\/p>\n
TACOMA \u2013 Kent-Meridian\u2019s Sean Harris put himself in a great position to end his string of second-place finishes Garfield\u2019s Stephone Jordan on the track.<\/p>\n
The Royals senior grabbed some attention by running a state-best and personal-best time of 14.40 seconds in the preliminaries of the 110-meter high hurdles last Friday in the Class 4A West Central District meet at Mount Tahoma High School in Tacoma.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, he won his second district title in the 110s, covering it in 14.73.<\/p>\n
Harris, a senior who likely will accept a track and field scholarship at Washington State University, hopes to turn the tables in one final go at Jordan, the defending Class 4A state champion in the 110 hurdles.<\/p>\n
After three losses in two seasons, Harris would like nothing more than to put an end to the Jordan Rules.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sick of second,\u201d Said Harris, who was nipped by Jordan 14.51 to 14.70 in the 2007 finals of the 110 hurdles at Class 4A state in Pasco. \u201cEvery time it\u2019s me and him, I get the red ribbon. It\u2019s second place.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve raced three times and, he got me all three times. It\u2019s always just by a little each time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Class 4A and 3A state meets take place at Edgar Brown Stadium on the campus of Pasco High School this Friday and Saturday.<\/p>\n
Harris\u2019 prelim time of 14.40 eclipsed the best clockings shared by Jordan and Everett\u2019s J Hopkins at 14.55. Harris won\u2019t have to contend with Hopkins, but he figures to get the usual dose of Jordan, who battled through a late-season hamstring injury to round into good form for state.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought my weekend was good and bad,\u201d said Harris, who will focus on the decathlon in college. \u201cI set a personal record in hurdles and had a state best time. I did not do so well in high jump and shot put.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow I did in the hurdles puts me in a very good position, but anything can happen. I\u2019m not going to write anybody off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harris and Jordan are sure to talk about their rivalry this week before state, and the rivalry will likely culminate with the duo in the state finals.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat would be really exciting,\u201d Harris said. \u201cWe talk all the time. We always try to one up each other. He got me last year, so I\u2019d like to leave on even terms.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kent-Meridian coach Ernie Ammons, thinks it could be Harris\u2019 time to shine in a healthy rivalry.<\/p>\n
\u201cSean wants a shot at him,\u201d Ammons said of Harris, who is big and strong compared to Jordan\u2019s long and lean build. \u201cHe remembers last season. How Sean\u2019s times have dropped during the season, that\u2019s setting a tone for a great match-up.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year was a great match-up. It wasn\u2019t decided until the last two hurdle lengths. (Sean) just needs to push a little longer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harris felt the weather had a lot to do with his improved time in the 110 hurdles, but his performance in the finals wasn\u2019t what he wanted.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was definitely the weather,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was really nice out being 80 to 90 degrees. Every other meet, it seems it\u2019s just raining. We never really got to run in perfect conditions before this.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess Pasco is supposed to be hot. I\u2019m really looking forward to that.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was nearly a snafu that kept Harris from winning the district crown in the 110s. First, it was his hamstrings tightening up. Then, it was his poor application of Icy Hot to remedy the problem.<\/p>\n
That almost caused a bigger problem as the ointment got to a more sensitive area.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had an Icy Hot mishap,\u201d Harris said. \u201cI actually have had my hamstring tightening up on me a lot, and have been having to put Icy Hot on them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Icy Hot got me a slower time in the finals on Saturday. It was very poor application that did it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Notes: Kentwood junior Devin St. Clair made to 4A state as an individual for the first time in fine fashion, winning both the 100 and 200 races in 10.98 seconds and 22.97, respectively. St. Clair benefited from a less-than-100 percent Ezra John Griffey of Decatur in those events. Griffey was second in the 200 and third in the 100 last season at 4A state. Now, St. Clair could be considered the favorite in both events at state. \u2026 Kentwood teammate Cody Fishel won the high jump narrowly over CJ Wright of Lincoln. Both cleared 6-5, but Fishel won the tiebreaker by making it in fewer attempts. \u2026 Kentridge\u2019s Evan Rodgers took top honors in the pole vault at district, clearing 13-6. \u2026 The Kent-Meridian boys 1,600 relay team moves on to state after taking third at district in 3:26.61. \u2026 Tahoma senior Jonothan Lafler, seventh in the 1,600 at state last year, enters state after a third-place finish in the 1,600 at district. Lafler finished more than four seconds behind Gig Harbor\u2019s Miles Unterreiner. \u2026 In girls district competition, Kentwood basketball star Lindsey Moore won the javelin by throwing 120-7. \u2026 Kent-Meridian\u2019s Kelsey Bueno won the pole vault in a tiebreaker by clearing 10-6. \u2026 The Tahoma girls took second in the 800 relay to advance to state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TACOMA \u2013 Kent-Meridian\u2019s Sean Harris put himself in a great position to end his string of second-place finishes Garfield\u2019s Stephone Jordan on the track.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":21403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-21402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21402"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21402"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=21402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}