They opened the season with a bang.<\/p>\n
If the Kentwood High girls track and field team can finish it that way, the Conquerors very likely will have made school history.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe girls track team is the only team at Kentwood that has never won a league title,\u201d explained coach Steve Roche. \u201cI have pointed that out to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Apparently, the Kentwood girls took it to heart, too.<\/p>\n
Especially in the season opener on March 18, when the Conquerors handled longtime South Puget Sound League North Division powerhouse Tahoma 89-61.<\/p>\n
Tahoma entered the day riding a streak of 36 consecutive wins against its SPSL North opponents. The run helped the Bears snare four straight SPSL North crowns. Tahoma has won five of the last six North titles in all.<\/p>\n
With the win in March, however, Kentwood has moved into the driver\u2019s seat for capturing school history.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a huge win. My group leaders, my captains .. we started talking about that meet last June,\u201d Roche said. \u201cWay back during those meetings, I told the girls to circle that date.\u201d<\/p>\n
Circle it, they did.<\/p>\n
Kentwood won 12 of the 19 events at the meet. Junior sprinter Holly DeHart, who is among Kentwood\u2019s contingent that competed at state last spring, set the tone by winning the 100 (12.47) and the 200 (25.53). Meanwhile, teammate Dana Wareham, who has been the rock of the program the last several seasons, grabbed gold in the 400 meter (1:02.12) and led off both of Kentwood\u2019s winning relays. But the Conquerors were hardly done with the DeHart-Wareham 1-2 punch as sophomore Alyx Toeaina pulled a trifecta in the throws, winning the shot put (37-05.50), the discus (129-09) and the javelin (98-07).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve never beat the Tahoma girls in the eight years that I\u2019ve been here,\u201d Roche said. \u201cThey\u2019ve been the standard we measure ourselves against.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the hallmark of that standard for the Bears always has been their distance runners. A longtime powerhouse on the cross country trails, Tahoma is just as dangerous on the track when it comes to long-distance running.<\/p>\n
The Conquerors, however, had an answer for Tahoma\u2019s long-distance prowess: Kailey Ulland.<\/p>\n
Ulland, who was the SPSL North\u2019s top finisher at the state cross country meet in the fall, showed she\u2019s just as dangerous on the track, scorching the oval in 11:43.10, holding off Tahoma standout Hannah Mittelstaedt (11:52.88).<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us to trump their distance runners was just huge,\u201d Roche said.<\/p>\n
Yet, the job had just begun.<\/p>\n
Since knocking off the Bears on March 18, Kentwood has followed with convincing wins over Kentlake (108.66-40.33) and Kentridge (123-27). In a re-shuffled South Puget Sound League North Division, which no longer includes Federal Way, Auburn Riverside or Jefferson in track, the only teams standing between the Conquerors and school history is Auburn (April 22) and Kent-Meridian (May 5).<\/p>\n
Of the two, Kent-Meridian will pose a considerable threat to the Conquerors. The Royals knocked off Kentwood last season and match up well from event to event. K-M also has a nice stable of standouts from which to draw from with Kelsey Bueno (pole vault) and Alexia Martin (distance) leading the way.<\/p>\n
So while the Conquerors remain in the driver\u2019s seat, a league title is far from a done deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cKent-Meridian is definitely not to be overlooked,\u201d Roche said. \u201cThey\u2019re strong in all the areas that we\u2019re strong.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Conquerors are plenty strong, too. In fact, Kentwood currently has the league leader in the 100 (DeHart), 200 (DeHart), 400 (DeHart), 3,200 (Ulland), 4 x 100 relay (Mykala Benjamin, Mikaela Armstead, Quincie Proctor-Guyton and Aiesha Goodlow). 4 x 400 relay (Savannah Luther, Megan McNally, Alena Davis and Wareham), shot put (Toeaina) and the discus (Toeaina).<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year, everything fits,\u201d Roche said. \u201cThe reason I like our team in dual meets is that we\u2019re deeper than we\u2019ve ever been. We have really strong throwers, really good sprinters … there\u2019s not one area where we get pounded.\u201d<\/p>\n
Add it up and Kentwood\u2019s season just may end with a bang, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
They opened the season with a bang.
\nIf the Kentwood High girls track and field team can finish it that way, the Conquerors very likely will have made school history.
\n\u201cThe girls track team is the only team at Kentwood that has never won a league title,\u201d explained coach Steve Roche. \u201cI have pointed that out to them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":3673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-3672","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\/3672"}],"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=3672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3672"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=3672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}