Laura Tesch tried to calm herself.<\/p>\n
Having prom the night before the Class 4A state track and field meet can leave a kid a bit frazzled when put on center stage.<\/p>\n
Kentridge\u2019s Tesch, however, managed to quell her nerves and deliver.<\/p>\n
Tesch, a senior, cleared 5-feet-4 inches in the high jump during last Saturday\u2019s state meet at Mount Tahoma High in Tacoma, which proved good enough for a fourth-place finish.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t the golden jump Tesch had hoped for, but it was plenty good enough, especially when considering how things went a year earlier for the Kentridge senior. Last spring, a season after qualifying for state as a sophomore, Tesch fell ill the week of the district meet, which led to a subpar performance that left her short of state.<\/p>\n
Down to her final chance to earn state hardware, Tesch came up huge on the biggest stage of all.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just trying not to think too hard and freak myself out because I do that sometimes,\u201d admitted Tesch, who qualified for state in the high jump and long jump as a sophomore, but finished ninth in both. \u201cThis means a lot, it really does.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, like so many athletes who compete at state, Tesch still wanted more after it was finished.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really wanted to take third,\u201d said Tesch, who will compete at Humboldt State University in Arcata, Calif. next school year. \u201cI was kind of sad when I didn\u2019t make 5-5, because that\u2019s my personal record. I thought I was going to be able to do it in my last meet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tesch\u2019s performance proved to be the highlight of the state meet for Kentridge, which advanced six girls and one boy to the state meet. Tesch, however, was the lone Charger to bring home a medal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew that she had the 5-4 jump in her, but we didn\u2019t know when we would see it,\u201d said KR coach Lisa Robin. \u201cShe peaked at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n
And though this was Tesch\u2019s last chance at state glory, the future remains bright for the Kentridge girls. Of the six who qualified, five \u2014 Molly Shiroishi, Katie Lake, Haley Bertelsen, Amelia Carpenter and Jaclyn Onosko \u2014 all will be back next year.<\/p>\n
Of particular note, however, is KR\u2019s 4 x 400 relay team of Lake, Shiroishi, Onosko and Bertelsen, which established a personal best three times during the season\u2019s final two weeks. The group just missed the top eight cut at state, but has tremendous potential. The group ended the season with a top time of 4:00.7.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are very much excited about the future,\u201d Robin said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Laura Tesch tried to calm herself. Having prom the night before the Class 4A state track and field meet can leave a kid a bit frazzled when put on center stage. Kentridge\u2019s Tesch, however, managed to quell her nerves and deliver. Tesch, a senior, cleared 5-feet-4 inches in the high jump during last Saturday\u2019s state […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":6719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-6718","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\/6718"}],"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=6718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6718"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=6718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}