Kent-Meridian\u2019s Melanie Vertrees could envision the gold medal.<\/p>\n
Teammate Kelsey Bueno can see it coming her way in the very near future.<\/p>\n
The two K-M standouts delivered some gems on Saturday during the Class 4A state track and field meet at Mount Tahoma High.<\/p>\n
But on this particular day, despite performances that may well have been golden during previous state meets, Vertrees and Bueno had to settle for silvers.<\/p>\n
Vertrees, a senior who has been a granite pillar to the K-M program the last four years, brought home a silver medal in the high jump with a mark of 5-foot-8. She also qualified for state in the triple jump, shot put and 100 hurdles, but didn\u2019t place among the top eight in those events.<\/p>\n
The high jump, however, has been Vertrees\u2019 best event all year. She delivered a mark of 5-10 last week during the district meet, a mark that ranks as the eighth best in the nation.<\/p>\n
Saturday, however, Vertrees couldn\u2019t quite reach that lofty level.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really thought this year that 5-8 would win it,\u201d said Vertrees. \u201cAnd when I went 5-10 at district last week, I was like, \u2018Oh, 5-10 is going to win it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Vertrees wasn\u2019t completely wrong with her assessment as Mountain View\u2019s Christine Rice did, in fact, go 5-10 to win the gold medal.<\/p>\n
\u201cComing in, I had a bad last couple of days,\u201d said Vertrees, who didn\u2019t crack the state\u2019s top eight in the other three events she qualified for state in. \u201cI came in to win this. I had the state\u2019s best high jump so far, and (Rice) got it today.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Vertrees was left somewhat frustrated by missing state gold, Bueno, K-M\u2019s pole vaulting queen, couldn\u2019t have been happier.<\/p>\n
Bueno earned a silver medal with a mark of 11-9, which not only is a personal best, but more than a foot higher than what she was hitting just three weeks ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cI leave here ecstatic,\u201d said Bueno.<\/p>\n
Though, the K-M junior came one attempt away from taking home gold. Jessica Christian of Richland won the event with the same 11-9 mark as Bueno. However, Christian nailed 11-9 on her first try while it took Bueno a second attempt.<\/p>\n
Both pole vaulters attempted the 12-foot barrier and narrowly missed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll week, (the coaches) were saying, \u2018Go big or go home,\u2019\u201d said Bueno. \u201cI leave here with a PR by six inches. And I almost had 12 feet \u2026 that\u2019s pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n
But even better when looking toward next year \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201c(Christian) is graduating,\u201d laughed Bueno, realizing before the end of Saturday\u2019s state meet that she would be the favorite to win it all next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kent-Meridian\u2019s Melanie Vertrees could envision the gold medal. Teammate Kelsey Bueno can see it coming her way in the very near future. The two K-M standouts delivered some gems on Saturday during the Class 4A state track and field meet at Mount Tahoma High. But on this particular day, despite performances that may well have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":9746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-9745","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\/9745"}],"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=9745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9745"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=9745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}