Edmonds-Woodway boys, girls sweep Wesco 3A South team titles

EDMONDS — Rick Fillman knew it was going to be close. The Edmonds-Woodway High School track and field coach was acutely aware that both his boys and girls teams had a chance at winning team titles, but that the Warriors could also come away with nothing.

But in the end Edmonds-Woodway claimed all the spoils.

Both team races came down to the wire, but the Warriors ended up sweeping both the boys and the girls titles at the Wesco 3A South track and field championships on Friday evening at Edmonds Stadium.

With both team titles up in the air, several teams of both genders gathered on the field as the team scores were being announced, anticipating the possibility of lifting a trophy. First came the girls announcement, with Edmonds-Woodway edging out Shorecrest 181-166.5 to claim the title. Then came the boys announcement, and with the top four teams all finishing within nine points of one another it was the Warriors who prevailed with 132.5.

“I’m speechless right now,” Fillman said. “I wasn’t expecting this, to be honest.”

Edmonds-Woodway was led on the boys side by Aaron Richardson, the only Warrior to claim two individual titles on Friday. Richardson, a junior hurdler, had been going back and forth with Lynnwood’s Elijah Edwards for Wesco 3A South supremacy all season long. But Richardson got the best of the battle Friday, winning the 110-meter hurdles in a time of 14.97 seconds, then claiming the 300 hurdles in a time of 40.97 seconds. Both times Edwards was a close second.

“The 300, coming into it I knew Eli was going to be there with me, so running with him was great,” Richardson said. “Last week we had a great battle in the Edmonds School District championships, so it was fun to run against him again today. In the 110s I knew it was going to be a close race again. He beat me on Wednesday, today I came out and took the win, but it wasn’t easy, obviously.”

The Warriors then used their strength in the distance events to put themselves over the top. Edmonds-Woodway had the top four finishers in the boys 3,200 and the top three finishers in the girls 3,200 Friday. That added to the big scoring the Warriors received on Wednesday’s preliminary day, when Edmonds-Woodway had the top three finishers in the boys 1,600 and three of the top four in the girls 1,600.

The most impressive of those distance runners was Matthew Park. The senior ran away with the boys 3,200 Friday, winning by more than 17 seconds in a time of 9:26.39. Park’s time would have been the third-best 3A mark in the state heading into Friday. The victory in the 3,200 added to his victory Wednesday in the 1,600.

Edmonds-Woodway had one other double individual winner over the meet’s two days, as junior Hannah Hicks won the girls high jump with a leap of 5 feet, joining her victory in the long jump from Wednesday.

“That’s just tremendous, it was fantastic,” Fillman said about the team titles. “The kids really stepped up the last two days. I knew it was going to be really close, I knew both Shorewood and Shorecrest had outstanding programs, they both put a lot of kids into today’s finals. It was one of those things where you’re hoping, but you know that kids have to go out, and they did. We had PRs and season’s bests everywhere, and to do it at this meet at this time is huge.”

On the individual front, no one had a busier day than Lynnwood’s Rita Sakharov. The senior went for an unusual quad, competing in the 100, 200, 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles. She first attempted the feat, which condenses four events into about 90 minutes, just three weeks ago.

Sakharov began Friday by finishing second in the 100 in the meet’s first girls running event of the day. She responded by “running angry” to win the 100 hurdles just 10 minutes later in a time of 12.75. About 50 minutes after that Sakharov competed in a stacked 300 hurdles race — which included four of the top eight-ranked 3A runners in the state — which she came from behind to win in 45.80. By the time the 200 came around she was gassed as she finished sixth, and she ended up needing a piggyback ride to the podium in order to accept her awards.

”They’re very back-to-back,” said Sakharov, who plans on dropping the 200 for next week’s district meet to make life a little easier. “But last year I ran the four-by-two and the four-by-four, and even though they’re more spaced out they were longer races, so I was like, if I could do it last year I can do these shorter ones this year, so I just went for it.

“My legs are pretty tired right now, but I’m happy overall for today.”

There was one other double winner Friday. Shorewood sophomore Joseph Williamson swept the boys sprints, winning the 100 in a time of 11.18 and the 200 in a time of 22.88.