Three-Time State Champion

Emmitt Warren VIII closed his Chewelah career with a dominant distance sweep, leading the Cougars to a second-place team finish at the State 2B boys track and field championships in Yakima. “It is a huge honor for our team to place as a top team in our classification,” Chewelah Track and Field Coach Shirley Baker said. Warren won three individual state titles, taking the 800 meters, 1,600, and 3,200 to power Chewelah’s trophy run. The senior opened with a victory in the 1,600, running a personal-best 4 minutes, 14.04 seconds. He added another personal best in the 3,200, winning in 9:28.41, and completed the sweep by taking the 800 in 1:55.99. “Emmitt’s sweep of the distance races is a gi- ant accomplishment, and to do so as convinc- ingly as he did is an even bigger accolade,” Baker said. “Emmitt is an example of how determina- tion and discipline merge with raw talent to pro- duce impressive results. There was never a point where Emmitt was not in control of his races. He was the dominant 2B distance runner at this state meet.” Chewelah also picked up a major boost from sophomore Justice Whittekiend, who finished second behind Warren in the 800 with a personal-best time of 1:57.69. Whittekiend added a third-place finish in the 1,600 in 4:28.05, and placed eighth in the 3,200 in 10:02.09. “For Justice to have competed so well on just his second time at the state track meet is a huge compliment to his maturity and his work ethic,” Baker said. “Emmitt and Justice have run stride for stride in every practice all season. Their training was crafted by our distance coach - Cougar alumni Shawn Crockett - to accomplish a 1-2 sweep of the distance races. And while Emmitt emerged the victor this weekend, Justice has run impressively all year and he deserves so much recognition in his own right for reaching the podium in all three races.” Francis Sety added points for the Cougars in the 400 meters, finishing fourth in 51.62 seconds. Sety also competed in the javelin and triple jump, placing 16th in the javelin at 119 feet, 11 inches and 15th in the triple jump at 38 feet, 11 inches. “Frankie competed in 37 different events this season, which means there were few meets where he competed in fewer than four events,” Baker said. “He was our team MVP as he scored 240 points for the team over the course of the season. The next highest scorer scored 164 points. Frankie never steps away from a challenge. He wants to learn and he is super coachable. That is a common trait among our top athletes - they bend to the training prescribed by their coaches and they have achieved great results because of it. Frank is interested in the decathlon, so you will see his diversity amp up next year as we work to help him achieve his goal of competing at the college level.” AJ Kent gave Chewelah another podium finish in the field events, placing fourth in the pole vault at 12 feet. Freshman Meirahn Waford-Nimmons narrowly missed the finals in the 110-meter hurdles after placing ninth in the preliminaries in 16.29 seconds. “AJ’s points in the pole vault and Frank’s points in the 400 were the difference between 2nd and 3rd place for the team,” Baker said. “AJ had a challenging time in the pole vault as the wind was swirling all weekend. That is a difficult situation in which to compete and AJ did so well.” Baker said that Shawn Crocket, Chewelah’s distance coach, has been talking all season that he felt Emmitt and Justice could accomplish a 1-2 sweep of distance events, but Shirley and fellow head coach Whit Baker hadn’t really discussed the possibility of a team top four finish. “And actually, we didn’t really start tracking the points the boys accumulated until after Frankie ran the 400 and while AJ was vaulting,” Baker said. “We were very in the top three at that point so the possibility of making the team podium became pretty real. Once Emmitt and Justice ran the 3200, and with only the 4x400M relay left to go, it became clear there was no one behind us that could move into second place because they didn’t have a relay in the final.” On the girls side, Rin Parsons closed the season with three podium finishes to lead the Chewelah girls track and field team at the State 2B championships also in Yakima. Parsons scored in the 100, 200, and 400 meters, highlighted by a personal-best run in the 400. The Chewelah junior tied for third in the 400 meters with Rainier’s Jazzlyn Shumate, as both crossed the line in 1 minute, 0.55 seconds. Parsons qualified for the final after running 1:00.82 in the preliminaries. She added a fifth-place finish in the 200 meters, running a season-best 26.51 seconds in the final. Parsons had qualified seventh out of the preliminaries in 26.63. Parsons also reached the 100-meter final, placing sixth in 13.04 seconds. She advanced out of the preliminaries with the fifth-fastest qualifying time at 12.94 seconds. “Rin qualified for districts in 6 events - the 100, 200, 400, 800, and 4x200 relay,” Baker said. “She would have run a leg on a 4x4 or if we had run one this year. For state, we chose to focus her on her individual events which opened up alley on the 4x200 for one of our upcoming athletes to get a taste of state-level competition. Those three races are actually six races because Rin had to qualify in the prelims to race in the finals and earn her spots in the podium. Rin is another athlete who trains hard and is very coachable. She is a great role model for our younger athletes in her work ethic, sportsmanship, and support for the team.” Marianne Thomason also competed individually for the Cougars in the sprints. Thomason placed 14th in the 100 preliminaries in 13.33 seconds and 12th in the 200 preliminaries in 27.05 seconds. Chewelah’s 4x200 relay team of Thomason, Faith Knight, Liberty Whittekiend and Parsons placed 12th in the preliminaries with a time of 1:53.87. “Chewelah Track & Field is on the rise right now,” Baker said. “We have a lot of great athletes in our school who have five sports to choose from in the spring. We are fortunate to have a strong coaching staff in cross country and track who know how to coach athletes to reach their potential. We look forward to a lot of great performances to come. Our future looks bright” Baker said the message going into meet was perform at your best. “We had trained so hard all season and everyone felt ready to compete, confident in their training,” she said. “Our boys and girls teams train as one group, so there is a lot of support between athletes and event groups. Something i will remember is just how happy Emmitt was to be able to compete at the top of his ability. He has had injuries in past seasons so to see him run relaxed and smiling after every race was really great.” The result was Chewelah making a podium trip as the No. 2 track team in the state. For a program that has produced state champions and a girls state title before, it was another trophy in the storied case for Chewelah Track and Field. “We were super excited when we saw the final team scores,” Baker said. “We didn’t go into the meet with an expectation to be in the team podium, so placing second was a surprise that we didn’t anticipate.”