State track notes, Day 3: Rhonda Newton wins Foss’ first sprints title since 2013

Rhonda Newton wrapped up an impressive high school track career on a rainy Saturday afternoon in Tacoma by posting the top 200-meter dash time in Class 2A this spring.

In one of the final races of the three-day 4A/3A/2A state meet at Mount Tahoma Stadium, Newton posted a personal-best 25.49 seconds in the race to win the first state title for Foss High School at the event in nearly a decade.

“I’ve worked for this since my freshman year,” she said. “I’ve been non-stop training for the past year. So, it feels really good to win this championship.

“I just imagined myself crossing that line first — and I did it.”

Newton waited three seasons for a chance to return to the state meet — which was canceled in both 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic — after qualifying in the 400 as a freshman in 2019, and capitalized on the opportunity this spring.

“I’ve waited this whole entire (time) just to be here, and it just feels so amazing,” she said. “It’s just unexplainable, really.”

Newton was the No. 2 qualifier out of Friday’s preliminary heats, but raced by the field in Saturday’s final, finishing just ahead of Sehome’s Jayda Darroch (25.74) for the title.

“When I was in the blocks, my heart is beating out of my chest, I’m just like, I really have to just focus on myself and how I run my own race,” Newton said.

Which Newton did, topping her previous personal-best of 25.54 from her 2A West Central District championship win in the event last week. She also won the 2A South Puget Sound League title in the event earlier this month.

With her win Saturday, Newton, who attends The Science and Math Institute in Tacoma, but runs for the Falcons, secured the first state title for Foss since 2013.

“It just feels really good to do this for this school, do this for my team and just do this for us,” she said.

She is the first to win a track and field championship for the school since standout sprinter Marcus Chambers — who went on to have an All-American career at Oregon and race professionally — won back-to-back 3A boys titles in both the 200 and 400 his junior and senior seasons.

Per WIAA records, Newton is also the first to win a girls track title for Foss since Fahren Thomas won two 4A championships in the 110 high hurdles and triple jump in 1991.

MULTIPLE TITLES

Ten South Sound athletes ended the three-day state meet in Tacoma with titles in multiple events.

Emerald Ridge freshman JaiCieonna Gero-Holt completed her trio of individual victories with a win in the 4A girls high jump (5-8) on Saturday, adding to her long jump (18-4 1/4) and 100 hurdles (14.71) championships Friday. She also took seventh in the javelin (113-7), reaching the podium in all four of her events in her first career state meet.

South Kitsap senior Ella Hopper also finished with three titles in the 4A girls 300 hurdles (43.88) and as the anchor of the Wolves’ winning 4x200 (1:42.08) and 4x400 (3:54.29) relay teams.

Seniors Savannah Kambich, Marissa Crane and Elise Hopper also ran for titles in the two relay races for South Kitsap.

Capital junior Amanda Moll won two individual championships in the 3A girls pole vault (overall meet-record 14-6) and long jump (17-8), and ran a leg of the Cougars’ winning 4x100 relay (49.24), while junior Hana Moll won the 100 hurdles (14.66) and anchored the relay.

Both Olympia senior Ethan Coleman and Shelton senior Alauna Carstens won two distance titles — and ended their career with record-setting races.

Coleman, who is headed to Notre Dame, won both the 4A boys 1,600 (4:06.28) on Thursday afternoon and 3,200 (4A meet-record 8:49) on Saturday.

“It feels good,” he said. “My last distance race in this Olympia jersey, and I’ve just put so much time and energy into this program, and working towards this.”

Carstens, who will continue her career at Saint Martin’s, won the 2A girls 1,600 (4:58.34) on Thursday and 3,200 (2A meet-record 10:44.46) on Saturday.

“This is my first year at state for track, and it’s just really an unbelievable feeling,” she said. “Thursday night I just couldn’t go to sleep. All of that excitement was just like filtering through.

“It’s just wild because the 2-mile was not like my main event for the longest time, so the fact that I can come here and just throw down everything I’ve got is pretty cool.”

Carstens is the first Shelton athlete to win a state title in the girls competition since Kristi Metzger won the 4A pole vault in 2005.

“I had to finish this race with everything I had to make Shelton proud,” Carstens said. “And it just feels really good that I can represent my community in such a great way.”

Enumclaw senior Ellie DeGroot also won a pair of 2A girls titles in the 100 hurdles (15.02) and 300 hurdles (44.69).

SOUTH SOUND CHAMPIONS

South Sound athletes added 24 more championships between individual events and relays Saturday to bring the tally for local titles to 39 through the weekend.

▪ Federal Way senior Isaiah Davis won the 4A boys 100 with a season-best 10.81.

▪ Olympia junior Connor Johnson won the 4A boys 400 with a personal-best 48.84.

▪ Tahoma junior Ryan Lewis won the 4A boys 800 with a personal-best 1:52.27.

▪ Olympia senior Ethan Coleman won the 4A boys 3,200 with a personal-best and 4A meet-record 8:49.

▪ Puyallup senior Maurice Woodring won the 4A boys 300 hurdles at 38.73.

▪ Curtis junior Titus Morris won the 4A boys long jump at 22-0.

▪ Federal Way senior Esther Akinlosotu won the 4A girls 100 at 11.96.

▪ Tahoma junior Brooke Lyons won the 4A girls 200 at 24.9.

▪ Curtis junior Ava Simms won the 4A girls 400 at 57.1.

▪ Curtis sophomore Eliza White won the 4A girls 3,200 at 10:29.66.

▪ South Kitsap senior Ella Hopper won the 4A girls 300 hurdles at 43.88.

▪ South Kitsap’s Savannah Kambich, Marissa Crane, Elise Hopper and Ella Hopper combined to win the 4A girls 4x200 relay at 1:42.08.

▪ South Kitsap’s Marissa Crane, Savannah Kambich, Elise Hopper and Ella Hopper combined to win the 4A girls 4x400 relay at 3:54.29.

▪ Emerald Ridge freshman JaiCieonna Gero-Holt won the 4A girls high jump at 5-8.

▪ Spanaway Lake’s Jermaine Broussard, Trishion Sullivan, D’Aryhian Clemons and Charles McQueen combined to win the 3A boys 4x100 relay at 42.23.

▪ Yelm junior Trevontay Smith won the 3A boys triple jump at 44-5 1/4.

▪ Auburn Riverside freshman Julia Couch won the 3A girls 800 at 2:13.81.

▪ Capital’s Kora Landers, Amanda Moll, Lucy Heminway and Hana Moll combined to win the 3A girls 4x100 relay at 49.24.

▪ Capital junior Amanda Moll won the 3A girls long jump at 17-8.

▪ Foss senior Rhonda Newton won the 2A girls 200 with a personal-best 25.49.

▪ Shelton senior Alauna Carstens won the 2A girls 3,200 with a personal-best and 2A meet-record 10:44.46.

▪ Enumclaw senior Ellie DeGroot won the 2A girls 300 hurdles with a personal-best 44.69.

▪ Tumwater’s Mariah Jett, Annabelle Clapp, Reese Heryford and Ava Jones combined to win the 2A girls 4x200 relay with a season-best 1:44.67.

▪ Tumwater senior Alyssa Duncan won the 2A girls triple jump at 37-2 1/4.