Athletics: Pyeatt, the wolf pack goes state
With one of his most loyal fans in mind, Sequim’s Riley Pyeatt was off to the races. And each time, there was no one in front of her.
Pyeatt took three individual wins and helped Wolves’ 4×400 relay to another first place, helping the Sequim girls to second place at the 2A West Central District meet and leading a host of locals to earn spots in this week’s 2A State Finals.
The combined boys’ and girls’ teams from Sequim have won six district titles and 16 top-six finishes overall, earning berths in the 2A/3A/4A State Tournament held at Mount Tahoma High School in Tacoma May 26-28.
Pyeatt rode an exhaustive schedule of races and scored wins in the 400 (59.13), 800 (2:17.82) and 1,600 (5:17.94).
With “For Tim” scrawled across her back, she dedicated her runs at last week’s district meet to her grandfather, who recently passed away.
“He loved the track…definitely a big fan of me,” Pyeatt said, after the district’s first day of events at North Mason High School in Belfair on May 20.
“All this today and tomorrow [is] for him.”
While some of Sequim’s results were expected, several others were pleasant surprises, the coaches noted – including Rileigh Van Dyken’s district title in the pole vault.
Sequim High senior Rileigh Van Dyken clears 8ft 9in to claim the West Central District 2A pole vault title – an improvement of more than a foot from her personal best. Photo from Sequim Gazette by Michael Dashiell
Van Dyken’s previous best mark was 7-foot-6, achieved once in his junior year and three times this season.
A technical change made just a week ago helped Van Dyken clear 8-foot-9 — a personal best of more than a foot — to outpace the district peloton by 15 inches.
Sequim trainer Brad Moore said he saw Van Dyken coming in short, so an adjustment to keep his center of gravity low and pin his leg back helped add significant lift; hence the improvement.
“We just had time to integrate it [before district]; I still have to remind him,” Moore said.
“I think there’s definitely more [height] there,” Moore said of Van Dyken’s potential.
Adrian Brown also won district titles in the 110 hurdles (15.67 seconds, a personal best), Jolene Vaara in the high jump (5-0) and Sequim’s 4×400 relay team (Pyeatt, Kaitlyn Bloomenrader , Eve Mavy, Hi’ilei Robinson; 4:04.70).
Brown also took second place in the 300 hurdles (40.67, another personal best), while his brother Andrew, a freshman, broke his own freshman record in the high jump (5-10). to place second and won a state bid in the 110 hurdles. (16.96), ranking fifth.
Sequim’s Adrian Brown, centre, and Andrew Brown, left, place first and fifth in the 110 high hurdles at the West Central District 2A meet in Belfair on May 20. Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell
Their efforts helped the Sequim boys place sixth overall in the district team.
Bloomenrader and Mavy in the 800 (2:24.33 and 2:25.40, fourth and sixth), Mavy in the 1600 (5:22.22, fifth), Robinson in the 100 (12.99, fourth), also earned state places for Wolves. Mirek Skov in the pole vault (11-0, fourth) and the Sequim women’s 4×200 team (Bloomenrader, Mavy, Katie Morris, Anastasia Updike), who took third in 1:50.07.
SHS senior Henry Hughes missed a state spot by one place – and 0.03 of a second – in the 400 meters after clocking a personal best 52.62 in the event.
See Athletics live scores, heat sheets and more at wiaa.com/subcontent.aspx?SecID=322.
The Sequim boys won the 2A state title in 2019 — the only boys’ tag team state championship in school history — before the COVID pandemic canceled the 2020 season. organized regional finals in 2021.