Fun in the sun for the Eagles at the Bill Harris Invitational
Host Federal Way led all the way as the Eagles outscored second-place Lincoln by more than 100 points to win the boys and girls team titles at the 2016 Bill Harris Invitational on a sunny Saturday at Federal Way Memorial Stadium.
Federal Way, Lincoln and Fife finished 1-2-3 among 16 schools in both the boys and girls competitions.
On the boys leaderboard, Federal Way scored 318 points, followed by Lincoln’s 180.5 and Fife’s 149. The girls side featured a Federal Way score of 328, followed by Lincoln’s 188.5 and Fife’s 165.
“Our young kids are really starting to develop and figure it out,” Federal Way boys coach Chris Williams said. “All of our kids just continue to get better, and we hope that trend continues. If it does, we think we can be pretty good this year.”
Black Hills senior Cameron Berndson was named the male field athlete of the meet after winning the javelin with a throw of 152 feet, 10 inches. The female field athlete of the meet was Federal Way’s Liai Taala, who placed second in the discus at 105 feet and second in the shot put at 33 feet, seven inches
Northwest’s Tibs Proctor was male track athlete of the meet after placing first in the 800 meters (2:02.41) and 3,200 (9.31.09) and second in the 1,600 (4:20.74). The female track athlete of the meet was West Seattle’s Lani Taylor, who broke a 40-year-old meet record in the 400 with a time of 56.41. Already boasting the top time in the state, Taylor dropped a quarter-second on Saturday.
Federal Way senior Alex Taylor clocked a personal-best 10.89 in the boys 100 to win the race and move to second in the state. Lincoln senior Xzavier Weston reached the state top 10 with a personal-best time of 11.02 while finishing second.
A matchup between two of Washington’s top six boys 4x100-meter relay teams went to Lincoln as the Abes’ Tony Archie, Weston, Walker Flynn and Darien Williams climbed to the top of the state leaderboard after finishing with a time of 42.78. The Federal Way team of Eric Jones, Jason Palmer, KJ Ridders and Alex Taylor placed second at 43.06.
The boys 400 race had the potential to boast three of the top 11 runners in the state in Federal Way’s Palmer, Lincoln’s Flynn and Black Hills’ Jason Underhill. However, only two of the three competed, and Flynn moved up to third in the state with a winning time of 49.52.
Palmer instead ran the 200 later in the day, finishing with a personal-best 22.23 and placing the senior fourth in the state.
“We wanted to give Jason an opportunity to run a fresh 200 so he could get a good time,” Williams said. “He performed really well and ran a PR, and we were very excited for him.”
Lincoln sophomore James Mwaura finished first in the boys 1,600, and his time of 4:19.19 ranks fifth in the state this season.
This story was originally published April 2, 2016 at 10:40 PM with the headline "Fun in the sun for the Eagles at the Bill Harris Invitational."