Bellevue Christian hosts first home track meet in 32 years
In his 30 years coaching track and field at Bellevue Christian School, Larry Royce has seen a lot of things. One thing he hadn’t seen, until last Thursday, was the Vikings hosting a home meet.
Now, after the Vikings successful April 2 home meet, the first at the school in 32 years, Royce and the rest of the coaches are looking to make the event a yearly occurrence.
Because the Bellevue Christian track has only three lanes, Royce said, it’d been three decades since the Vikings were able to compete on their own track. The meet had not been scheduled prior to the season, and only occurred because of the inclement weather of the last week.
“We were scheduled to go to West Seattle for an Emerald City meet,” Royce said. “After it snowed, it was just too dangerous for the meet to happen. There was nothing else available, so Ed (Sloan, co-head coach with Royce) put our heads together and said ‘hey, let’s give this a shot.’”
As a result, University Prep, Northwest School and the Bush School joined the Vikings for the first “Flynnvitational,” as Royce coined it.
“The field is named after a gentleman named Flynn, who was a very, very close ally with the Green Brothers, who founded Bellevue Christian School,” Royce said. “We were trying to think of a neat name, and that sort of just seemed to fit.”
Both Royce and Sloan agreed the meet went off without a hitch, despite the track that is 417 meters, instead of the standard 400 meters. The only issues arose from awkward starting positions in some of the distance races, Sloan said, but it was nothing the teams couldn’t work with.
“It was very cool for the athletes to have their friends and the faculty come and support them,” Sloan said. “We usually go to Lake Washington High School or Bellevue High School for our meets, and it’s just not the same. So for our athletes to have their friends there, I think that was neat for them.”
It wasn’t just the meet that went off without a hitch – the Vikings boys and girls dominated the meet. The boy’s team had winners in nine of the 15 events, while the girls took first in 10 of their 13 events.
Aaron Iseman, the defending state champion in the long jump, won that event, jumping 19’09.25 for the Vikings, while also winning the 100 meters in 11.68. Terra Oldham also was a repeat winner for BCS on the girls side, winning the 100 high hurdles in 16.63, the high jump with a mark of 4’8’’, and also was a member of the Vikings 4×400 relay that won in 4:30.30.
“Terra had a very good day,” Sloan said. “She won the high jump in her first try in that event. She also improved in the hurdles by over a second.”
Michelle Teng won both the discus and the javelin for the Vikings.
After the success of the meet, both Sloan and Royce are looking forward to making it a yearly event.
“There were a lot of positives,” Royce said. “The coaches even started to feed off of the athletes’ energy a little bit.
“I can tell you one thing though; I betcha nobody had more fun than we did.”
Joel Willits can be reached at 425-453-4270 ext.5060 or at jwillits@reporternewspapers.com.
Full Meet Results
Northwest School, Bush School and University Prep at Bellevue Christian School
Boys
100 meters- Aaron Iseman, BCS, 11.68; 200 meters- Kolby Kemp, BCS, 25.04; 400 meters- Kyle Fremd, BCS, 54.82; 800 meters- Wes Erickson, UNIV, 2:02.01; 1600 meters- Hale Shaw, UNIV, 4:51.59; 3200 meters- Duncan Clark, Bush, 10:28.48; 300 hurdles- Nathan Phillips, BCS, 47.25; 4×100 relay- UNIV (Sam Zarky, Eliot Storer, Osakwe Rogers, Abe Al Manai), 49.40; 4×400 relay- BCS (Kyle Fremd, Nathan Phillips, Kent Schmuland, Nathanael Sleight), 3:44.20; Shot- Jordan Lake, BCS, 32’5; Discus- Augie Urschel, Bush, 85’05; Javelin- Jordan Lake, BCS, 137’09; High jump- Nathan Phillips, BCS, 5’02.00; Long jump- Aaron Iseman, BCS, 19’09.25; Triple jump- Will Jaffe, UNIV, 30’11.00.
Girls
100 meters- Rebecca Mitchell, BCS, 13.87; 200 meters- Laura Victor, BCS, 29.93; 800 meters- Amanda Eng, UNIV, 2:35.79; 1600 meters- Molly Billingham, Bush, 5:35.94; 100 high hurdles- Terra Oldham, BCS, 16.63; 300 low hurdles- Terra Oldham, BCS, 48.79; 4×100 relay- BCS (MacKenzie Altig, Laura Victor, Lauren Rogers, Jillian Baker), 54.69; 4×400 Relay- BCS (Rebecca Mitchell, MaryBeth Trimble, Terra Oldham, Hillary Brown), 4:30.30; Shot- Allison Schroeder, NWST, 26’08; Discus- Michelle Teng, BCS, 79’03’; Javelin- Michelle Teng, BCS, 117’01; High jump- Terra Oldham, BCS, 4’08; Long jump- MacKenzie Altig, BCS, 13’05.75.
