Murdock sets new personal bests in hurdles

Tommy Murdock is a state champion who never stops looking to improve.

That was again the case at the Stanwood Twilight Invitational Track Meet Friday as the La Conner High School junior set new personal marks while winning his signature events.

Murdock captured the 110-meter hurdles in 15.19, edging Peter Wilhite of 1A Lynden by two-tenths of a second and claimed top honors in the 300-meter hurdles with a 39.33 clocking.

Murdock on Wednesday had swept both boys' hurdles contests at the NW1B/2B league championship meet at Whittaker Field.

"Tommy has been incredibly consistent this season," La Conner head coach Peter Voorhees told the Weekly News.

As in consistently outstanding.

While establishing new personal bests at Stanwood and sweeping the league's hurdles contests, Murdock won the NW1B/2B boys' 100-meter dash in 11.60 and ran a leg of the Braves' winning mile relay entry, joining teammates Thomas Kitchen, Isaiah Price and Isaac Kitchen for a 3:42.61 finish.

As a team, the La Conner boys placed second on the league leaderboard behind Coupeville, which ran up a 155-77 margin. Mount Vernon Christian (62), Friday Harbor (37) and Orcas Island (23) rounded out the conference field.

The Stanwood trials on Friday were what Voorhees called a "last chance" meet for athletes to improve their seedings going into state qualifying rounds. The Northwest 1B/2B bi-district meet is at Coupeville Saturday.

The midweek league championships, hosted by La Conner, saw several personal bests recorded.

The Braves' Jacob Pommels won the 200 meters (24.23) and placed second to Murdock in the 100 dash (11.8), with a 54.12 in the 400 meters to finish second and establish a new personal standard.

Pommels and La Conner's Simon Bouwens ran 1-2 in the 200 as the Braves made a strong showing in the sprints.

Bouwens, Price, Kali Adams and Thomas Kitchen mined silver in the 4x100 relay with a time of 46.42.

Isaac Kitchen was fourth in the 300 hurdles at 45.72 and La Conner distance runner Floyd Dent finished fourth in the 3200 meters with a time of 12:10.43.

In the boys' field events, Price placed second in the javelin with a toss of 144-9 while Alexzander Martin was fifth in the shot put at 33-5.

On the girls' side of the title meet, Lydia Grossglass led La Conner. She took top honors in the 300 hurdles at 53.68. Grossglass added a fifth-place finish in the 100 meters (13.99) and teamed with Addison Keller, Maeve McCormick and Emily Smith for third-place in the 4x200 relay at 2:01.33.

Morgan Huizenga clinched second place in the high jump at 4-8, a height she matched at Stanwood, where it enabled her to claim gold.

Huizenga chipped in a fourth-place throw in the javelin (84-7), just ahead of teammate Addison Wigal (82-4). Those two then joined Grossglass and McCormick to hit the tape fourth in the sprint relay with a 55.43 finish.

McCormick added to the Lady Braves point total by placing second in the triple jump at 14-4.5. She placed fifth in 200 meters (28.93).

Mount Vernon Christian won the girls' team crown with 152.5 points. Coupeville was runner-up at 125.5. Friday Harbor (44), La Conner (31) and Orcas Island (18) followed in order.

"All in all," said Voorhees, "I think we did well at the league meet. We had a good amount of PRs (personal records) and we were able to have our seniors recognized. And with the weather being great, it totally worked out."