After a disappointing day Wednesday, Grayson Anderson loudly announced his arrival Friday on the local high school track and field scene.
Anderson, a sophomore from Mountain View, won the 200 meters and the high jump at the Class 3A district meet at McKenzie Stadium.
In the 200, he outlasted teammate Sterling Reynolds, winning in 22.64 seconds to Reynolds’ 22.76.
“Sterling came (into the meet) .01 in front of me,” Anderson said. “Since he’s my teammate, we were saying, ‘Let’s push each other.’ ”
Anderson won the high jump with a mark of 6-foot-2, which was matched by Keith Kirkland of Fort Vancouver. But Anderson won with fewer misses.
“I was hoping to go higher,” said Anderson, who has a season best of 6-6. “I don’t really know what went wrong.”
Still, it was a quick turnaround for Anderson, who was the top seed in Wednesday’s 100 meters before finishing third.
“We had other expectations than what happened the other day,” said Stephanie Smith, Mountain View’s sprint coach.
Yet in the wake of Anderson’s victory in the 200, Smith might have had the best meet of anybody. Reynolds won the 100 and the 400 — despite being the No. 6 seed in the 100 — giving Mountain View a sweep of the sprints.
For his part, Anderson is headed to next week’s regional meet in Tacoma to compete in four events, including the 400-meter relay. The top five finishers in each event at the district meet qualify for regionals, which will determine berths to the state meet.
In other highlights at Friday’s Class 3A meet:
• The Camas girls dominated the team competition, finishing with 146 points to 117 for runner-up Mountain View. Columbia River was third with 105.
Kelso won the boys title with 112 points, edging Prairie’s 109⅓ . In an exceedingly close competition, Mountain View was third with 100, and Columbia River was fourth with 91.
• Megan Kelley was the linchpin for Camas’ title on the girls side, completing a sweep of the sprints by adding a 200-meter title to the 100 and 400 she won Wednesday. Kelley finished in 25.99, while Danica Person of Mountain View was second in 26.32.
• While the top five competitors in each event advance to the regional meet, additional athletes could qualify by meeting certain standards.
In the girls long jump, won by Kathran Dean of Mountain View, the top seven finishers all advanced to next week’s competition.
On Wednesday, Dean finished second in the 100 meters and the triple jump.
• Jon Lawson of Prairie won the discus competition with a mark of 174-6. That was well ahead of the 139-7 by second-place teammate Tyler Crebar.
“I was really excited to throw, but I was really tight,” Lawson said. “I finally popped a good one at the end.”
Lawson’s season-best of 181 feet ranks second in the state for all classifications. On Wednesday, he won the shot put by 13 feet.
• Sara Slayton, already the winner of the 300 hurdles, added the 100 hurdles to her collection. She finished in 15.96 seconds, while McKenna Emmert of Kelso was second in 16.29.
• Johna McEllrath of Prairie won the shot put with a mark of 39-3½. She already had a title in the discus and a runner-up finish in the javelin to her credit.
