Tonasket junior John Stedtfeld charges toward junior Kris Marthini to hand-off the final round of the men’s 4×100 relay at the 1A State Track Meet in Cheney at Eastern Washington University on Saturday, May 28. Photo by Bob Thornton

CHENEY – The boys from the Tonasket High School men’s track team ran hard and placed high at the 1A State Track and Field Championships held at Eastern Washington University in Cheney on Friday, May 27 and Saturday, May 28.

“The 4×100 relay ran their best race of the season setting a new personal record of 43.8,” Head Coach Bob Thornton said. “They have set a new personal record every time they have run the relay. If we had another week, we would of set the school record. In the finals of the 4×100 relay at the State Championship Track and Field meet, Corbin Moser exploded out of the blocks getting the team off to a great start. After a near perfect hand off, Jake Hickman quickly sped up the back stretch to hand off in less than two steps to John Stedtfeld who flew around the corner to make the last great hand off to our anchor, Kris Marthini, who showed his quickness, passing a couple runners to finish strong in fourth place. They are four very good athletes that worked hard all year and they received the well-deserved reward of medaling at state.”

Thornton said Marthini then ran a strong 200, setting a new personal record of 22.53 and placing third after he just missed making the finals of the 100 by less than one-hundredth of a second.

“We have really enjoyed working with such talented hard working athletes,” Thornton said.

In the preliminaries on May 27, Marthini took 10th place in the men’s 100 meter run with a time of 11.46 and third place in the men’s 200 meter run with a time of 22.82. The men’s relay team took seventh in the preliminaries with a time of 44.13.