Lynden Christian, Meridian track athletes claim two district track titles each

Four Whatcom County track athletes took home district titles during the Class 1A District Tournament preliminaries on Thursday at Lynden Christian High School.

Lynden Christian’s own Eric Steiger took first in the 3200-meter with a time of 9 minutes, 56.87 seconds.

The Lyncs had another district title winner in the long jump, as Hannah Rusnak had a leap of 18 meters, 01.75 centimeters. It’s no surprise Rusnak out-jumped her competition by almost two meters as the senior finished second at state in the event last year.

Meridian’s Hesser Sotelo claimed first place in the javelin with a throw of 154-05. Also finishing first from Meridian was Ashlee VanDenTop, who took first in the 1600 with a personal record of 5:11.15.

Coming in second place in their events were Camden Burgess and Payton Lunde of Meridian, and Grace Himango of Nooksack Valley.

Burgess had a triple jump of 40-04.75 which was short of Peter Kulits of King’s mark of 43-01.75.

Lunde finished behind Rusnak in the long jump with a mark of 16-10.75. Himango set a season record in the discus with a throw of 101-01, but was just behind Tirzah Pilet of King’s who threw 105-07.

The finals for the rest of the events will start at 1 p.m. on Saturday at Lynden Christian High School.

This story was originally published May 12, 2017 at 7:28 AM with the headline "Lynden Christian, Meridian track athletes claim two district track titles each."