Elite Vashon squad sets school records at state track championships

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, June 11, 2025

One, two, three — that’s the number of state records that Vashon High School athlete Lena Puz broke over the last weekend of May at the Washington State Track and Field Championships.

For good measure, she missed setting a fourth record by only 0.02 seconds.

An elite Vashon High School Track and Field island team traveled to Yakima for the last weekend of May, where they ran away with a number of podium finishes at the state championships. Five island athletes — Lena Puz, Josh Healey, Eli Koreny, Emily Harrington, and Tehya Fiala-Garel — qualified to run, jump, and throw at state, a challenging feat given the stiff competition in the district.

Dominant at districts

The Nisqually League schools sent their top athletes to compete the week before state at Klahowya High School. The young Vashon squad held their own, led by Puz, a VHS junior who dominated the competition and became district champion in all four of her events: The 100 and 200 meter dash, 100 meter hurdles and shot put.

Meanwhile, Emily Harrington won the 800 meter run and earned second in the 1600 meter run to qualify in both events to state. The girls 800 meter also saw two freshmen make it to the finals with fast performances: Annabelle Thompson finished fifth and Josie Reiling came in eighth. In the girls 1600 meter, after Emily crossed in second, a strong pack of Vashon runners finished in sixth through ninth place.

Also at districts, senior Annabelle Moeckel made the finals in both the 100 meter and 200 meter, finishing in eighth place in both. The girls’ 3200 meter run — the longest standard track event, a challenging eight-lap battle — saw even more points on the board for the girls team, as junior Cecelia Guenther finished fourth and set a personal best of 12:24 minutes, followed closely by freshmen Annabelle Thompson and Bridget Simmons in fifth and seventh respectively. Overall, the girls team finished in fourth place at districts.

For the boys, sophomore phenom Josh Healey cruised to victory in the 1600 meter and fought through illness to qualify second in the 3200 meter. Senior Eli Koreny, in his first season running track, finished fourth in the 100 meter — missing a ticket to state by less than 0.1 seconds — and third in the 200 meter. However, he was not to be denied, and on his final attempt at the long jump, he leapt a personal best of 20’01”, just enough to secure second place and a bid to Yakima.

Rounding out the state qualifiers, sophomore Tehya Fiala-Garel stepped up when it mattered most and executed a near-perfect discus throw to land himself in second place, securing his first trip to the state championships.

Junior Elijah O’Reilley and sophomore Raf Escovedo made it to the finals in the boys 400 meter, finishing in fifth and sixth respectively. Sophomore Cash Nowicki cruised to sixth place in the finals of the 800 meter, while freshman Leif McBennett ran a personal best in the 3200 meter to secure eighth place overall.

Success at state

All of this led to the State Championships held at Eisenhower High School in Yakima.

Thursday, May 29 kicked off with the boys’ and girls’ 1600 meter run. In a fast and tactical race, Josh Healey held his own and powered through the finish line to claim third place, crossing in a time of 4:19.10. Just a few minutes later, Emily Harrington raced a tight, physical race, finishing in a large pack in 13th place overall.

Between Thursday and Friday, preliminary races were held in all the running events shorter than 1600 meters to narrow the field down to eights competitors for the finals on Saturday.

Lena Puz breezed through all three of her prelims, qualifying for the finals in the 100 and 200 meter dash and 100 meter hurdles. Emily Harrington also had a powerful showing in the 800 meter prelims, running a patient race before moving to the front in the last 100 meters and winning her heat. Koreny competed in the long jump finals Friday evening, stepping up when it mattered most and jumping his lifetime best, 20’4”, good for eighth place overall.

Saturday was the final day of competition, and the Pirates showed up.

Tehya Fiala-Garel fought through a couple of errant throws to land himself in sixteenth place overall with a discus toss of 108’09”. Emily Harrington raced an incredibly deep field in the girls 800 meter final, pushed hard, and came across the line in eighth place overall.

Josh Healey, fresh off his third place finish on Thursday, raced many of the same competitors in the 3200 meter final. As the wind picked up with gusts near 30 mph, Healey swapped first and second positions early in the race before settling in with a group in the 3rd to 5th range. Entering the final lap in fifth place, Josh unleashed his impressive kick, covering the last 200 meters in around 27 seconds while passing three runners to finish in second place as the state runner-up, with a time of 9:23.72.

Then there was Lena Puz.

Puz competed in four events on Saturday, some of which took place literally simultaneously. Thankfully for Vashon, such temporal limitations could not slow her down.

She started her day off throwing a school record in the shot put (39’01”), good for third place overall. From the shot pit she sprinted to the start of the 100 meter hurdles, where she set another school record (15.24 seconds), earning a second place finish overall. Less than 30 minutes later Puz was back in the starting blocks, racing the 100 meter dash and pushing across the finish line to a seventh place finish overall, just missing the school record by two-hundredths of a second.

To finish off her incredible day, Puz raced to a third place finish — and yet another school record in the 200 meter — running a 25.62 second race.

Overall, the girls team finished in eighth place and the boys team came in 15th place, capping off a successful season for the Pirates.

James Batey is the track distance and cross country coach at Vashon High School.