By MADDI GROEN

With regular season complete, each Pirate track athlete entered the two-day League Championship at Eatonville High School with a spot at the Tri-District meet on the line.

With an 80-degree day of preliminary races on Wednesday, May 14, followed by finals on May 16, excellent performances were had by all despite the heat. Eight of Vashon’s own landed in the top-five finishers of their respective events, qualifying them for the Tri-District meet at Kings High School on Thursday.

Sophomore Annika Hille started her season with an injury acquired from basketball season and spent much of the spring recuperating in hopes that she could continue competition at the same level as her first year of high school track. Placing at State last year in her jumping events must have been a motivation to come back to League this year and claim her spot at the District meet, so that she can continue to prove that an injury can’t stop her. Hille qualified in every event she competed in at League, which included the 100 meters, 200 meters, long jump and a 4-by-100-meter relay with teammates junior Emily Browne, freshman Annie Muller, freshman Kat Andrus and alternate freshman Lauren Jenks.

Hille’s fellow relay team member, freshman Kat Andrus, also made great strides at the League meet. Andrus placed first in the triple jump with a massive personal record of 35 feet, 2.5 inches.

Joining Hille and Andrus at Districts will be the rest of the successful 4-by-100-meter team, senior javelin thrower Philip VanDevanter, senior long- and triple-jumper Garrett Starr and senior Maddi Groen, who qualified in the 3,200 meters.