Garfield-Palouse track and field making history

GARFIELD-Palouse - The Garfield-Palouse Vikings just completed one of the best seasons for any team in the nation.

As a team, the Vikings broke nine school records and saw the girls team finish first in the WIAA 1B state tournament, while the boys team finished fourth overall.

The girls side won the district, regional, and state tournament this season, as well as holding their own in the various invitational meets they competed in this season. They finished fifth at the Glenn Wolf Invite early this season, and third in the MacDougall Invitational.

The girls team easily won every 1B District 9 meet they took part of, as well as claiming the league championship.

In District 9, the Vikings hold to top spot in 10 of the 18 events this season. Of the eight they do not have the top score, they have the second best score in five of them.

The girls from Garfield-Palouse are led by superstar Kennedy Cook. She has broken two school records alone this season, as well as another two in relays. On the field side, Ava Hemphill broke the school record in both the discus and shot put this season.

"We knew Kennedy could break the 400m State 1B record, as she had ran faster a few times during the season, but we were not expecting her 200m time to drop so much," said Brenda Cook, mother to Kennedy Cook.

Cook was putting in work all season for the Vikings, finishing at the top of 13 of the 15 200m races she competed in this season, including first place finishes at: the league championship, the district championship, the regional championship, as well as the state championship.

Cook ran the 400m in 11 events this season, she would finish first in 10 of them. Her only non first-place finish was mid-April when she finished third at the Pasco Invitational.

She has been increasing her time with each meet she attended, and peaked at the right time, as she set a PR in both the 200m and 400m in state.

"Her PR's prior to State were 57.47 in the 400m and 25.98 in the 200m. Her PR's at State were 57.30 and 25.47," Brenda Cook said.

Cook's mother also described that her favorite event is the 400m, which has been her favorite since she was in middle school. Cook finished fourth in state in middle school as an eighth grader and took part with the 4 X 400m team.

Cook is dedicated to her sport, and her success can be traced back to years of hard work and dedication.

"I believe her grit came from 4 years of cross country! Her coaches will tell you that she works hard every day in practice, and often asks for a longer workout," Brenda Cook said.

This year, the 4 X 200m relay team took second in the state tournament. Cook had help from teammates Noemie Appel, Charlotte Marshall, and Samantha Pfaff to reach second in state.

In the 4 X 400m at state, Laynie Southern replaced Appel, and the girls once again took second in state for this event. They ran a time of 4:17:55 at state, a PR by almost a full six seconds.

On the field side, Hemphill finished third at state for shot put, and took fourth in discus. Her shot put throw in state was 35' 4.25". Hemphill threw a 37' 7.25" throw in late April, which was a Vikings school record.

In discus, Hemphill broke the school record in her first meet this season, throwing 111'1 at the VCS 1B Jamboree. Her fourth place state throw went just over 105'. She also holds the school record for javelin with a throw of 104'4" at the district championship meet this season.

Ashleigh Hightree and Courage Hightree put together a stellar season as well for the Vikings this season. Ashleigh placed third in the 800m event at state with a time of 2:30:45, she also placed second in the 1600 with a time of 5:36.17, both races were PR's. Ashleigh also set a PR at state for the 3200m, an event where she placed second with a time of 12:38.16.

Along with Ashleigh, Courage put up impressive numbers throughout the season, as well as the state tournament. Courage placed sixth in the 800m, sixth in the 1600m, and sixth in the 3200m as well. All three race times were PR's for Courage.

Pfaff also did work in high jump this season. She placed second at state in with a jump of 5-02, which put her tied for first with Lily Starkel of Odessa.

For Cook, she is still rearing to continue her track journey. Her mother said that she toured Western Washington University last summer and quickly fell in love with the campus. After state in 2022, the Western Washington coaching staff asked her to be a recruited walk on". This would last until the district tournament this season, where the coaching staff increased their offer to Cook, and offered her a scholarship towards tuition. Cook will run for Western Washington next season.

For the boys, the Vikings put up more impressive numbers. They took fourth in state this year, and were only 13 points away from first place in the state meet.

First podium spots for the Vikings boys were taken by Kieran and Brendan Snekvik. Kieran won the 1600m at state while Brendan finished second. In the 3200m, the positions were flipped, seeing Brendan finish first, beating Kieran by five seconds. Kieran and Brendan also finished fifth and sixth in the 800m.

Liam Cook finished 16th in the discus with a throw of 90-03.

Kieran and Brendan now hold the number one and two spots all time for Garfield-Palouse in the 800m, 1500m, 1600, and 3200m.

The boys 4 X 400m relay team of Nicholas Meeuwsen, Brendan, Kieran, and Josh Appel now hold the second fastest relay time of 3:50.06.

This was the second time in the school's history that they won the overall state championship for track and field on the girl's side. The last time they won was in 1998. This says a lot about the program and culture for the Garfield-Palouse track team, who did not have a team in 2018, had only five kids in 2019, and now a team of 20 kids helped win their second ever state championship for the girls. The boys also put up solid numbers, and are beginning to build the program to hope for a steady climb in the coming years for track and field at the school.