Manson Trojans come home with seven state medals

CHENEY - The Manson Trojans took nine competitors to the state meet in Cheney at the EWU track on Thursday, May 24.  On Thursday, Cole Beazley ran the 300 hurdles in 44.69 placing 15th yet did not qualify for finals.  Bailey Cameron also competed on Thursday in the 1600 meters and finishing in a time of 4:56.  Friday brought more competition for the Trojans including high jump and shot put finals and prelims for the laned events.  Fernando Flores threw the shot 36’5” and Eduardo Escalera jumped 5’ 8” in the high jump. The boys 4x1 relay ran well but did not qualify for finals as well as Connor Torgesen’s tough double in the 400 and 800 meter runs.  Kendall Petre ran and qualified for the finals in the 400 meters with a personal best of 62.87.  Also qualifying for finals was Fernando Flores in the 200 meters in a personal best of 23.62.  Another highlight of the day was our boys 4x400 relay qualifying for finals running season best of 3:35.69.   
Saturday, the Manson Trojans wore their game faces in hopes of medaling and setting personal best in their events.  Events began with Petre’s high jump with tough competition.  Kendall placed 8th winning the first medal of the day with a jump of 4’8”.   Grant Torgesen ran a tough 3200 meters in a time of 11:34.  Kendall and Fernando came back in the finals in their events setting personal best.  Kendall placing 7th with a time 62.78 in the 400 and Fernando placing 6th in the 200 meters.  
As the competition was ending, the Manson Trojans were waiting for their final event the boys 4x400 relay.  The boys were seated in lane 8, not a preferred laned but with the Trojan tenacity, nothing was going to stop their goal of doing their best.  Joe Strecker set the pace in the first leg leading the race.  As Cole Beazley took the baton, he held some of the competitors off finishing well giving the baton to Connor Torgesen.  Connor fought a hard leg and holding the position.  The final leg was Eduardo Escalera running well on the backstretch of the track and coming down to the finish line with a photo finish with Liberty beating them by 1/100th of a second placing 5th and a new school record of 3:33.17.  The Manson Trojans walked away with 7 state medals and smiling faces.