Yelm’s Lasher vaults to state meet record, plus more from boys 3A/2A track and field
Jordan Lasher didn’t even enter the fray at the WIAA state 3A boys pole vault on Saturday at Mount Tahoma Stadium until the bar had reached 15 feet. That meant he passed on every height from 12-0 through 14-6.
By the time the Yelm senior and defending state champion took an attempt, just three other competitors remained in the competition. Lasher was successful on his first try, established a height, then sat back again while the other three participants who also made it at 15-0 – Mead’s Kadmiel Lopez, Bainbridge’s Yafei Shou and Interlake’s Lawson Campbell – took their shots at 15-3.
Each of the other three missed three times at 15-3, eliminating themselves. The bar went to 15-6. Lasher missed twice before making his third attempt with plenty of room to spare.
The repeat state title now in hand, Lasher went after more. He made 16 feet on the first try. That gave the Tornado a chance at the 3A meet record of 16-3, set in 2016 by Bishop Blanchet’s Zach Shugart.
Lasher chose to blow right by, setting the bar at 16-6, a height he again made with just one try. He followed the successful vault with a back flip in the pit.
“I’m just happy,” Lasher said. “You know, 16-6 had been my goal for a long time. I finally got there. I couldn’t ask for it at a better time.”
Lasher’s 10 points were some of the few for the Yelm team over the weekend, just one year after the Tornadoes won the team title here. Mead won the team championship on Saturday, finishing off a weekend in which the Panthers scored 62 points to beat runner-up Liberty of Issaquah.
In 2A, Anacortes finished second in the 4x400 relay – the final event of the meet – to tally the eight points it needed to forge a tie for the team title with Columbia River at 65 points.
It was the second time this season that the Seahawks replaced Yelm as a state champion this school year. Back in December, Anacortes beat Lasher and the rest of his teammates for the 3A state football title a year after the Tornadoes beat Eastside Catholic to win it.
Yelm and Lasher lost the opportunity to repeat as track champions, though, when two other football stars graduated early and enrolled at their chosen colleges early. Brayden Platt began at Oregon and Isaiah Patterson started at UCLA a semester early.
Without those guys, Lasher became something of a lone wolf at the state track meet this weekend.
“I’m happy to come back and win it again, of course,” Lasher said. “I feel, being the last one back of that group that won it last year, it is kind of special to come back and win it for those guys.”
As for the back flip …
“It’s kind of become tradition,” Lasher said. “Huge vault. I was super happy. So much adrenaline rushing in. I can’t talk much. It’s so much better to do a back flip, I guess.”
Lasher attempted to push the state’s meet record another three inches, to 16-9. But his three attempts each were unsuccessful.
In 2A, Clover Park junior Eli Peters turned a disappointing finish in the long jump on Friday into good final day. Peters finished second in both the 100 and 200 meters, losing to Columbia River’s Revac Banfield in both races.
Peters entered the long jump on Friday as the second seed to Franklin Pierce’s Marvis Christian but fell to 13th in the event.
“The long jump is not my main event,” Peters said on Saturday. “It did allow me to focus on the 100 and 200 today.”
Peters ran 11.37 to Banfield’s 11.26 in the 100 and 22.30 to Banfield’s 21.97 for his second place finish in the 200.
