All year long, Garfield track has been keeping its eyes on the prize: victory at the WIAA 4A State Track Championships. And, judging from the way they’ve been running all year, that prize might be just a fingertip’s reach away.

At the Bi-District Championships last weekend, which pitted Garfield athletes against competitors from KingCo 4A and the Greater St. Helens League, both the men and the women proved they were ready to contend for state titles, combining to qualify for eleven events at next week’s state meet in Pasco.

The men were particularly impressive, finishing in a second place tie at the meet with KingCo rival Eastlake, at 63 points. Junior standout Stephone Jordan demonstrated once again that he is worth all the hype, taking first in the 200-meter race and sweeping the hurdles races. Jordan will head off to state the clear favorite in both the 110 and 300-meter hurdles races, holding the state’s best times of the season in both events.

Jordan’s victory in the 200 was a bit of an upset. In that race, Jordan managed to blow past Ryan Hamilton of meet champion Evergreen of Vancouver (92 points). Hamilton, who owned the season best time among all competitors in the 200 at the meet, did not finish the race due to a hamstring pull.

Evergreen got its revenge in the 4x100 relay, beating second-place Garfield soundly by over six-tenths of a second. Even so, the men ran excellently and will send three individuals and two teams to state, including Jordan for three events, Kris Brown for the 3200-meter, Tyler Morgan for the 400-meter, and two teams for the 4x100 and 4x400 meter relays. With so many possibilities for points, the men have a great shot at surpassing their 18th place finish from a year ago.

The women’s team also performed well, finishing seventh overall with 52 points. Junior phenom Bianca Greene qualified for state in both the 200-meter and 400-meter races. Still, Greene’s second place finish in the 200 was somewhat disappointing. Greene, the state’s defending 200-meter champion, lost to Heritage’s Lateashca Currie by just two-hundredths of a second.

Garfield and Evergreen squared off once again in the women’s relays, trading shots in the 4x100 and 4x200. Evergreen got the best of the Bulldogs in the 4x100, but Garfield earned redemption in the 4x200, beating Evergreen by almost six-tenths. Overall, the women qualified for four events. With strong finishes in each race, they could potentially earn a respectable team finish.

Garfield track has faced great loss and adversity this year. The death of his brother could have caused a coach to give up on life and on his athletes. Instead, Coach Johnnie Williams Jr. pushed through the tragedy with admirable courage and continued to push his team towards greatness. Not surprisingly, Williams earned KingCo 4A Coach of the Year honors. The lack of a school track could have caused the team to fall out of shape, to whine and get lazy. Instead, the team kept trekking across Seattle to Nathan Hale High School’s track, always focused on the reward ahead. Next weekend at Edgar Brown Stadium in Pasco, the trophies and medals will finally be there, ready to be taken home by whoever proves themselves to be the best of the best. Do not be surprised if some of that hardware makes its way to the trophy case in the front hallway of Garfield High School.