SHELTON — Paityn Gagnon is used to having very little free time during a track meet.
The Timberline senior has done it all in her career, including four years as a triple jumper, three years as a high jumper, three years as a fixture on the Blazers’ strong relay teams, and even a brief stint as a 100-meter hurdler this spring.
But Gagnon has never had to experience the chaos of being a three-way jumper, competing in the triple jump, the high jump and, new this year, the long jump. In the past two weekends, she’s had to compete in two events at once, with a third event at another point in the day.
At the Bill Harris Invitational in Federal Way on April 25, Gagnon started the high jump and the long jump around the same time in the morning and then competed in the triple jump in the afternoon. She passed the test, winning the high jump, finishing as the long jump runner-up and placing third in the triple jump.
The Shelton Invitational on Saturday was somehow more laborious, yet rewarding, for Gagnon.
She kicked off the afternoon with the second flight of the long jump around 2:30 p.m., setting a personal record for the second time in as many weekends. Gagnon cleared 17 feet for the first time, coming in at 17 feet, 0.75 inches to take third place in the event. Her three best jumps of the season were all accomplished in Shelton.
“I just think I came into it with a good mindset. I was feeling good. I did my warmups, and I just competed,” Gagnon said. “I knew there were girls ahead of me, and there usually aren’t. I really wanted it, and I pushed myself.”
Then, it was time to prepare for both the high jump and the triple jump, which started at the same time. On top of that, top-five finishers had to head to the podium for medals almost immediately after the conclusion of their event.
Gagnon got an extra workout just from running back and forth between one end of the track where the high jump was located, to the middle of the field for podiums, and the far corner of the field for triple jump. But it all paid off, as she finished fifth in the high jump at 4-10 and second in triple jump at 34-8, a season-best mark.
“I’ve been having to run back and forth between two events at once, which I’ve never experienced before, but I’m starting to get used to it,” Gagnon said. “I feel like it pushes me to do better. I’m just determined. I don’t know what any of the marks are, so I just go in and do what I know how to do and compete.”
A four-year triple jumper, Gagnon said the transition to long jumping was anything but natural. In fact, she described it as “terrifying,” but she’s coming into her own as a long jumper.
“When I did my first jump in long jump, I told my coach, ‘That is terrifying,’” she said. “When you do your final jump in triple jump, you’re lower to the ground. [In long jump], I jump really high to try to land. In my opinion, it’s very different.”
During the triple jump, Gagnon was frustrated with herself after fouling her first two attempts. But she bounced back on her final jump, landing at 33-9.5 to advance to the finals, where she battled with Winlock’s reigning 2B state triple jump champion Victoria Sancho, a former classmate of Gagnon’s. The two stout triple jumpers went to Chambers Prairie Elementary School together in Lacey.
“I had no idea which school she was at now. I hadn’t seen her at any meets, so it was really cool to see her for the first time in a while,” Gagnon said of Sancho. “It was definitely a competition. I tried to push myself as much as I could. Unfortunately, on my last jump, I kind of messed it up.”
Gagnon wasn’t the only Timberline Blazer to shine in the Shelton sun. Junior Hannah Jackson won the 200-meter dash with a new personal record of 26.02 seconds. She also took fourth in the 100-meter dash at 12.54 seconds, also a PR. Jackson now ranks fourth all-time in Timberline history in the 200 meters and sixth in the 100 meters.
Timberline finished in sixth place in the girls team standings at 32.5 points. Olympia led the area schools with 62.5 points, ranking fourth in the Shelton Invitational.
The Olympia girls 4x200 relay team, made up of Evan Lopez, Audrey Leneker, Mika Meconi and Anneliese Jones, broke the Shelton Invitational record to win the event at 1 minute, 46.11 seconds. In doing so, the Bears quartet defeated, among other schools, the four-time reigning 4x200 state champion Tumwater, albeit with two different runners from the most recent state title group. Olympia won the event by more than four seconds faster than second-place Capital.
“That was insane. We definitely didn’t come out here expecting to do that well,” Jones said. “It was super surprising. We were anticipating maybe fourth or fifth after looking at the meet entries. Today was just our day.”
Jones, a sophomore, also set a new PR in the 400 meters at 59.56 seconds to take home a fourth-place medal and a trip to the podium in Shelton. She now ranks 10th all-time in Olympia history in the event and owns the fastest 400 time by a sophomore.
“That’s really crazy to me. At the beginning of the season, I was feeling a little bit scared and wasn’t confident. My mindset has changed,” she said. “I know I’ve always been able to physically do it, but it’s just doubt and negativity that have been slowing me down. Having a positive mindset will help you run faster.”
No one had a more dominant day for the Olympia girls than freshman Leah Hennen, who blew her previous PR in the 3,200 meters out of the water by 19 seconds. She won the race in 11:07.41, with her final lap standing as her fastest, and she more than met her goal of surpassing her best two-mile time from the cross country season of 11:18.5. Hennen took an immediate lead during the 3,200 meters and never looked back, finishing over 27 seconds faster than anyone else.
It might be easy for many runners to let up with a big lead, but Hennen has a simple philosophy for staying consistent from lap to lap while ahead by a sizable margin.
“I just run,” she said. “I just kind of zone out. I’m really good at keeping even splits throughout the whole race.”
Hennen, who already held the Olympia girls freshman record in the 3,200, now ranks fifth all time in school history, regardless of grade.
Junior Carolina Schilter shined in the 1,600 meters, finishing in second at 5:16.32, her best time of the season. She, along with Jones, Lopez and Leneker, helped the 4x400 relay team place third. Sophomore Sofia Dunlap bested her PR in the 800 meters by nearly five seconds to take third at 2:21.79.
Senior thrower Bennie Asomaning finished in fourth place in both the discus (106-6) and the shot put (33-08.75).
North Thurston sophomore Malena Miller, in her first varsity track season, broke the school record in the triple jump, becoming the first Rams girl to break 33 feet as she jumped 33-0.5 to finish in fourth place in the event. Her previous PR was 31-1.
Pope John Paul II had three juniors — Ruby Henry, Lily Warne-McGraw and Isla Valpiani — wind up in the top six in the mile run, with Henry taking home a third-place medal at 5:25.26.
River Ridge sophomore Xyla Camp set a new PR in the 300-meter hurdles at 49.75 to finish eighth, and sophomore Akela Brooks took eighth in the high jump with a PR of 4-10.
