San Tan Valley, AZ - With temperatures almost reaching triple digits on Friday, June 12, 2020, at Poston Butte High School in San Tan Valley, Arizona, some of Washington's elite high school track and field athletes put together great performances on day 1 of running events at the Desert Dream Last Hurrah Invite.
Even for the short sprints, Eastside Catholic's Smith felt the heat the entire night even though the sun had set right before his races.
"It was obviously hot and that kind of drained me." said Smith in a phone interview last night.
"In the 100, I for sure felt drained so my legs didn't feel great. But once I adjusted to the conditions, I felt better in the 200."
Smith took second in the boy's 100-meter and 200-meter running times of 10.62 seconds and a personal best 21.62 seconds.
Smith, who was third last spring in the 200-meter at the 3A state track meet, had early advantages in both races with great starts from the blocks, but it was Gavin Schurr with the late charge to take home both wins running 10.56 seconds in the 100-meter and 21.47 seconds in the 200 meter.
The entire spring Smith had been training on his own, where he had ran a few time trials, all solo effort, and came away with new personal best marks in both.
To finally race against someone who was on the same level of racing as he was, it was a bit nerve racking, specifically in the 100-meter.
"I'm not used to running with anyone since I train on my own," said Smith.
"So it felt odd having someone to right there with me, so in the 100, once he (Schurr) passed me, I paniced a tiny bit."
Once Smith got to the 200-meter, he was more relaxed and approached the race differently.
In the 200, I just focused on my race and didn't worry about anyone else," said Smith.
"I knew what I could do and I know I can still run faster. I wasn't worried at all about what I ran. I just wanted to execute a race. Of course I wanted to run faster, but no one really ran their best today so I'm satisfied with how I did."
Federal Way's Isaiah and Jeremiah Davis were third and fourth in the 100-meter running 11.02 seconds and 11.17 seconds. Also from Federal Way finishing in 27th and making his high school track and field debut was Peter Vong running 12.02.
Drew Klein Jr. of Federal Way kicked off the evening with a fourth place finish in the 110-meter Hurdles running 15.42 seconds.
The most highly anticipated race of the day came in the girl's mile featuring multiple All-American runners from around the country, including Bellarmine Prep's own and third place finisher in the 1,600 at the 2019 4A state track meet, Ella Borsheim.
Six girls manage to run under 4 minutes, 50 seconds despite a slow first half to the race coming through at 2 minutes, 30 seconds for 800-meters with Brooke Rauber outkicking BYU commit and top seeded runner Lexi Halladay in a time of 4 minutes, 48.05 seconds.
Borsheim was in the mix with the top pack for all four laps and ended up placing sixth overall running a time of 4 minutes, 50.32 seconds.
3-time 3A 800-meter state champion Kate Jendrezak of Eastside Catholic blew away the field in the 200-meter running a first place time of 24.86.
The UCLA commit exploded out of the blocks leading from start to finish and extended her lead by almost 10 meters coming down the homestretch on her way to victory. Jendrezak was the only girl in the 200-meter race to clock a time under 25 seconds.
Sehome's Zack Munson made his high school track and field debut with an 11th place finish in the boy's mile running a time of 4 minutes, 28.72 seconds.
Finishing in first was Isaiah Givens running 4 minutes, 16.52 seconds with a 58.85 second last lap.
Day 2 coverage of the Desert Dream Last Hurrah Invite will continue to air on MileSplit.com at 7:00 p.m. starting with the girl's 800-meter race featuring Bellarmine's Borsheim.
Borsheim will also run in the girl's 3,200-meter at 8:29 p.m. with the 2019 4A state cross country champion, Issaquah's Julia David-Smith.
Eastside Catholic's Jendrezak and Smith are set to run in the 400-meter with the girl's race at 7:55 p.m. and the boy's race at 8:05 p.m..
Sehome's Munson will race in the boy's 3,200 meter at 8:57 p.m..
For full results from day 1, visit Athletic.net
Note: All athletes are running unattached and are not running for their high schools.