Phillips making a smooth transition

SK junior wins

800-meters with

best time in final

regular-season meet.

Jon Phillips talked about a simple adjustment a couple of weeks ago at the South Kitsap Invitational.

The junior said the 1,600-meter run wasn’t working out for him and that he should just focus on the 800. So he dropped it. It seemed to work well for Phillips in the team’s final league meet of the season against Stadium and Wilson as he won the 800 in 1 minute, 55.65 seconds, a personal-best mark.

“It’s pretty much what I’m going to be doing at state, so I just tried it out,” Phillips said. “I’m feeling a lot more confident.”

Phillips was one of the few individual boys winners for South. Leon La Deaux won the 300 hurdles at 41.87, Sean Allison claimed the javelin at 172 feet, 6 inches and Devlan Miller captured the high jump at 6-2. The Wolves’ lone multiple-event winner was Juwuan Rattler, who placed first in the shot put at 46-9 and the discus at 136-8.

South coach Joanne Warren said “anything (Rattler) does, he’s going to do well.“ She said the numbers are even more impressive considering Rattler was supposed to be one of the team’s top runners, but has been hindered by hamstring problems.

Warren said the entire team has been hindered by the weather. She said the dual-meet -- team results weren’t available by press time -- was one of the first times this year her team has run in clear weather.

Among those she said have suffered because of the weather is Lindsey Porter, who won the high jump at 4-8 and the pole vault at 11-6.

“I’m feeling pretty good about Lindsey,” Warren said. “She hasn’t had much competition and this is the first time it hasn’t rained on her.”

Porche Maniece (200, 27.60), Erica Copeland (800, 2:27.04) and Britta Peterson (1,600, 5:36.56) won individual events for the Wolves, in addition to Christina Boddie, who captured the 100 hurdles in 17.17.

“My goal was to PR in that to make it to league,” Maniece said. “I feel pretty good about it.”

The Wolves also had two winners in the jumps with Jasmyn Bolar winning the long jump at 15-5 ½ and Rachelle Jensen taking the triple jump at 32-7 ½. Roni Werder placed first in the shot put at 30-6 and Samantha Gulisao won the javelin at 95-8.

South’s girls team won the 400 (53.73) and 800 (1:59.20) relays, while the boys won the 400 (44.30).

The Narrows League preliminaries begin today and the league meet follows Friday. Both events are held at South.

Contact Port Orchard Independent Staff Writer Chris Chancellor at cchancellor@portorchardindependent.com or (360) 876-4414.

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