Four seniors and a freshman on track to state for Washougal

Four Washougal High School seniors and one freshman will compete in the 2A state track and field meet Thursday through Saturday, at Mt. Tahoma High School in Tacoma.

Josh Bischoff captured his second district championship in the discus Friday, at Centralia High School. The senior won the event with a toss of 152 feet, 5 inches. He also took second place in the shot put (50-3.5).

“I feel really confident,” Bischoff said. “I think it’s going to be a great time. I think I can place really high in both events.”

Bischoff thought he had an even better discus throw than the ones that counted at districts. He said the judge wasn’t paying attention on one of his attempts and asked him to throw it again. Although Bischoff is not sure if that throw would have broken the 163-foot school record he has been chasing all season, he would have liked to have heard what the distance was.

“My goal is to get that school record at state,” Bischoff said. “That would be a dream come true for me.”

Aubrey Kraft clinched second place in the discus with a season-best throw of 144-1, but had to settle for third place in the shot put (49-6).

“I’ve got only 12 more throws left,” Kraft said. “Just go all out on every single one of them.”

After fouling her first three discus throws and failing to make finals, Kirsten De La Rocha tossed the shot put a personal best 32-5 to finish in third place at districts and qualify for state as a freshman.

“That really affected me mentally,” she said. “This was districts. It meant a lot to me. I had to go take a seat up in the stadium and reset everything.”

After a pep talk from her coach, De La Rocha put her best foot forward in the shot put and came through with the best throw of her young career.

“It’s great to see you are doing so well and you have all this time to improve,” she said. “I just want to know that I did my best at state. If that puts me on the podium, that would be great.”

Matt Rotundo took third place at districts in the 110-meter hurdles (15.56 seconds) and the triple jump (42 feet). He is going to state for the first time.

“It’s a lot to take in. Focusing on why I’m there is going to be a challenge,” Rotundo said. “As long as I make finals, I will be pretty grateful to have this experience and to go as far as I could.”

Christina Murray is going to state in the pole vault after clearing the qualifiying height of 10-4.