“The Bainbridge High School girls’ track team won its first-ever district title during last weekend’s 3A District 3 meet at North Mason and qualified ten athletes for this weekend’s Washington State Track and Field Championships – Star Track XIX – at Tacoma’s Lincoln Bowl. The boys were sixth in the 10-team field and qualified two. The top two finishers in each event advanced to State.The girls won five of 18 events and placed second in four more en route to scoring 120 points to Lakes’ 91.5.Laura Bartunek won the high jump on Friday with a leap of 5-2 and Alice Russell took second in the discus with a lifetime-best 108-5. Joe Mankes punched his ticket to State the same day with his 43-5 1/4 triple jump for second place. The girls opened Saturday with Crisma Biggs edging Melissa Borgen for second in the 100 hurdles, 16.67 to 16.68. Biggs came back a few minutes later to lead off the 4×100 relay and give it a lead it never relinquished as Sushi Speidel, Jessica Borgen and Melissa Borgen ran the other three legs.Freshman Veronica Ivey ran a nearly two-second personal best to win the 400 in 60.52. Kari Jensen finished strongly in the same race for third in 62.29.Becca Ivey easily won the 800, dipping under 2:20 for the first time this season in 2:19.7. Despite a five-second improvement over her district time last year, Ivey expressed some concerns.I’m not as confident in my conditioning as I was last year, she said. I’ve had shin splints. I feel more like a 400-meter runner.Nonetheless, her time was just .38 off the stadium record.The final win came in the 4×400 relay, as Jensen took the baton slightly behind on the second leg and opened up a 20-yard margin as the team cruised home in an unpressed 4:10.38.Sarah Grue nearly pulled out the team’s sixth win, but was outkicked in the final strides of the 1600 after setting the pace for much of the race. She nevertheless ran a six-second personal best 5:29.81 for second despite being bothered by stomach cramps.Russell was second in the shot at 32-6 1/2, the 4×200 relay was third in 1:51.38 and Jessica Borgen was third in the 100 (13.30) and fifth in the 200 (27.8).Defending state champion Lakes was a runaway winner in boys competition with 168 points. Bainbridge scored 61.Luke Preble overcame three years of frustration by winning the 400 in 50.48 after clocking a lifetime best 50.05 in the prelims. Tim Freeman was fourth in 51.48.I came out of the blocks a little slower in the finals, Preble said. But I felt in control the whole way.Several boys had Saturday near misses as Mankes equaled the winning height in the high jump of 6-0 but was relegated to third on the basis of more attempts. Evan Galloway was third in the 3200 in 10:07.42 after finishing fifth the day before in the 1600 in 4:41.50. Pole vaulter Aaron Blumenthal cleared 12-6 for fourth. The mile relay team was second after the second leg but faded to fourth in 3:34.11.We didn’t set out to win the meet, coach Andy Grimm said. I knew we’d score a lot of points, and when I started seeing wins on Saturday, I got excited. This was a great showing on the district level, and it reflects the level of talent we have. “