It was an awful day to do anything physical on Thursday, but the Bainbridge track team overcame the wet, windy and cold conditions to defeat Seattle Prep and Eastside Catholic.

“It’s nasty,” head coach Andy Grimm said of a day better off being spent indoors. “But I credit all the kids, not just ours (for sticking it out). Nobody backed out of any races, and the kids got in there (and ran).”

Madeline Sheldon set a personal record in the 100 meter dash with a first place time of 12.9 seconds. She placed third in the 200 meter dash with a time of 28.4 seconds.

Tess Sadowsky was victorious in the 100 and 300 hurdles with times of 17.4 and 52 seconds, respectively.

Hillary Pritchett, Caroline Johnson, Christina Garrigues and Molly O’Keefe finished 1-2-3-4 in the 800. Johnson also finished first in the 3200 with a time of 11:34, over a minute faster than the second place finisher.

Maren Swanson was first in the high jump and the triple jump with jumps of 4 feet, 4 inches and 29 feet, 9.5 inches respectively. She placed third in the long jump and second in the discus.

Emily Pierce placed first in the shot put with a mark of 32 feet and 3.5 inches and first in the discus with a mark of 111 feet, 9 inches.

The relay teams scored slow times, as several runners were running sick.

On the boys side, Nazar Kamenchenko finished first in the 100 with a time of 11.8 and second in the 400 with a time of 55.4 seconds.

In one of the closest races of the day, Bevan Taylor lost out to Max O’Donohugh-McDonald of Seattle Prep in the 1600.

Taylor finished second with a time of 4:27.1, just seconds behind the 3A state cross country champion’s time of 4:25.8.

Clif McKenzie did his part to pile up points for the team, finishing third in the 200, third in the long jump, second in the triple jump and first in the 4×400 with Nate Mallove, Patrick Wauters and Bevan Taylor.

The race saw Bainbridge fall behind early, but Wauters did his part on the backstretch to close the gap and slowly pull ahead of the Eastside Catholic runner.

It must have rattled him, as he blew the handoff to the anchor, giving Taylor precious seconds to build an insurmountable lead and finish first.

Quinton Agosta was first in the high jump with a mark of 5 feet, 8 inches and first in the discus with a mark of 133 feet, 8.5 inches.

Haakon Ostenson and Cheyne Clark finished 1-2 in the pole vault.

The girls team finished first by one point, 70 to 69, while the boys team won the gold with 64 points.

Bainbridge travels to Rainier Beach next Thursday. Their next home meet is April 27.

Russell the ‘Lady’ for Ray

With several players out for the Bainbridge girls water polo team, including Anne Scott, Christie Russell did her best to make up for her absence.

The senior co-captain scored four goals, including a hat trick, in the first period to lead Lady Ray past a thin Eastside Catholic team by the score of 12-5 Thursday at Ray Williamson Pool, their first game since March 29.

“We’re definitely quite rusty,” head coach Jeff Clark said. “But we did well.”

The Crusaders only brought nine players, while Clark kept the starting eight in for the first three quarters.

Russell and Jennifer Heinlen scored quickly in the first periodto give Ray a 2-0 lead before Eastside got on the board.

But Russell scored twice more and Heinlen scored again to put them up 5-1 after one.

The second period was dominated by the defense on both sides. They forced turnovers via steals, slowing the offenses and forcing shot clock violations.

Eastside Catholic scored twice, but Phoebe Lentz put one in and made some nice defense plays to keep the Crusaders from scoring, including a great hustle play where she cut off a Crusader right at the goal and stole the ball.

She had three steals in the game, as did Mary Masala.

Clark felt the switch in sides slowed things down considerably.

“It’s tough going into the shallow end on offense,” he said. “It’s just difficult to score, and the goalie has all that (space) to jump off the bottom. Even with the goal being bigger, it’s still tough.”

Lady Ray took over in the third, as Eastside Catholic couldn’t get anything going on offense as Ray stole several balls and forced the Crusaders to turn the ball over on numerous shot clock violations.

Heather Schuler scored twice, while Russell put in her fourth goal of the game and even goalie Emily Lewis scored when she put up a shot that went off the Crusaders goalkeeper’s hands just as the period ended.

That was good enough for Clark, as he put in the bench for the fourth. Eastside scored twice, but Diane Lubovich put one in to finish it all off.

Clark liked how Russell made her mark offensively.

“When she has four- and five-goal games, we’re tough to beat,” he said.

Russell had two assists, while Lewis finished with five saves.

She said the work at practice has been paying off for her.

“I feel really confident about my shooting arm now,” she said.

She also felt the team is working their way back from being off for spring break.

“We’re definitely getting back in the groove,” she said. “We’ve been working on some man down, defensive-offensive situations and working a lot more on strategy, although Jeff is still having us swim a lot.

“It’s balanced, but I think we’re turning a little more towards strategy.”

Up next for Lady Ray (3-5) is the Curtis Tournament at Curtis High School next weekend against teams such as Curtis, Wilson, Mercer Island, Willamete Valley, Washington Water Polo Club, Chehalem and Tualatin Hills.

They play Eastside Catholic again April 26 at the King County Aquatic Center, then Shorewood April 29 at Shorewood and at the KCAC May 3.

Their next home game is May 5 against Mercer Island.

Kickers win one, lose one

It’s one step forward, one step back for the Bainbridge boys soccer team.

The Spartans defeated the O’Dea Fighting Irish 3-1 Tuesday at home, but lost to an undefeated and red hot Bishop Blanchet squad 2-0 Thursday.

Kyle Montgomerry scored an unassisted goal in the 23rd minute and assisted on another goal in the 69th minute as Bainbridge was shut out.

The loss puts them in fifth place in the Metro League Mountain Division, a point behind Seattle Prep for fourth place.

Against O’Dea, Will O’Donnell scored first in the 10th minute of the game off a corner kick from Francis Waplinger.

O’Donnell put it in from the six yard line.

O’Dea’s Robert Lansche tied it up 40 minutes later, but Tyler Church put Bainbridge up for good when he scored off a pass from Dylan Tucker-Gagnes in the 61st minute.

O’Donnell and Waplinger hooked up again in the 68th minute, as Waplinger’s corner kick was lined up perfectly for O’Donnell to score.

Bainbridge (1-2-2, 5-2-3) hosts Nathan Hale at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday.

Divers bring back gold

Two Bainbridge High school divers are competing to put more medals in their trophy case.

Olaf Olson won two golds at the U.S. Diving Junior Olympic Region 10 Championships March 25 and 26 in Tuallatin Hills, Ore.

The junior placed first in the 1 meter board event with a score of 412 points and first in the 3 meter competition with a score of 449.6 points.

Olson won the 3A state diving championship in February.

Stephanie Whalen took home a silver medal in the 3 meter springboard event with a score of 368.35 over nine dives.

The senior, a co-captain on the girls swim and dive team, also finished fourth in the 1 meter springboard event with a score of 332.90 points.

She placed third at the 3A state meet in the diving competition with a score of 414.40 points, breaking the school record in the process.

Both qualify for the National Championships held in Minneapolis, Minn. later this month.

More than 120 divers on 16 teams from Washington, Oregon, California, Utah, Arizona and Alaska competed. The top six in each event move on to the National dive meet.

Sailors come home winners

The Bainbridge sailing team were victorious at the Dogfish Bay Regatta at Dogfish Bay in Poulsbo last weekend.

Against teams from Orcas, Friday Harbor and North Kitsap, along with several sailors from the University of Washington, the Spartans kept pace with the other high schools in a round-robin team race series Saturday.

The Huskies easily won all four races they were in, but Bainbridge, North and Orcas all finished with two wins and two losses apiece, despite strong winds and sporadic rain. At one point, a strong gust blew over five boats at once.

Friday Harbor had no wins.

On Sunday, the wind speed slowed down considerably and Bainbridge responded, winning all of their matches against the other three teams as captain Pat Layton, sailing with various crew members, led the way for the team.