Kasen Williams rocked back and forth Saturday afternoon, visualizing his takeoff.

Eyes focused on the end of the Mount Tahoma long jump pit, the Skyline junior exploded down the runway with shear determination.

As the thud of spikes hit the rubber, Williams launched himself farther into the sand than he ever had before.

The only problem — a red flag was raised for the second consecutive time, indicating his foot had crossed the line.

“I think that (jump) would have been a mid 24,” Williams said.

Instead, Williams, who was tied with Curtis’ Rahmel Dockery with a top jump of 24 feet, 1 1/14 inches, had to settle for his second best jump of 23-6. Dockery’s second best jump of 24-0 gave him the tiebreaker, and the 4A state long jump title.

“A scratch is a scratch, you don’t argue with the refs … it’s the call,” Williams said. “Just go back and do it again on the next one.”

Saturday’s second-place finish in the long jump came a day after Williams earned a state championship in the triple jump with a distance of 47-6 and second-place finish in the high jump with a leap of 6-10.

“It feels good,” Williams said. “A big goal of mine was to come out and get three crowns … but yesterday with the slip (in the high jump) and today with the scratches, things haven’t really been going my way. But 1-2-2 at state, you really can’t complain about that.”

This is the second straight year Williams has won a state title. He won the high jump crown as a sophomore, while placing second in the triple jump and third in the long jump.

Williams’ finishes, along with two third-places from the 400 and 1,600 relay teams gave Skyline 38 team points and second place overall. Mead of Spokane won the 4A state title with 82.5 points.

The Spartans’ 400 relay of Alex Lee, Blake Young, Joey Kettel and Dustin Bratten finished in a time of 42.73 seconds. Only Spanaway (42.39) and Mead (42.48) were faster.

Skyline’s 1,600 relay of Lee, Matthews, Bratten and Williams finished in 3:19.98. Federal Way won the event in a state-record time of 3:15.66.

Lee, who competed in the 100 and 200, failed to make Saturday’s finals. His 100-meter time of 11.57 and 200-meter time of 23.04, placed him 12th and 11th, respectively.

The Eastlake boys also had an impressive performance at state. The Wolves earned 16 team points, finishing 12th overall.

The 1,600 relay of Curtis McCarson, Daniel Jackstadt, Paul Kupcis and Brandon Cole finished second overall in a time of 3:19.86.

Cole also finished seventh in the individual 400-meter dash in a time of 49.55.

Senior Jeff Sloat had perhaps the most surprising finish, placing third in the 300 hurdles. He had the state’s sixth fastest time headed into the event, but battled through a strong head wind to finish third place on the state’s largest track and field stage.

“I think it was over the second to last hurdle, the seventh one, I really felt a good push off of it,” Sloat said. “It was just a really hard race, my head’s throbbing right now, I’m glad it’s done.”

Eastlake’s two other state competitors, Kupcis and W. Devin Bennett, fell short of the top eight. Kupcis had the 12th fastest time in the 800 meters at 1:57.38. Bennett placed ninth in the triple jump (43-0) and 10th in the long jump (21-4 3/4).

The Issaquah boys had three state competitors, but didn’t earn any team points at the state meet. Senior Chris Brasino had the highest finish, placing 10th in the 3,200 in a time of 9:29.48. Junior Michael Baba placed 13th in the javelin with a throw of 158-10, and Josh Martyn was 16th in the 300 hurdles in a time of 43.87.

Skyline girls place 10th, Issaquah ties for 20th

Highlighted by senior Amber Dodd’s third-place finish in the 300 hurdles, the Skyline girls placed 10th overall Saturday with 19 team points at the Washington 4A Track & Field Championships.

Dodd set a personal record of 44.64 seconds in the event, all while banging her ankle on a hurdle, and going into the wind.

“Pushing through that wind is like one of the hardest things I’ve ever done,” said Dodd, immediately after the race. “But it’s all worth it. It doesn’t matter if you feel like crap now.”

Shea O’Donnell finished fourth in the 100 meters in a time of 12.64 seconds, and fifth in the 200 in 25.77 seconds.

The 800 relay team of Dodd, Michelle Bretl, Kassia Fortier and O’Donnell placed fifth overall in a time of 1:43.66.

“I’m not complaining at all, it’s beautiful,” Bretl said. “It’s definitely a step up from last year.”

The same group of athletes made the 400 relay finals, but failed to finish after a problem with the final handoff.

Issaquah tied Thomas Jefferson for 20th place.

Sophomore Eva Perry cleared a new school record of 11 feet, 9 inches in the pole vault, placing fourth overall.

“I just stay focused and try to get the run right,” Perry said of her approach. “I was hoping for a PR.”

The top three pole vault placers all cleared 12 feet, led by Mead’s Tasha Clark.

Junior Haley Jacobson also earned a fourth-place finish, finishing the 200 in 25.77 seconds — narrowly ahead of Skyline’s Shea O’Donnell. Jacboson also took sixth in the 100 in a time of 12.81 seconds.

Issaquah’s other competitor, junior pole vaulter Mallory Cooke, failed to clear the opening height, falling into 16th place.

Eastlake’s lone female state competitor, senior Chelsea Orr, finished in 16th place in the 1,600 in a time of 5:18.89.