Washington’s big week continues Thursday as the Pam Pack and Lady Pack track squads look to capture the school additional conference championships. They competed in their last meet before the title meet a week prior. Despite combating the spring-break layoff and a tricky weather situation, Washington looked strong in its final tune up.

“A lot of our relay times and all that stuff that is kind of technical, that was pretty sharp,” coach Jon Blank said. Washington topped Beddingfield in the girls’ 4-by-400 and 4-by-800 relays. “It was some of our individual events that I hoped would be a little bit better.”

Both the girls and boys are in the hunt for a 2-A Eastern Plains Conference championship on Washington’s way out of the league. Blank said that if the relay teams can rise to the occasion, both teams should be able to score enough in individual events to win.

“They’re both kind of in the same boat. It’s going to take a really strong effort out of both teams to get it done,” Blank said.

The Lady Pack’s strength is distance running. Both relays they topped the Lady Bruins in were the longer events. Senior Kennedy Landen is Washington’s torchbearer on that front. Landen won the 1,600-meter and 3,200-meter runs.

“Our distance is pretty strong right now,” Blank said. “Kennedy Landen has been solid, consistent and on top of things all season for us.”

That’s not to say that the Lady Pack doesn’t have what it takes to get it done in shorter events. Freshman Tarya Knight placed first in the 100-meter dash last week. Washington also had top finishes from Kizoria Redmond in the 400-meter dash and Nadya Windley in the 800-meter run.

Their male counterparts have plenty of strengths, too. Junior Turner Ragland has proven himself to be a sort of track and field Swiss-army knife. He’s excelled in the shot put and 300-meter hurdles — both of which he won in Washington’s last meet — and is serviceable in the 110-meter hurdles.

“He’s become a go-to guy for us,” Blank said while also highlighting Pam Pack sprinters Quayshawn Gaynor and Jahno Bryant. “They’ve done a great job on the relays. They’ve posted some great individual times, but we’ve got to be more consistent. I think our greatest asset is some of our youth.”

Upperclassmen like Landen and Ragland have led Washington, but it’s been the emergence of younger athletes that has helped put the teams in contention for a title. Gaynor and Bryant, for example, are both sophomores. In distance running for the boys, freshman Ricardo Hernandez in the 1,600-meter run and sophomore Henry Jennings in the 3,200-meter run will be sources of valuable points.

Ka’ci Foreman has also hit his stride. As a running back in the fall, the sophomore helped lead the junior varsity Pam Pack team to a strong season. He’s continued to grow as an athlete. He finished in the top three in his three events last week: third in the 100-meter dash, second in the long jump and first in the triple jump.

“He’s become one of our best sprinters, he’s on one of our top relays and he’s become, all of a sudden, our best long and triple jumper,” Blank said. “It’s been a steady improvement all season long. He’s been a great surprise for us.”

Washington makes the short trek to North Pitt Thursday morning. Like a handful of other teams have this week, the Pam Pack hopes to return home with hardware.