Redmond High’s Stevens wins 4A Kingco 1,600 race

Published 4:30 pm Thursday, May 9, 2013

Johnathan Stevens was hoping for a 4A Kingco cross-country title in the fall, but that didn’t come to fruition.

On Wednesday, the Redmond High senior dug down deep and earned a 1,600-meter crown at the league track and field meet with a time of 4 minutes, 15.64 seconds. He finished fifth at Kingco last year and eighth at state in the 1,600.

“Today, I was really gunning for it,” he said afterward. “I was really nervous the whole day, but then about 40 minutes before, I just started talking to all the other athletes and I just started feeling really confident, just kind of relaxed.”

It was a slow race for the first two laps, but then Stevens summoned his energy and strength and attacked the final 800 meters. He opened up a gap on the fourth lap and rolled to victory.

The second half of the meet continues Friday at 3:30 p.m. at Redmond High.

In the regular-season standings, Redmond’s boys were Crest Division champs with a 5-1 record and the girls were second in the Crest with a 4-2 record.