Ever since she placed second last spring as a freshman, Madelyn Magee has kept her eyes on the prize.

This spring there was no denying The Bear Creek sophomore as she easily won the high jump gold medal at last weekend’s Class 2B state track and field meet at Eastern Washington University in Cheney.

Magee, who won a silver medal in the high jump last spring, cleared 5 feet, 5 inches to earn the state win this season as Alix Saucier of St. George’s was the next best competitor, clearing 5-1.

“She went in as the pretty big favorite,” said Bear Creek coach Scott Wright. “She has been really focused on her goal of winning this after getting second last year. She’s definitely one of the favorites (next season). She could go to the 4A meet and win.”

The mark of 5-5 would have been good enough for third at this year’s 4A meet, but Magee does have a personal-best mark of 5-8, which was the winning measurement at the 4A meet.

“We haven’t had a jumper in a field event like her in the last five years,” Wright said.

Magee, who plays basketball during the winter, will go to “a bunch of high jump camps” during the summer to improve her skills, Wright said.

Magee’s gold-medal performance was the highlight for the Bear Creek boys’ and girls’ track and field teams, which sent 16 athletes to the state meet.

Fueled by Magee’s win, the Grizzlies cracked the top ten in the team standing, placing ninth with 30 points. Junior Kira Geiger placed third in the pole vault with a mark of 9-0 and senior Emily Kadeg was fourth in the javelin.

The Bear Creek 800 relay team of sophomores Elizabeth Fernandez, Morgan Rial, Halle Coleman and Danielle Isbell won a bronze medal with a time of 1 minute, 50.15 seconds.

“They wanted it bad this year,” Wright said of his all-sophomore relay team, three of whom ran on last year’s bronze-medal team. “They are ready. They have some extra focus for next year.”

The Grizzlies got another podium finish from its 400 relay team of Fernandez, Rial, Isbell and senior Joy Jacobson, who claimed sixth place.

On the boys side, junior Josh Firminger was busy, placing second in the 400, fourth in the 200 and also ran a leg on the Grizzlies’ seventh-place 400 relay team, which also included senior Kyle Blankenbecker, junior Nigel Saw and sophomore Lucas Fernandez.

“Overall, it was a really, really good trip east for us,” Wright said.