Mount Si and Sammamish locked up in the league track and field opener for both the boys’ and girls’ teams last Thursday in the first home meets for Mount Si since 1999. The results were mixed.

The Wildcat and Totem boys’ finished in a tie, 71-71. Among the top Wildcat finishers were senior Thomas Goble, who won the 400 meter with a time of 54.4 seconds; sophomore Drake da Ponte, who won the 800 meter with a time of 2:13; and junior Keith Keller, who won the high jump with a jump of 5 feet 6 inches.

Sophomore Frank McLaughlin won the 200 meter with a time of 24 seconds flat. Josh Davis also won the shot put and discus events for the Wildcats.

Davis, a sophomore in his first year of track, said he focused on his concentration.

Boys’ coach Chris Jackson said a tie was quite rare. “You see it once in a blue moon,” said Jackson, who also said the teams were both very evenly matched.

Junior Sean Bothell was pleased with his team’s performance.

“I think we did pretty good. There’s always room for improvement, but it’s good to see a lot of new faces out here,” said Bothell, who is also looking for big things from his teammate, Davis.

“I expect him to keep doing what he’s doing. He’s a strong kid and he has a lot of potential and he should just keep it up,” Bothell said.

The girls, however, weren’t as lucky, falling to Sammamish 79-65. Junior Jessica Oliver and freshman Madison Yakaboski both won two events each and helped win a third.

Oliver won the 200 meter with a time of 28.3 seconds and the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 50.4 seconds. Yakaboski won the 100 meter with a time of 13.1 seconds and the long jump with a jump of 15 feet 6 inches.

The freshman was surprised she did as well as she did. She said she found it to be an accomplishment.

“It is very nice. [I] wasn’t really expecting that, but it was really exciting,” Yakaboski said.

Fans can look for Yakaboski to be a two-sport star at Mount Si. For the budding basketball phenom, it’s all about making sure she has plenty of options open to her when colleges start recruiting her.

“That was my plan, to come to high school and play basketball and track so that if it didn’t happen in one, I could turn to the other,” she said.

The Wildcat girls’ relay team, consisting of Yakaboski, Oliver, Symone Shaw and Katie Woolsey, also won the 4-by-100-meter relay with a time of 51.9 seconds. Senior Tove Garhart won the pole vault.

Mount Si’s Diane Keller won the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 17 seconds flat. Strong second-place finishes were put in by Shaw in the long jump, Keller in the high jump and Tephra Brune in the discus.