Is it track and field for the Trout Lake-Glenwood program or, more specifically, simply track and pole vault?

Hard to tell since nine of the 15 boys in the two-school program have competed in the event and three of them are among the top four 1B vaulters in the state.

"The kids just gravitate to it," said Morgan Colburn, who shares coaching duties with Tom Eldred. "We've had some new kids come out and it's sort of turned into the thing to do."

One of those new kids is senior Kristian Rubesh, who in his first season of vaulting is the state 1B leader at 12 feet, 6 inches. Rubesh came from Sri Lanka, where his parents worked as missionaries before moving the family to the Trout Lake area last summer.

"He turned out for soccer and it was the first time he'd ever done that, too," Colburn said. "You could tell then he was a good athlete. When he came out for track, I wanted to make him a hurdler but the first thing he wanted to do, of course, was the vault."

With Rubesh (12-6) and senior Luke Larson (12-0) leading the way, Trout Lake-Glenwood has eight boys ranked among the state's top 10 in 1B, and that's a big problem. First and foremost, the Greater Columbia B district gets only one state berth. And secondly, the state's other top vaulter, Bickleton's Patrick Maeder, is in the same district.

The only relief from that tight squeeze is an additional state-qualifying standard of 11-6 -- a height that would've won last year's state title by six inches. The 11-6 clearance must be recorded in the district meet at Yakima's Kumler Field on May 16.

The bizarre situation is that few other schools in the state have vaulters or even offer the event at the 1B level. In the first 1B state meet last year, only four boys qualified from five district meets and that was a landslide compared with girls, who had only two girls at state. That left eight individual state medals on the table.

Larson paid a big price last year. He led the state most of the season at 12-0 but Maeder won district. Larson barely missed the standard and didn't qualify, even though there were only four boys at state and two did not go higher than 9-0.

Bickleton and Trout Lake-Glenwood made an appeal to the WIAA to allow extra qualifiers in the vault from District 5, saying it was a shame to waste state medals when good kids were being left at home. Appeal denied.

"It's tough to see the field not close to being full at state while we have guys who could score well," Colburn said. "We'll have a lot of kids shooting for 11-6 at district."

The GCB girls are faced with the same situation, although to a much lesser degree. Defending state champ Kindra VanLaar of TLG is the current 1B leader at 9-0 while Bickleton freshman Star Kibby is tied for second in the state at 8-6. Whoever doesn't win district can still qualify for state but they must clear at least 8-9.

Olander focusing just on 800

West Valley junior Lisa Olander, a two-time Class 3A state champion in the 1,600, will not go for three in a row this month.

Olander and her coach, Jamie Nordstrom, have decided to focus on the 800 in the Columbia Basin 3A district meet today at Southridge. She'll also run a leg on the 4x400.

"It was something that she and I had been talking about since the fall," Nordstrom noted. "She wanted to make the 800 a focus this year."

Slowed some by illness and injury this season, Olander has only raced three 800s but she showed good form last week, winning at the Stanwood Invitational in 2:19.27.

Olander broke the Valley record in the 1,600 last year at state with a 3A meet record of 4:51.05. She doubled at state as a freshman in the 800 and 1,600 but not last year.

"The way she looked when she came back up to the tent in the heat after winning the 1,600 title ... I guess I wouldn't want someone making my kid look like that," Nordstrom said. "So it was one or the other, and this year it is the other."

'09 SunDome Showdown set

Ellensburg's boys and girls will take on two Whatcom County basketball powers in the SunDome Showdown, a slate of six prep games set for Martin Luther King Day (Jan. 19) next year.

The Bulldogs' girls team will play Lynden in a rematch of opening day in the 2A state tourney two months ago, and the boys will face Squalicum, which placed third in 3A and will move down to 2A this fall.

Granger's boys will play Grandview, and the Spartans' girls team will take on Freeman. La Salle's boys will be paired with Lake Roosevelt, and a compelling 1A match-up will see Chelan's boys vs. Vashon.

The event is not related to Tourneytown.com or the Yakima Herald-Republic, which previously sponsored a basketball event on the MLK holiday.

Santo stepping down

Daron Santo, who just directed Prosser's girls to a third-place trophy in the 2A state basketball tournament, is stepping down to pursue opportunities as a pro tennis instructor.

After taking over the program in 1999 and building from a 3-18 first season, Santo's teams had 17 or more wins in each of the last four seasons.

* Rick Redden resigned as Richland football coach last week for personal and family reasons. Redden went 18-11 in three seasons.

Class of the discus

Prosser's Ana Zapien (see spotlights) ranks third overall in the state with her school-record toss of 133 feet, 9 inches and the two girls ranked in front of her are also Class 2A throwers.

In fact, the state's top five are all 2A heading into this week's league and sub-district meets, topped by Ashley Kenney's 152-0 for West Valley of Spokane.

It's been a big year for the girls discus in the Valley with four girls over 121 feet. The Valley leader the past two seasons as been 115-9 and 114-2, respectively.

* Sports reporter Scott Spruill can be reached at sspruill@yakimaherald.com or 577-7686