2026 South Sound Classic: Elite Matchups and Track-Level Reality
Washington’s best athletes have been traveling across the country to compete at the highest level since the indoor track season. On Saturday, May 2, 2026, those athletes come home to go head-to-head at Sparks Stadium in Puyallup, WA.
Emerald Ridge coach and race director Bob Fray has engineered an event that serves as the cinematic trailer for the WIAA Track and Field State Championships. This mid-season major has become a proving ground, growing more competitive with every passing year.
Whether you are a sprinter, jumper, middle-distance specialist, thrower, or distance runner, the South Sound Classic is designed to push you to your absolute limit, while pushing fans to the edge of their seats as the state's elite clash.
Boys 800m: Rogers and Olympia Seek Dominance
Rogers High School standout Amin Fidaar navigating heavy traffic on the track. Coming off a 1500m victory, Fidaar is primed to test the waters early in the elite 800m and 1600m fields.
Amin Fidaar steps onto the track just eight days after being crowned the 1500m Champion at the Nike Jesuit Twilight Relays in Portland, OR. The Rogers High School standout will have to fend off Olympia High School's senior leader, Caden Durocher, who set a personal best at the Arcadia Invitational on April 11th with a time of 1:52.65—sitting just over a second behind Fidaar.
Olympia High School senior Caden Durocher locking in during a brutal middle-distance push. Durocher enters a highly volatile 800m matchup as a heavy favorite.
Eisenhower’s Kian Compton (WA #7) enters as the third-fastest athlete, with Inglemoor’s Maxim Delyagin (WA #9) and West Valley's Max Gallegos (WA #13) rounding out the top five. The margins here are razor-thin: Elijah Tobin (WA #15, Lewis and Clark), Lord King Nana-Badu-Weah (WA #18, Battle Ground), Parker Lemmon (WA #22, Ferris), and Aaron Garber (WA #25, Lewis and Clark) all enter the race separated by less than a single second.
Get ready for a barn burner.
Girls 800m: Seattle Prep Looks for Supremacy
Sophomore Macey Powell (Seattle Prep) enters Saturday’s race as WA #5 in the 800m with a time of 2:14.17. Powell’s time puts her more than a second in front of Camas’ Lila McCarthy (2:15.32).
The real tactical battle will ignite from the #2 to #7 spots where the margins nearly disappear. Gig Harbor’s Lejla Carlsson is the outlier; her 2:17.50 puts her almost two seconds behind Tahoma's Liliana Britain. However, Carlsson excels when she lines up against heavy competition—expect her to capitalize in a high-caliber field like this. Aliah Karl (Edmonds-Woodway), Gabriela Chencheva (Eastlake), and West Valley’s Carllie Orcutt make up the 3-5 spots and will look to shatter the pack to secure their own personal bests.
Boys 1600m: A Heavyweight Clash
The boys 1600m is littered with top-tier names and promises a highly volatile, competitive affair.
Isaac Benjamin (South Kitsap) enters as the top-seeded athlete at 4:10.73, with Rogers' Amin Fidaar breathing down his neck at 4:11.79. Olympia’s freshman superstar Quenton Lanese enters at 4:12.93, making him Freshman US #2 (while currently holding Freshman US #1 in the 3200m).
Fearless on the track: Olympia’s freshman superstar Quenton Lanese surging ahead of the pack. Lanese is ready for a heavyweight clash against the senior upperclassmen in the 1600m.
Key Storylines to Watch:
Isaac Benjamin: Looks to solidify himself as the undisputed top distance athlete in the state, but can he hold off the heavy hitters directly behind him?
Amin Fidaar: On an absolute tear since cross country season, he will look to weaponize his momentum from his 1500m victory at the Nike Jesuit Twilight Relays. Expect Fidaar to push the pace early to test the waters.
Quenton Lanese: The freshman phenom has proven time and time again that he is fearless. Look for a gutsy, ground-level performance and a very possible upset against the two senior upperclassmen.
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INITIATE PRIVATE DEPLOYMENT ($500)Girls 1600m: Capitalizing on Speed
Latham West enters the 1600m as the standout distance runner. West secured a season-best at the Nike Jesuit Twilight Relays last week and is primed to build off that speed. Aubrey Willems (Eastlake) and Callie Orcutt (West Valley) round out the top three. Both secured personal bests on April 25th and will look to draft off West’s pacing to lock in top performances.
Bonney Lake’s Latham West displaying absolute tunnel vision. With a season-best performance already under her belt, West is looking to force the pace in the 1600m and 3200m.
8 Laps of Lactic Acid: The Girls 3200m
Latham West and Sophia Rodriguez (Mercer Island, Nike Elite) will line up in the 3200m as they have numerous times before. The real question: which version of these two athletes will show up? Both are still knocking the rust off from the off-season, and Rodriguez has yet to fully hit her stride. Will Saturday be her day?
Mercer Island's Sophia Rodriguez illuminated against the stadium crowd. The Nike Elite athlete is preparing for an 8-lap battle of attrition in the 3200m.
Charlotte White (Curtis) will look to throw her name in the hat and challenge the front runners. The sophomore enters with a 10:59.28 PR. Sitting on the heels of the state’s best, she has a prime opportunity for a breakout performance. Seattle Prep’s Elise Corr and Skyline’s Lucy Fraser round out the top five.
Tactical Breakdown: The first 1600m will answer a lot of questions. Expect Rodriguez and West to force the pace early. Charlotte White could find herself in no-man’s land, forced to choose between surging into the red zone or hanging back to utilize the pack. Behind them, Evelyn Shutske (Bainbridge), Kailey Slevin (Yelm), and Paeton Poleman (White River) will hunt for a defining race.
Boys 3200m: Chasing the Ghost of the Meet Record
A solitary war against the clock: Camas High School's Cohen Butler showing intense pre-race focus. Operating in a different time zone than the rest of the field, Butler is hunting for the 3200m meet record.
Camas’ Cohen Butler enters as the undisputed heavy hitter. With a massive personal best of 8:56.14, he is operating in a different time zone than the rest of the field (the next closest entries sit back at 9:23.73 and 9:23.83).
It is Butler’s race to lose. The true storyline is whether anyone will dare to challenge him up front, or if Butler will wage a solitary war against the clock to shatter the meet record of 8:56.94—set by Olympia’s Ethan Coleman (now at Notre Dame) back in 2022.
In the vacuum created by Butler, the race for second will be fierce. Sammy Connell (Inglemoor), Patrick Walsh (Yelm), Ignacio Llorens (Bainbridge), Gavin Mckeegan (Gig Harbor), and Connor Ward (Mercer Island) will be fighting for position in the front pack, keeping the tension high from wire to wire.
