Harman third in

4A shot put

PASCO — Moses Lake Chief senior Billy Matthews picked the perfect time to unleash a career-best throw in the discus, using his effort to win the title at the 4A state track and field championships Friday.

Matthews hit a mark of 164-08 in the preliminaries, good enough to send the Moses Lake thrower into the finals in first place. Two other discus throwers topped the 164-foot mark, but Matthews' throw was just good enough to hold up over second-place finisher Garrett Comfort of Skyview, who threw the discus 164-02.

Tad Harman also competed in the discus, throwing a 144-02 to narrowly miss the finals and finish in ninth place.

Saturday, Harman competed in his best event, the shot put. Harman hit a personal best throw of 53-08 to move into the finals in third place.

In the finals, Harman launched the shot nearly 55 feet on his final throw, but was ruled to have scratched on the effort. The throw would have been long enough to break Kay Lybbert's 1959 Moses Lake High School record throw of 54-07, but the scratch negated Harman's potential record-breaker.

Nonetheless, his toss of 53-08 held up to give the Moses Lake junior third place over four other tightly bunched competitors. Third through seventh places in the shot were separated by a mere 3 1/2 inches.

Harman was the top junior in the shot put, and should be a favorite to win the event in 2008.

Moses Lake finished 12th in the 4A team standings on the strength of Matthews and Harman, behind only Walla Walla and Richland amongst Eastern Washington schools.