Federal Way looks to be in the running for the South Puget Sound League North boys track and field title after beating the also undefeated Tahoma Bears, 85-69, in action at Federal Way Memorial Thursday.

The girls had some great performances from the Jean Licari-coached lady Eagles, but they lost 92-46 to the Bears in their simultaneous dual with Tahoma.

The greatest of the girls side, and, of the meet, at least ending it on a perfect note for the whole team, was sophomore Jacqie Evenson. She took first in the 100 and 300 hurdles, and long jump, before ending things to her teammates' oohs and ahs in the 1,600 relay. In that, following the final exchange of the baton, Evenson had to make up a good 15 meters on the first place runner, and she did.

"We don't call her Jacq-attack for nothing," smiled girls team captain Rita Helmbecht, who won the discus with a 100-7 throw a little earlier.

But Evenson's performance was downright frightening. How she could make up so much ground in only a quarter-mile was fairly amazing. But she did, with some of her coaches doing splits on her 400 run, like Mike Minihan, who works with Evenson in the hurdles.

"I had her at 59.4," he said, asked by sprint coach Quinn Gillis if he had Evenson's time. That time, under a minute in the 400, would have blown away the co-Tahoma first place winners times of 1:05 in the actual 400 event, to note.

Attack nothing. That looked like an all out assault by Evenson, who just ran down that foe in an attack the Bear anchor relay leg might play over in her psyche again and again for weeks.

"She rolls her shoulders when she runs," said coach Sam Beesley. "She is like a cheetah. I bet that girl didn't know she was being tracked down."

And eaten. That Bear anchor was noticeably crying, or at least feeling bad, hunched over on the track like a grizzly having just taken a fatal shot to the chest.

Maybe that Bear girl would feel better if she knew just what kind of competitor Evenson is.

"I saw her on this corner (first corner) and I saw the look in her eye," said coach Licari. "I knew then she would take her.

"Some would say 'oh, it's too much pain to catch up that much from behind,' but not Jacqie. She doesn't like to lose. She has that edge. With some athletes, losing is not an option. They've been raised that way."

In the 100 meter hurdles race coming in, Evenson had a slower time than the Bear girl she was to race against, and, that did nothing to intimidate Evenson, who is also a pure shooter and slasher/scorer key player on the Eagles' basketball team that made it to districts this past season.

"This race (100) coming in I knew she had a faster 100 time than me," said Evenson. "I wanted to make sure I beat her because I don't like losing."

The board is where one wants to jump as close to as possible, not a foot behind it for sure. So if Evenson was close to the board she would have been state qualifying good -- in the high 16s, low 17s. Evenson has three meets left to continue to improve in her events and get closer and closer to state times, not to mention school records.

Nikki Booth holds the Eagles' 300 hurdles record from attainment of that mark a few years ago, at 45 seconds. Evenson, only a sophomore, ran the 300 hurdles against the Bears in 47 seconds flat.

Evenson talked about the hardest part of her hurdles racing, maybe getting over that hurdle of nabbing a school record, or two, in the event(s).

"Yeah, I'm pretty fast," said Evenson. "But the technique of getting over the hurdles has been the biggest challenge."

But this race many witnessed what Evenson can do when challenged, like coming from behind a long ways to beat the Bears.

Evenson's biggest challenge after the race was saying "Thank you, thank, you..." to everyone acknowledging her great relay anchor leg comeback.

There should be others mentioned, too, besides. Evenson's firsts, and there are, from the now 3-0 boys side (girls are 1-2). The best effort for the boys was a replay of what Evenson did but the anchor leg that came back. Ben Young, was not quite as far back before running down his foe in the end.

Young, a junior, also won the 100-meter run in 11.5 and the 200 in 23.8. He was athlete of the meet for the boys' side along with sophomore Andrew Pulu, who won both the boys' discus with a 130-10 whirl and the shot put with a 47-10.5 put.