Katrina Drennen

Angela Jensen

The competition for the Columbia Bank/TAC Female Athlete of the Year was so keen it proved impossible to name a single winner. Out of 33 Pierce County high schools, any number of outstanding student-athletes could have been selected but Sumner’s Katrina Drennen and Fife’s Angela Jensen were inseparable. They tied for “tops”.

Both are Track & Field stars at their respective schools. Both are excellent students. Both have marks which truly rank among the best in the nation. Let’s try to alphabetize them in order to clearly separate their achievements. Drennen goes first (D before J) and let’s start with the West Central District results held in Tacoma in May.

Katrina set meet records in both the 1600 and 3200 meters, claiming championships in both. Her runs of 4:58.11 and 10:35.08 topped the old marks of 5:01.1 and 11:03.5. Her best times in those events (4:50.47 and 10:35.08) have led state rankings all season, and she ranks among the top 20 all-time best times in the state. She also had a personal best of 2:14.71 in the 800 meters and a relay split of 59 seconds on the 4x400 relay team this season. At 1500 meters in the prestigious Lake Washington Invitational, she topped one of the state’s strongest fields by three seconds at 4:34.86. Katrina was been invited to the USA Junior Meet to qualify for the Pan Am Games after qualifying easily in the 1500 and 3000 meter events. At the state 3A championships she broke two state meet records in the 3200 and 1600 meter runs. She won the 3200 state title with a time of 10:31.79, a mark that eclipsed the old record by more than two full seconds, and was her career best. She also broke the state 1600 mark by five seconds but came-up short of winning by 1.75 seconds.

Captain of Sumner’s Track and Cross-Country teams for two years, she had a 3.7 grade point average and was the organizer of a Sumner Relay for Life senior project to benefit the American Cancer Society. In Cross Country, she was Sumner’s #1 runner for two years after winning the 2A state championship as a frosh at nearby Orting high school. In Cross Country she finished 8th out of 78 runners in the Nike Borderclash between Washington and Oregon stars. That won her a top ten finish and the coveted Nike Goddess of Victory award. She will run collegiately at the University of Montana.

Washington State University is Angela Jensen’s choice for her college athletic career. The Fife high hurdles star had times this season that rank her in the top 1% in the nation. As a sophomore she won the Seamount League championships in both the 100 and 300 hurdles, and she placed in both events at state with a second-place finish in the 100. As a junior she was state 3A champ in the 100 meters and 2nd in the 100 hurdles behind a two-time champion. She was unbeaten in her league, was first in the prestigious Pasco Invitational, and was named Athlete of the Meet at the Shelton Invitational. At the end of the year she was rated in the top 1% of all juniors in the USA in three events.

This year, as a Senior, she did not lose a single race during the regular season as Fife was moved to 2A competition. She was West Central District 2A leader in 100, 200, 400, 100 hurdles, 300 hurdles, and the high jump. Most of the season she had the top marks in the state in the 100 and 300 hurdles for all classifications. She was named the Outstanding Female Athlete at Pasco’s event which attracted the top hurdlers in all state classes. At the West Central District Championships she won the 100 meters, the 100 hurdles, the 300 hurdles and the high jump. Her times in the two hurdles were the state’s fastest in any classification at any district event held in the state. At the state championships the very next week, she again won the 100 meters, the 100 hurdles, and the 300 hurdles. In the 100 hurdles she set a new 2A meet record of 14.3 and that mark topped every classification champion in the state of Washington.

Angela also is a three-sport letter winner at Fife, winning all-league honors in Volleyball and becoming a regional qualifier for state in wrestling. An honor student with a 3.5 GPA, Jensen had scholarship offers from North Carolina, West Point, Notre Dame, Michigan, the University of Washington and Oregon. Her choice was WSU. Go Cougs! They’ll be faster with Jensen aboard, for sure.