Lane Seals, left, and Caleb Kruse congratulate each other after pushing each other to do better in a friendly rivalry during the 100th Coos County Track Meet Friday. World Photo by Lou Sennick

The expected showdown in the triple jump more than lived up to the hype Friday night, while a tender muscle reduced the 3,000-meter race to a one-man show.

In the triple jump, Marshfield’s Caleb Kruse and North Bend’s Lane Seals played a game of anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-better until Kruse had a new meet record and both jumpers had big personal bests.

Each entered with marks in the low 44-foot range, but quickly had leaps over 45 feet, thrilling the stadium crowd. Then, in the final round of the preliminaries, Seals uncorked a leap of 46 feet, 2 inches, breaking the old meet record of 45-9 set by Rich Kroeger in 1980.

In the finals, Kruse soared 46-51⁄2 to win the event, and added a 46-1 leap for good measure. Seals had jumps of 45-9 and 45-8 on his final two attempts, but couldn’t catch the Pirate.

Afterward, both had big smiles.

“That was intense,” Kruse said. “After Lane popped that huge 46-2, I thought he had me for sure.”

Instead, spurred on by the competition, Kruse had his bigger jump.

Seals settled for the second best jump in school history, and both now lead their classifications for the season.

“If either of us wasn’t there, I don’t know if we could have gone as far,” Seals said. “It was fun. He’s such a good kid.”

Kruse followed his win by taking the high hurdles in 15.91 seconds. He also won the intermediate hurdles in 40.99 and appeared destined to go under 40 seconds for the first time until hitting the last hurdle.

“You can’t complain with the day,” he said. “It was fun.”

Seals followed the triple jump with a win in the long jump, though the distance of 20 feet was far from his best. He also no-heighted in the high jump when the conditions were at their worst with a chilling wind and rain.

“The long jump, I was kind of tired,” he said. “I think I had at least a 21-foot jump in me, but we’ve got the Prefontaine meet.”

That meet, this coming Saturday, could feature the anticipated showdown between Jared Bassett and Spenser Lynass that never happened Friday.

Bassett was attempting a 1,500-3,000 double, while Lynass focused on the latter race, hoping to break the meet record after the two had raced to thrilling finishes each of the last two county meets.

Bassett did win the 1,500, in a good race with North Bend’s Trevor Berrian and Steven Garboden.

Bassett led the early laps before Berrian surged in front with 500 meters to go. He kept that lead as they battled on the backstretch, but Bassett passed him coming off the final corner and won in 4:08.75, a season best. Berrian finished in 4:10.21 and Garboden crossed the line in 4:12.90.

“It was a fun race,” Bassett said. “It was what I expected it to be.”

Berrian, who later easily won the 800 in 2:02.99, said he surged earlier than he had planned in the 1,500.

“I got a little impatient,” he said. “It felt pretty slow for me. I was going more for time than place. I’m happy with it.”

After the race, Bassett felt burning in his left hamstring.

“It never went away,” he said.

After talking with his coaches, he decided not to run the 3,000.

“It was a tough decision,” he said. “It was exciting to watch Spenser. I just wish I could have been with him.”

Without Bassett helping keep up the pace, Lynass fell short of the meet record, though with an outstanding time of 8:55.52.

“That’s not that shabby of a time for this point of the season,” Lynass said.

He understood Bassett’s decision not to race.

“It’s a bummer,” he said of Bassett not being able to run. “He’s disappointed because everyone was expecting a good race and it would have been.

“I know he made the right decision. He and his coaches know it wasn’t the most important race of the year. He has to do what’s best for him, and it will pay off at state.”