Washington Boy Who Switched to the Girls' Team Takes a Regional Spot From a Girl and Skips the Podium, as Initiative 638 Goes to Voters Tuesday
OutKick's Washington column says Puyallup missed state by one place after the Camas runner finished seventh. Voters decide I-638, which would bar biological males from girls' K-12 sports.
A Camas High runner who moved from the boys' to the girls' cross-country team midseason finished seventh at Saturday's regional meet, which kept another school out of the state meet, according to a column on Fox News's OutKick site. The runner is a minor, and we are not naming him.
What happened. Fox says the Camas runner's name was called at the awards and nobody came to the podium. Joel Retzlaff, whose daughter Sierra runs for Skyview High, shouted, "That's a man!" Camas coach Matt LeGrand declined to say why the runner was absent. The top seven teams in the 4A girls' division advance to state, and OutKick says Puyallup High finished eighth. Its argument is that Puyallup would have advanced if not for the Camas runner's finish. We have not checked the team scoring.
The runner's season. OutKick says he started on the boys' team and placed 76th in a JV meet. After the switch he won a varsity meet and has finished second three times. At districts and again at regionals he placed just ahead of Skyview's Charlie Garrett, who said, "I was less than a second away" and also noted she set a personal best and qualified for state.
Who showed up. Carol Brown, a three-time Olympian and rowing bronze medalist, said she fought for Title IX and added, "for it to be fair and safe, it has to be based on sex." Jasmin Faulk of the Women's Liberation Front said, "The issue is really about the safety and the fairness for women and girls." The columnist says one runner asked not to be named out of fear of backlash.
The vote. Initiative 638 is on Washington's ballot Tuesday. It would prohibit biological males from competing in girls' K-12 sports. Brown urged a yes vote.
What to keep in mind. This is a columnist's account, written from the side of the girls' sports advocates. It includes no comment from the Camas runner, the runner's family or the school district, and Fox does not say whether they were asked. Washington's rules on student athletes' participation are not described in the column.