Mercer Island track and field advanced 15 athletes to the state tournament from the 3A Sea-King district championships, which took place May 20-22 at Southwest Athletic Complex in West Seattle.

The Islander girls placed fifth overall as a team, while the boys placed 14th. Holy Names Academy won the 3A girls district title, while Bellevue won the boys’ district crown.

The Mercer Island girls won a district title in the 200 meter relay, with Kayla Lee, Victoria Gersch, Piper Casey and Kendra Watson finishing in 1:43.87. Gersch was a runner-up in the 100 and 200 meter dash events, finishing a few hundredths of a second behind Holy Names’ Imani Apostol in both races. Lee placed fifth in the 200 and was runner-up in the 400 meter dash, also won by Apostol (57.13).

Cece Rosenman placed fourth in the 3200 (11:09), while Kendra Watson was fifth in the 300 meter hurdles (47.41). The Islanders placed sixth in the 400 relay, with Lee, Casey, Kendall Riley and Alexa Bauman finishing in 4:03.3. In the field, Piper Casey placed sixth in the long jump with a mark of 16-9.25.

For the Mercer Island boys, Nathan Gallatin won a district title in the 800 meter run, edging Ballard’s Owen Buck with a winning time of 1:53.23.

The Islanders placed fifth in the 400 meter relay, with Gallatin, Emerson Schulz, Luke Bohlinger and Jonathan Perr finishing in 3:26.44. In the field, Greyson Weltyk placed sixth in the high jump with a mark of six feet.

Also advancing to state as 400 relay alternates were Mary Lovejoy, Sean Bender and Ben Stoops.

Mercer Island’s state qualifiers will compete at the 3A track and field state championships May 28-30 at Mt. Tahoma High School in Tacoma.

Mercer Island’s Kayla Lee (center) competes in the 400 meter preliminaries Wednesday, May 20 at Southwest Athletic Complex in West Seattle (Joe Livarchik/Mercer Island Reporter).