Ken Roberts
Sports Writer
What was supposed to be a four school home meet turned out to be a competition between only Central High School and Sweet Home Thursday.
Both Toledo, which had canceled earlier, and Molalla, which dropped out on Monday due to a mistake in scheduling, failed to show.
Given those conditions, it was a little disappointing at the Huskies’ first home meet despite the warm weather. Still Sweet Home went on to defeat the Panthers, with the girls triumphing 91-35 and the boys 77-64.
For the girls, Lisa Brocard continued her steady assault on the school records in the horizontal jumps. Already having the record in the triple jump, she came within three inches of the long jump record with her leap of 16-09. Ashley Smith came in second place in both those events, took first in the high jump, and ran the first leg of the winning 4×100 meter relay.
Hannah Swanson ran anchor on both the victorious relay teams and breezed to first place finishes in both the 100 and 200 meter dashes. Neither Swanson or Brocard ran in the hurdle events because there weren’t any competitors from Central.
In the other field events, Rachel Gaskey stayed steady with another throw of 111 feet, a mark she has been hovering around all year. However, she scratched three times in the shot put, leaving the door opened for Krystle Streight, who threw 34-10. Other first place finishers include Kim Lovik in the javelin and Katie Barr in the 800 meters.
For the boys, who had not counted on a lot of points in the short dashes in previous meets, those events turned out to be the key of the meet as they swept both the 100 and 200 meter dashes and the short relay. Kellen Petersen took first in the 100 while Ricky Howe took first in the 200. Howe also contributed more points in his main events, winning the triple jump and finishing second in the long jump behind Mike Severns, who flew to his second twenty foot jump of the year.
Severns also won his specialty, the javelin, with a toss of 167-10, though the throw was not his best of the year. The javelin has become the backbone of the Husky team and it was also in this meet as Seth Graves and Donny Cliver finished second and third, both with throws over 155 feet.
John Lovik outpaced the field with a 9:28.51 in the 3000 meter run, in which he had no close competition. Ryan Sipe won his first event of the year, a victory in the 400 meters, and Ian Lynn won the 300 intermediate hurdles. Both were a part of the victorious 4×400 meter relay along with Wayne Martinez and Jason Long.
The Huskies next duel meet will also be at home on April 20 as they host Sisters and Stayton. Some on the Husky team will attend the French Prairie Invitational on Saturday.