Ken Roberts
Sports Writer
It was a busy week for several Husky track athletes. After a league meet last Tuesday at North Marion, eleven team members competed in the elite Meet of Champions on Saturday.
Both the boys and the girls finished in second place in the four-team league meet. The girls trailed Sisters, one of the league’s strongest programs, by a 108.5 to 81.5 margin while the boys were closer in their attempt but fell to host North Marion 96 to 89. In both cases, the third and fourth place teams lagged far behind.
Mike Barnes continued his steady improvement in the pole vault with a personal best of 13 feet to win that event.
“I was slumping earlier in the season,” said Barnes, “but things started coming together. Once I got confidence, that’s all I needed.”
Ricky Howe, after a week’s vacation in Hawaii, came back with fresh legs and leaped to a personal best by about a foot and a half in the triple jump to win at 42-1. On top of that, he ran his fastest 400 meters to help the team win the 1600 meter relay and set a personal best in the 200 meters at 23.77 to take third.
“Just knowing how to run the race and being smarter helped me in the relay,” said Howe, who thinks he’s still not in peak shape yet. “The other runner went out too fast and I just kept to a perfect pace.”
Howe, against tougher competition at the Meet of Champions, continued his string of top performances, taking sixth in the 400 meters with a personal best and 10th ranked school mark of 52.21, even though he was ranked ninth and had to run in a slower heat. He also placed 7th in the triple with a mark of 41-3.75. He plans to get into that peak condition by doing hill workouts in the next couple of weeks.
In other field events, Mike Severns returned back into the 170 plus range in the javelin to capture first in both meets. On Tuesday, he threw 171-4 and then upped that mark in the MOC with a 174-0 effort. Donny Cliver, a first year thrower, remained consistent around 165 feet in both meets, which gave him second place in the league meet and 4th at the MOC.
Long distance runner John Lovik has also begun to lower his times as the district meet approaches. He set a personal best of 4:19.01 in the 1500 for first place on Tuesday and then PR’d in the MOC in the 3000 meters with a 9:03.87, which was good for 4th place and the number eight all-time school mark.
For the girls, the shot put and discus remain strong anchors in the program. Krystal Streight and Rachel Gaskey both had good weeks. Streight took first in the league meet in both the shot and discus, setting a PR in the discus at 109-7. While Gaskey took second in the league meet, she came back in the MOC to set her personal best of 114-9 for 4th place honors, even though Streight remained strong at 108-5 to capture 8th place.
Streight led a 1-2-3 finish in the North Marion meet, being very consistent in the upper 34 feet range. Meaghan Schaefer took second and Gaskey finished third, with Schaefer PR’ing for the second straight week at 30-10. Shaina Burnett would have been in fourth place if the Huskies weren’t limited to three entries as she also topped the 30 foot barrier.
Though Lisa Brocard’s marks were down a little from previous meets, she still helped the Huskies gain valuable points in the league meet with a first in the 300 intermediate hurdles and two second place finishes in the long and triple jumps. She also took 5th in the triple jump and 6th in the long jump in the MOC, though once again her marks reflected a busy May Week of activities for her during the school day.
Hannah Swanson, however, saved her best for the MOC. She raced to a substantial PR in the high hurdles, going 16.59, almost a two second differential in her second place finish at North Marion. That time placed her sixth all-time for the Huskies. Later that Saturday, she also took 8th place in the 300 intermediate hurdles with a 49.9 time, close to her personal best.
Megan Snow also competed in both meets, PR’ing in the 800 as she placed fourth in both events. At the MOC, though she didn’t place, she broke the 12 minute barrier for the first time at 11:58.6
The Huskies have one more league meet at Molalla and a twilight meet at Stayton before gearing up for the district meet on May 21st.