In some windy and cold weather, the seven Capital Conference teams came together Thursday for the last Capital Conference Relay meet for the near future.
Husky Coach Billy Snow said the league coaches recently voted to not hold the meet anymore.
“I am a bit disappointed because it is a change from the normal dual or three-way meets that we normally have,” Coach Snow said. “This meet provides some opportunities for our kids that they do not normally get. The meet is strictly a relay format except for the high hurdles. This includes coed relays, relay in distances that we do not normally run and relay scores in the field events where a team’s score is the total distance of all team member marks added together.”
The best showing the day for the Huskies was in the boys pole vault where Jake Dahlenburg and Keegan Burnett both hit lifetime bests to win the event by 1 1/2 feet over Stayton. Dahlenburg went 11-6 and Burnett went 10-6.
“Both have gone higher in practice but given the conditions, the marks were very good,” Coach Snow said.
The girl throwers had a consistent day, placing third in all three throwing events. Nicole Burnside and Rachel Gaskey both had PRs in the shot put and teamed with Christine Smith (24-7) and Meaghan Schaefer (24-0) to take third. Smith’s put of 32-07 marks her No. 9 junior putter in school history and Gaskey’s PR 31-0 puts her No. 8 on the frosh list. Gaskey’s mark also qualified her for next weekend’s French Prairie Invitational meet.
In the discus, Burnside, Smith and Gaskey teamed with Shaina Burnett to take third. In the javelin, Burnside, Gaskey and Schaefer teamed with Christine Smith’s PR of 71-09 to take third. Burnside led the javelin throwers at 92-09.
In the jumps, the freshman team of Ashley Smith, Lisa Brocard and Stephanie Kragness teamed to take third, just one-half inch behind Stayton and only three feet back of a good Sister’s team. In the triple jump, Smith and Brocard took second behind Sisters.
Brocard’s jump of 29-03 puts her No. 4 on the frosh list. The same twosome took fourth in the high jump despite being short a jumper, each team allowed three jumpers.
On the boys side, Sweet Home throwers were almost as good as the girls. They took two thirds and one fourth. In the javelin, the foursome of Casey Aiello (140-03), Malcolm Brown (107-04), Noah Gray (104-01) and Chris Bate (107-02) took third behind Cascade and Molalla. In the discus, the foursome of Aron van Dijk (a PR 110-10), Noah Gray (1-4-05), Brad Seiber (a PR 100-06) and Robert Rice (90-11) took third trailing Cascade and North Marion. In the shot put, Aron van Dijk (38-09), Matt Slauson (37-05) Sam Rodgers (36-01) and Rob Martin (31-11) took fourth. Matt’s put places him No. 4 on the Sweet Home frosh list.
In the long jump, Mike Severns, Jared Allen and Matt Kragness took second, just over a foot behind Stayton. Marks were available at press time. In the triple jump, Todd Luttmer and Richard Westvik took seventh overall. In the high jump, Jared Allen cleared a season PR 5-06 for the lone Husky mark in that event.
On the track the Huskies’ best showing of the day was the girls 4 X 800M team of Michele Andersen, Anne Helfrich, Rina Kanazawa and Ana Andrade which took fourth overall. In the coed medley relay, the foursome of Helfrich, Casey Baarson, Mayumi Tanaka and Robert Couch took sixth overall. The two short relays ran good races and were just below their season PRs Coach Snow said. The girls team of Ashley Smith, Liz Aman and Stephanie Kragness took fourth overall, while the boys team of Mike Severns, Mauro Angulo, Jared Allen and Matt Kragness took fifth, just three-tenths of a second from first.
The two distance medley teams went sixth overall. The boys foursome consisted of John Lovik (1200M), David Burford (400M), Justin Temple (800M) and Chris Burford (1600M). The girls team consisted of Megan Snow (1200M), Andrea Martin (400M), Mayumi Tanaka (800M) and Maria Andrade (1600M).
The sprint medley coed race team consisted of Liz Aman (300M), Keegan Burnett (600M), Stephanie Kragness (200M) and Casey Baarson (100M).
“They ran a great race and finished sixth, just being nipped for fifth,” Coach Snow said.
The boys 4 X 800 team of Richard Westvik, John Lovik, Robert Couch and Chris Burford ran a fifth place 9:50.6. “Chris ran an awesome, gut-busting final leg of 2:16.3 and just got nipped at the finish line.”
Both 4 X 200M teams took fifth places overall. The boys team consisted of Mike Severns, David Burford, Jake Dahlenburg and Justin Temple. They ran a very competitive race and were only one-half second out of third place. The girls team was made up of Liz Aman, Stephanie Kragness, Mayumi Tanaka and Andra Martin.
In the 4 X 400 relay, the girls team of Megan Snow, Maria Andrade, Rina Kanazawa and Ana Andrade, took seventh overall.
In the only individual race, Skyler Brown ran 20.9 in his first 110M high hurdle race to take sixth. His time puts him No. 8 on the frosh list.
“There is a lot of room for improvement,” Coach Snow said. “Missing the first five weeks of track to be in the school play has put him behind, but as the season goes on, Skyler will get stronger and his form will improve.”
Calendar: The Huskies will travel to North Marion Thursday to compete against Sisters, Molalla and North Marion.