If the track and field season is supposed to mark the end of winter, someone forgot to tell the weather last week.
Amid cold rain and wet, slippery and muddy surfaces – and some snowflakes on the trip to Elmira – the Sweet Home track and field teams kicked off their 2011 season with victories over Cottage Grove and Elmira Thursday, March 16.
The boys scored 67 points, to Cottage Grove’s 59 and Elmira’s 51, while the girls scored 73.5 to Cottage Grove’s 54.5 and Elmira’s 53.
Sweet Home won all but one relay and both javelin events, which Coach Billy Snow said the team had hoped to do well in.
“We looked good in those areas,” he said.
Olivia Johnson also won both the girls 1500 and 3000 to give the Huskies some dominance in the distance events, especially the 1500, in which she led a Sweet Home sweep of the top four places.
Other girls winners were the 4×100 relay team, Maria Kropf in the 100, Devyn Makin in the 200, Annie Whitfield in the javelin,
Kaitlin Keenon in the pole vault and Sarah Hawkins in the triple jump, with Keenon a very close second in that event.
Winners for the Huskies were Nick Hall in the 800, Daniel Danforth in the 3000, both the 4×100 and 4×400 relays, Zane Jackson in the shot put, Jake Johnson in the discus, Zach Jackson in the javelin and Taylor Mauch in the triple jump.
“They handled the weather well,” Snow said of his team. “It was a decent meet, especially for the opener. It took the kids a little bit to kind of shake off the conditions but we were happy with it.”
He said Danforth’s effort in the boys 3000 was “a really good race,” in which Danforth ran three seconds off his PR. Johnson, Snow said, was shooting for 12 minutes in her 3000 race, but ended up running a 15-second PR out the door.
“I’m not surprised Olivia looked good,” he said, noting that he told Johnson to treat the 1500 as a training run, but she accelerated when teammate Niccole Rasmussen pulled up behind her at the end of the race.
The Huskies also “stepped up” in the relays, with the absence of Alex Coakley who was replaced by Keenan Martin on the long relay and Chris Carpenter on the short.
Others who had a “good opening meet” were Kropf and Jessika Stewart, 1-2 in the 100, Johnson in the discus and the Jackson brothers in the other two throws, Snow said.
The high jumpers had problems with mud around the starting area and the inability to get solid footing for take-offs, he said.
He added that Keenon won the pole vault without actually having vaulted with standards thus far this season.
“It’s been too wet and windy,” Snow said. “We’ve only had the mats out a couple of times.”
He said he was particularly pleased with the newcomers to the team – freshmen and athletes who haven’t done high school track before.
“One of the biggest things we saw with the kids who are new to high school track and field is that they were not afraid to get out and compete,” he said. “ They got after it. That will pay off in the end when we see where we need to fit people in.”
The Huskies will host the Sweet Home Heptathlon and Decathlon March 25-26, then will travel to Cottage Grove March 31 for a three-way meet with LaPine, followed by the Junction City Invitational on April 2.
Sweet Home vs.
Elmira, Cottage Grove
Top 3 Plus Sweet Home finishers
Boys Results
Team Scores – (1) Sweet Home 67; (2) Cottage Grove 59; (3) Elmira 51.
100 – (1) Tjay Chambers (CG) 11.4; (2) Garrett Lewellen (E) 11.43; (3) Chad Mertens (CG) 11.94; (4) Spencer Knight (SH) 12.06; (13) Joe Stroud (SH) 12.87; (14) Tony Ramirez (SH) 12.93; (18) Dakota Snow (SH) 13.25.
200 – (1) Luis Labastida (E) 24.87; (2) Christian Rodriguez (CG) 25.41; (3) Anders Westlund (E) 25.44; (9) Tony Ramirez (SH) 27.12.
400 – (1) Conner Richardson (CG) 55.31; (2) Luis Labastida (E) 56.06; (3) Anders Westlund (E) 56.68; (6) Chase Hutchins (SH) 1:00.34; (7) Jacob Richardson (SH) 1:02.81.
800 – (1) Nick Hall (SH) 2:08.59; (2) Alex Garcia (CG) 2:13.59; (3) Joe Stroud (SH) 2:17.50; (4) Parke Young (SH) 2:26.12; (6) Quin Wise (SH) 2:33.37; (7) Mykle Riggle (SH) 2:34.09; (8) Sorin White (SH) 2:35.37.
1500 – (1) Emanuel Romero (CG) 4:33.61; (2) Teagan Settlemeyer (CG) 4:39.14; (3) Austin Place (CG) 4:40.62; (4) Kyle Hummer (SH) 4:40.71; (6) Lorenzo Virgen (SH) 4:48.93; (7) Justin Webb (SH) 4:58.24; (8) Ian Wingo (SH) 4:58.58.
3000 – (1) Daniel Danforth (SH) 9:58.27; (2) Griffin Moser (CG) 10:06.37; (3) Brett King (SH) 10:06.56.
110 Hurdles – (1) Garrett Lewellen (E) 17.12; (2) Chris Carpenter (SH) 17.96; (3) Kwan Thithong (CG) 18.37; (5) Alex Santana (SH) 20.43.
300 Hurdles – (1) Garrett Lewellen (E) 45.62; (2) Jabir Pannu (CG) 49.02; (3) Dakota Snow (SH) 50.90.
4×100 Relay – (1) Sweet Home (Alex Santana, Nick Hall, Keenon Martin, Chris Carpenter) 45.34; (2) Cottage Grove 47.21; (3) Sweet Home “B” (Spencer Knight, Tony Ramirez, Ashton Stutzman, Dakota Snow) 48.24; (4) Elmira 49.71.
4×400 Relay – (1) Sweet Home (Chris Carpenter, Nick Hall, Alex Santana, Keenon Martin) 3:44.42; (2) Cottage Grove 3:54.83; (3) Elmira 3:55.54; (4) Sweet Home “B” (Kyle Hummer, Joe Stroud, Lorenzo Virgen, Matthew Long) 4:15.08; (5) Sweet Home “C” (Mykle Riggle, Justin Webb, Sorin White, Ian Wingo) 4:19.17.
Shot Put – (1) Zane Jackson (SH) 42-9; (2) Tjay Chambers (CG) 40-4; (3) Alex Larsen (SH) 40-3; (4) Zach Jackson (SH) 35-8; (8) David Skeen (SH) 33-2; (9) Kyle Wodtli (SH) 32-0; (10) Ben Terry (SH) 30-4.
Discus – (1) Jake Johnson (SH) 120-9; (2) Zach McClure (SH) 105-10; (3) Brandon Willis (CG) 95-7; (4) Angel Negron (SH) 93-8; (6) Donald Rinehart (SH) 89-11; (8) Ben Terry (SH) 85-6; (11) Ryan Blackwell (SH) 73-8; (14) Zach Pratt (SH) 66-2; (16) Kyle Rose (SH) 62-1; (17) Troy Underwood (SH) 61-5.
Javelin – (1) Zach Jackson (SH) 169-3; (2) Zach Borrelli (CG) 148-10; (3) Patrick Long (SH) 140-4; (4) Zach McClure (SH) 139-8; (6) Keenan Martin (SH) 133-3; (7) Donald Rinehart (SH) 113-7; (8) Alex Larsen (SH) 109-6; (9) David Skeen (SH) 102-4; (11) Angel Negron (SH) 100-4; (16) Ryan Blackwell (SH) 93-8; (20) Ben Terry (SH) 85-0; (22) Zane Jackson (SH) 79-2; (26) Kyle Rose (SH) 75-3; (29) Ricky Tressel (SH) 71-1; (32) Caleb Castle (SH) 59-11.
High Jump – (1) Nolan Messman (E) 5-4; (2) Christian Rodriguez (CG) 5-2; (3) Taylor Mauch (SH) 5-0.
Pole Vault – (1) Brent Wolkersdorfer (E) 8-0; (2) Jacob Marshall (E) 7-6; (No Sweet Home competitors.)
Long Jump – (1) Denzel Deleon (E) 18-5½; (2) Garrett Lewellen (E) 17-1¼; (3) Taylor Kesling (E) 16-9½; (9) Matthew Long (SH) 15-11; (11) Jacob Richardson (SH) 14-8; (13) Chase Hutchins (SH) 14-4.
Triple Jump – (1) Taylor Mauch (SH) 34-4 ½; (2) Taylor Kesling (E) 33-7 ¼; (3) Matthew Long (SH) 33-0 ¼; (4) Jacob Richardson (SH) 32-4 ½.
Girls Results
Team Scores: (1) Sweet Home 73.5; (2) Cottage Grove 54.5; (3) Elmira 53.
100 – (1) Maria Kropf (SH) 13.11; (2) Jessika Stewart (SH) 13.30; (3) Josi Sisco (CG) 13.55;
200 – (1) Devyn Makin (SH) 27.78; (2) Josi Sisco (CG) 28.50; (3) Maria Kropf (SH) 28.59;
400 – (1) Kristine Dunn (CG) 1:05.00; (2) Jessica Hubbard (E) 1:09.09; (3) Courtney Kent (SH) 1:09.78; (4) Sabrina Davis (SH) 1:13.00.
800 – (1) Danae Perkey (CG) 2:56.13; (2) Jessica Sand (E) 3:03.66; (3) Alexandra Opitz (E) 3:08.65; (5) Jordana Harvey (SH) 3:22.65; (6) Christina Ulmer (SH) 3:28.40.
1500 – (1) Olivia Johnson (SH) 5:44.47; (2) Nicole Rasmussen (SH) 5:45.10; (3) Paige Sanders (SH) 5:48.32; (4) Sami Webb (SH) 5:49.10.
3000 – (1) Olivia Johnson (SH) 11:13.79; (2) Danielle Jones (E) 13.23.56; (3) Jessica Sand (E) 14.36.00.
100 Hurdles – (1) Meesha Baldree (E) 16.75; (2) Tenaya Smith (CG) 17.37; (3) Elizabeth Nordella (CG) 17.81; (7) Kelika Kaniaupio (SH) 19.84.
300 Hurdles – (1) Tenaya Smith (CG) 52.87; (2) Ahsha Mootz (CG) 53.06; (3) Kirstyn Groshong (E) 54.56; (4) Caroline Amendola (SH) 1:02.24; (5) Kelika Kaniaupio (SH) 1:05.81.
4×100 Relay – (1) Sweet Home (Annie Whitfield, Maria Kropf, Jessika Stewart, Devyn Makin) 51.41; (2) Cottage Grove 52.83; (3) Elmira 56.59.
4×400 Relay – (1) Cottage Grove 4:41.87; (2) Sweet Home (Devyn Makin, Sabrina Davis, Sami Webb, Nicole Rasmussen) 4:47.00; (3) Elmira 4:53.02; (4) Sweet Home “B” (Paige Sanders, Caroline Amendola, Jordana Harvey, Christina Ulmer) 5:24.91.
Shot Put – (1) Jessika McCullough (E) 30-10; (2) Tricia Ingraham (CG) 27-4; (3) Laura Mauer (SH) 24-5; (4) Chloe Muir (SH) 23-4; (5) Josie David (SH) 23-1.
Discus – (1) Jessika McCullough (E) 92-11; (2) Tess Stolle (E) 72-0; (3) Laura Mauer (SH) 68-11; (4) Kaitlyn Watts (SH) 68-6; (8) Sadie Gordon (SH) 58-1; (13) Emily Claborn (SH) 48-8; (14) Rozaliya Minigulova (SH) 48-1.
Javelin – (1) Annie Whitfield (SH) 132-2; (2) Rachel Beach (CG) 88-5; (3) Jessika McCullough (E) 83-7; (4) Josie David (SH) 83-0; (5) Chloe Muir (SH) 64-0.
High Jump – (1) Tenaya Smith (CG) 4-8; (2-tie) Brandi Trewin (SH), Jacie Palmer (E), Jasmine Klein (CG) 4-4.
Pole Vault – (1) Kaitlin Keenon (SH) 7-6; (2-tie) Montana Gay (E). Jessica Sand (E), Jacie Palmer (E) 6-6.
Long Jump – (1) Meesha Baldree (E) 14-10 ½; (2) Kelika Kaniaupio (SH) 13-11 ½; (3) Katy Bass (CG) 13-7 ½; (12) Courtney Kent (SH) 11-4; (13) Jessica Hoover (SH) 11-3 ½.
Triple Jump – (1) Sarah Hawkins (SH) 28-8; (2) Kaitlin Keenon (SH) 28-6 ¾; (3) Whitley Tucker (CG) 27-6 ¼.