Sweet Home’s boys and girls both scored wins over visiting Cascade in the Huskies’ final home meet, the boys outscoring the Cougars 80.5 to 58 and the girls winning 70.5 to 67.
It was a big day for Sweet Home in terms of personal bests: 35 for the boys and 17 for the girls.
Dillan Davis posted personal bests in the 100 (11.33) and the 200 (22.69) to win both, with other wins on the track coming from Brayden Driver in the 800 (2:11.54, a PR), Evan Knight in the 1500 (4:37.42, a PR), Nick Larson in the 110 hurdles (16.39, a PR) and the 4×100 team of Landon Murry, Sam Barringer, Davis and Driver, who clocked 43.68, a season’s best of nearly 2 seconds.
In the field, Gavin Tyler won the shot (50-6), sophomore Ean Tackett the javelin (145-8), Larson the pole vault (11-9, a PR), sophomore Mason Tyler the long jump (20-4, a PR and Tyler’s first time over 20 feet in competition), and Barringer, also a sophomore, finished on top in the triple jump (37-5).
Winners for Sweet Home girls were Loralai Mark in the 100 (13.43), McKenzie Miller in the 800 (2:28.64), Amara Gonzales in the 300 hurdles (54.67) and the triple jump (30-1½), Cassie Spencer in the pole vault (7-6), and Selah Wright in the shot (32-7½) and the javelin (99-5).
Although the girls 4×100 of Brooke Elder, Pratt, Jayla Moore and Mark finished second, their time of 52.37 was a 1½-second improvement for Sweet Home this season in that event.
Oregon West District Outlook
Going into the district meet this Friday and Saturday at Stayton, the Huskies have reason to be optimistic they can compete for their first boys district championship since 2010. .
As of this week, Sweet Home has at least two boys ranked in the top four in all three sprints – led by Davis, ranked first in the 200 and 400, plus the top district ranking in both relays.
Ryker Burr is ranked second in the 800, though he has yet to run the 2:02 personal best he clocked last year at state.
Larson is ranked third – by a 100th of a second in the 110 hurdles after the Cascade meet, and fourth in the 300, in which the top four are literally separated by four-tenths of a second – it’s anybody’s race.
In the field, Tyler is ranked second by 10 inches in the shot, and Larson is second in the pole vault by three inches after his PR. Barringer is third in the triple jump by five inches. If things were to go according to Sweet Home’s positions in the rankings, 26 Huskies would finish in the top eight in the 17 events.
“The guys have a chance this year,” Coach Nathan Whitfield said on Monday as he waited to see who will be representing the other teams in the various events. “It’s going to come down to us and Philomath and we’re going to see if we can get there. They got us at Meet of Champs and we got them at the Stayton Invite, pretty much by the same margin.”
On the girls side, Sweet Home does not look as deep going into districts, but Miller is ranked second in the 800, the 1500 and the 3000, and Wright is ranked second in the javelin.
“If we show up and compete, we’ll do fine,” Whitfield said.
Oregon West JV Championships
Sweet Home’s boys and girls both finished second at the Oregon West JV Conference Meet Thursday, May 14, at Philomath.
The boys finished with 114 points behind Cascade (125) and ahead of Newport and Philomath, which tied for third with 90 points each, Stayton (18) and North Marion (12).
The girls scored 77 points to finish behind Philomath (111) and ahead of Cascade (63), Newport (31), Stayton (30) and North Marion (22).
The boys finished with 17 personal bests, while the girls had 10.
Winners for the boys were Bentley Uhlry in the 400 (57.09, a PR), Wes Goff in the 1500 (5:05.32), the 4×400 team of Kace Stevens, Marcus Warthen, Jaicob Shaw and Uhlry (4:03.30), and Ernie Hicks in the high jump (5-0) and Conner Spencer in the pole vault (9-8, an 8-inch PR). Spencer’s vault moved him into third place in the team rankings in that event,
Dinah Watkins was the girls sole winner, taking first in the discus with a 2½-foot PR of 84-3, moving into fourth place in the team rankings.