It wasn’t a record-setting meet for the Sweet Home boys, but the 4A State Championships certainly weren’t an embarrassment for the Huskies, who came away with two placings and a bunch of experience.
“All the kids did really well,” said Head Coach Nathan Whitfield of the three individuals and 4×100 relay team. All four of them had the potential to place and half did that.”
No Sweet Home girls qualified for state this year, though some came close.
Senior Mason Lopez, the Huskies’ top points producer all season, was Sweet Home’s top finisher with third in the javelin, after just missing qualifying for state in the 110 and 300 hurdles.
Lopez’s best throw was his last – 166-7, which was three feet short of his PR for the season. Lopez was second until Cody White of Estacada uncorked a monster 192-2 on his final throw for a come-from-behind win.
“That guy is one of the luckiest people I’ve ever seen in the state meet,” said Whitfield, who was a top javelin thrower for Sweet Home in high school. “He goes from terrible, terrible to winning that thing.
“After his rough districts, Mason had a pretty good state meet. He was right at his PR. He is the third-best thrower in the 4A this year. You always wish you could have gotten more, but any time you’re in the top three at state, that’s significant.”
Junior Nathan Aker had a similar experience in the shot, as White and another competitor passed him on their final throws in the preliminary round, knocking Aker out of seventh place, which would have put him in the final.
Aker’s best of the day was his second of three throws, for 44-8¼, which was just an inch short of his PR for the season, which is his first in high school track, in which he improved by 9½ feet since the Huskies’ first competition, on March 16.
“Two kids had good throws on their last throws,” Whitfield said of the state shot competition. “But Nathan did really well for his first year. He’s doing well.”
The 4×100 relay team of sophomores Chase Cameron and Conner Stevens, and seniors Von James and Dakota Seiber made the medals stand with an eighth-place finish in 44.49, just a hair off their season-best of 44.46 set at districts.
“the 4×100 did really good – they got on the podium, which was amazing,” Whitfield said. “Their handoffs looked really good. It wasn’t quite the same pace they had at district, but the district race was the race of their lives.
“We have to replace two seniors, which will be tough to do, but it will be interesting to see what we find next.”
Sophomore Kasey Kast missed the final in the 800, finishing sixth in his prelim in 2:07,26, 2½ seconds off the personal best time he ran at the district meet the week before to qualify for state.
Whitfield said Kast had some issues at the start “that might have screwed up his race a little bit.”
See more photos in our online gallery.
“He got a little confused with the instructions, but any time you are a sophomore competing at state and you have a chance to score, that’s a good year.”
The Huskies finished 24th, tied with Phoenix with seven points. Marshfield, which turned in some big performances over the two-day event, won the state boys team title with 70½ points, over Pendleton (64) and Cottage Grove (59). Philomath was fifth (43) and Newport was 12th (21).
Philomath won the girls title with 90 points, ahead of La Grande (63) and Scappoose (47). The top 10 on both the boys and girls sides were heavily populated by schools that have dropped down from the 5A division in the recent years.
This year’s state championships featured 23 meet records were set during the three-day event and three state records, including Churchill freshman Addison Kleinke, who cleared 13 feet, 4½ inches to win the 5A girls pole vault title.
In the 2A Championships, East Linn Christian sophomore Daisy Lalonde, a Sweet Home resident who competed for the Huskies in swimming, swept the distance events, winning the 1500 in 4:56.36 and the 3000 in 10:30.34.