Sweet Home’s track and field team got their season off to a thunderous start Wednesday, March 22, at a four-way meet at Central Linn with East Linn Christian Academy and Harrisburg.
Literally.
The meet was delayed for 45 minutes while a fairly significant storm, featuring thunder and lightning and lots of precipitation, passed over the track.
“It was pretty cold and windy,” Coach Nathan Whitfield said.
He said some of his athletes had warmed up and, after the 45-minute wait for the lightning to dissipate, some of that was gone, leading to some slow starts.
But others, he said, “came on strong.”
Particularly in the throws.
Junior Nathan Aker, in his first year in track, had big PRs – nearly 3½ feet in the shot (38-7) and 14 feet in the discus (94-2) to win both events.
Freshman Selah Wright, in her first high school competition, was second in the shot (28-5) and sophomore Jess Martineau posted a PR of 2 feet, 4 inches to place fourth (27-0).
Sophomores Conner Stevens (11.85) and Chase Cameron (12.00) were third and fourth in the 100, and junior Kyle Sieminski continued to show that he may be a force to reckon with in the 200 and 400, winning the latter in 56.91 after placing fourth (25.05) behind Stevens (24.94) in the former.
Freshmen James Hearick (5:02.16), running on a “bum leg,” as Whitfield put it, and Keagan Vogel (5:03.89) both cut large chunks of time off their 1500 times in their second race at the distance, and Vogel went on to post another PR, over six seconds, in the 800 to finish in 2:29.82.
Senior Mason Lopez plans to participate this weekend in a decathlon hosted by Summit High School in Bend, as the team works through spring break.
Sophomore Daisy Lalonde, a Sweet Home resident who attends East Linn, won the 400 (67.8), 800 (2.32.53) and 1500 (5:20.97) for the Eagles, setting personal bests in the two shorter races. Lalonde swam for the Huskies this past season.
The Huskies will be back in action Saturday afternoon, April 4, at the Philomath Invite, which is expected to include 11 teams, where they will get their first look at Cascade, Newport, North Marion and the host Warriors, as well as several other 4A teams. The action starts at 1 p.m.
See more photos in our online gallery.