Scott Swanson
When the girls 4×100 relay team notched a berth at state with a second-place finish at the Sky-Em District Track and Field Championships at Junction City Saturday afternoon, the juice began to flow for the rest of the Huskies.
Sweet Home had already had a very good start in the two-day district meet, as the Huskies got two state qualifiers on Thursday, May 14 – seniors Jakob Hiett in the 3000 and Jordan Miller in the javelin.
With that little boost, Sweet Home brought its young team – 10 seniors (two of them exchange students) and 34 underclassmen – to Saturday’s finals, where they caught fire early.
That happened when the boys short relay of Egan Shamek, Eric Flierl, Matt Davis and Trey Reed shocked everyone by duplicating that feat, placing second in 44.81 – a season’s-best time by .35 seconds – after coming into the event ranked fifth in the league. That’s when the magic really fired up for Sweet Home.
“I don’t know where that time came from,” said Coach Billy Snow. “They haven’t been in the 44s all year long. Those short relays are so important just in the fact that they set the tone.”
The Huskies, especially on the boys side, exceeded the form charts in almost every event and qualified athletes in 13 events for the state championships this Friday and Saturday at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon, eight on the boys side and five on the girls.
Individual qualifiers for the boys were senior Jakob Hiett in the 1500 and 3000, both of which he won; Flierl, a senior in the 300 hurdles – which he won, and the 110 hurdles; sophomore Andre Holmes in the shot; sophomore Reed in the 400; and junior Shamek in the long jump. On the girls side, freshman Bethany Gingerich, who also anchored the short relay, qualified in the 200 and 400; Miller in the javelin; and junior Sierra Swanson in the high jump.
The top two finishers in each event qualify for state.
Their success was a big improvement for Sweet Home from last year, when the Huskies wound up with 10 third-place finishers and qualified athletes for seven events, one because another team’s qualifier decided not to compete at state.
“It was a good, good district meet,” Snow said. “It was a good note to end on as a varsity team. That was one of the better district meets we’ve had in recent years.”
As expected, Elmira won the boys competition and Sisters the girls. Sweet Home tied with Junction City for second in the boys team competition and the girls were fifth.
‘The Falcon boys scored 208 points and qualified for state in 14 spots, with Sweet Home and Junction City at 122 points. The Outlaw girls scored 169½ and qualified 15 spots. Though Sisters didn’t have the depth it usually does on the girls side, it was enough to outscore second-place Junction City (113½). Sweet Home’s girls finished with 85½.
Snow said he had the boys placing anywhere from second to fifth going into the meet. On the girls side, he figured the Huskies would finish fifth – which they did, but with a lot more points than he expected.
“We ended up tied for second on the boys. I had us at fourth. On the girls side, we were fifth, but we were closing on Junction City and Cottage Grove. I felt very good about that.”
We got the kids through to state that we thought would get through.
We had some that were maybes and we had some that were ”Wow, that was cool.”
“Eric had a big weekend, Trey had a big weekend and Bethany had a big weekend. Nobody saw that coming in the 200.”
In addition to the state qualifiers, the Huskies had 12 near-misses by underclassmen – five third places, five fourth places and two fifth places, all by underclassmen.
Snow said more than half of Sweet Home’s boys posted personal-best times and marks on both Thursday and Saturday, and the girls were over 50 percent on Thursday and over 30 percent on Saturday.
The big achievement of Day 1, Thursday, was Miller’s punching her ticket to the state meet with a second-place finish in the girls javelin, throwing a season’s best 101-3.
Junior Josie Knight came close in the girls shot, finishing third behind two seniors with a throw of 34-5¼, just under a foot short of her PR.
Knight came into the competition with the second-best throw of the year in the Sky-Em, but lurking behind her was senior Olivia Gulliford of Sutherlin, who threw 40-0 as a junior but had been hampered by injuries this season. Gulliford came through with a throw of 35-8½ to grab second place.
Knight ran the lead-off leg of the short relay and she was gratified by the Huskies’ qualification after a bad baton exchange ruined their chances last year, ending a streak of five straight state berths in the event.
She said the team’s early-season efforts didn’t leave her optimistic about their chances this year, but that changed as the Huskies trimmed nearly two seconds off their season-opening time of 53.64. Unlike Husky teams of the recent past that had true sprinters, no one on this relay runs the 100 faster than 13.25, so it is entirely a teamwork effort, she noted.
“Coming in, I knew we had it,” Knight said. “As soon as Bethany pulled away on that last leg, I was so excited.”
Gingerich said she was “surprised” to qualify in both the 400 and the 200, with second-place finishes in both, saying she was nervous going into the finals.
“I didn’t think I would qualify in the 200 and honestly, I kind of doubted myself in the 400,” she said. “I just got a spurt of energy in the 200.”
Swanson was one of several competitors who had cleared 4-8 going into the high jump, behind a couple of leaders who had cleared 4-10 coming into the meet. At 4-8, it was only she, Sweet Home freshman Caylie Trewin, and two others left. After clearing 4-9, she had a trip to state.
“I knew I had a chance going into districts, but I also knew it would be tough to qualify for state,” Swanson said. “I cleared 4-8, which was definitely a confidence-booster, and that helped me reset, mentally. Once I cleared 4-9, I was ecstatic and I couldn’t believe that I actually did it.”
Hiett won both the 3000 – his third straight district title in that event – on Thursday and the 1500 on Saturday, both ahead of Sisters’ Jadon Bachtold, in times well above his personal bests. But he said he’s aiming for “two more wins” at state, where he was a runner-up last year in the 3000 and third in the 1500, as a junior.
He said that after considering a run in the 800, in which he has the fastest time of the year in the 4A division, he and Snow decided to stick to the longer races.
“There are a lot of fast guys,” he said of those two events. “I haven’t run as fast as them, but I’ve been racing long enough to think I can handle them.”
Flierl, who has never run at state, has put in extensive pre-season work over the last two years and it paid off Saturday in both hurdles races as well as the short relay.
After hovering in the 16-second range in the 110s for most of the season, he busted loose with a 15.55 in Thursday’s prelims and followed that with 15.58 on Saturday. Then he left the field behind in the 300 to win by nearly a second over Elmira’s Nicholas Boykin in 40.36.
“It feels good,” he said. “I’ve worked real hard. The last couple of weeks the 110 has been tough and I didn’t know what was going to happen.”
Reed, who made the state meet last year as a freshman, set a PR of a second and a half in running 50.76 to place second in a field that was significantly faster than last year’s 400 final.
“I had to figure out my race this year,” he said. “I’m getting stronger at the end.”
Going into state with the fifth-fastest time in the 4A, he said his goal is to get a medal.
“State is a wide-open door,” Reed said.
Shamek just missed a trip to state in the triple jump on Thursday, but bounced back Saturday with a leap of 20-10¼ to place second behind Elmira’s Zach Beltz’s 21-1, good enough for a trip to state.
Shamek said he thinks the short relay can whittle its time down more by the state meet.
“Our handoffs weren’t great,” he said. “We can go faster.”
Holmes, a sophomore transfer from Central Linn earlier this school year, said he was hoping to win, but was happy to qualify in the shot.
“I scratched a really good one at the beginning,” he said. His big throw, a 2½-foot PR of 46-4½, came on his final attempt in the finals.
“I had thrown 43-9 coming in. I just kept PR-ing by half an inch all day until the last throw.”
He said his goal now is to “get on the medal stand.”
Elmira’s Zane Wardwell, who won Saturday’s competition, is 10th in the 4A, and Trevor Duffy of South Umpqua leads the division with a throw of 55-8½, so Holmes will need to pull out another big throw to have a chance in Eugene.
Some of the near-misses were head-turners as well.
Sophomore Dillon Stutzman finished third and junior TJ Baham fourth in the pole vault, both clearing 12-0. Russell Grzeczkowski of Elmira edged Stutzman on misses, also clearing 12-0 for second. His teammate Jeff Linn, the league leader all season, won with a leap of 12-4. Stutzman was also third in the javelin.
In the girls pole vault, Dana Hiett finished fifth and Natasha Rasmussen was sixth, both clearing 7-0.
Senior India Porter was in a comfortable position in third place going into the finals of the triple jump with a leap of 31-1½, but fouled all three of her jumps in the finals, settling for third behind Sutherlin’s two Brittanys – Coleman who won in 36-0 and Hanson, who jumped 34-1½.
The boys 4×400 team of Shamek, Hiett, Flierl and Reed finished fourth in 3:32.52 – a season’s best by nearly five seconds, but Snow pointed out how deceiving that place was in the big picture. The Huskies are the 10th-fastest team in the state at the end of the regular season, meaning the Sky-Em has four of the top 10 teams in the state in that event.
“Our guys time in the 4×400, we would be in the fast heat in the state meet (if the Huskies had qualified). We were fourth; 3:30 usually makes the finals at state meet. That was a tough race. When you drop five seconds and that doesn’t even get you close, that was a great race. That was fun.”
Snow said other Huskies had big days, even though they didn’t get medals, such as junior Charlie Guerrero in the javelin, who threw a 10-foot PR of 134-11 to place sixth and sophomore Justin Carpenter, who jumped 18-9, a 1-foot PR, in the long jump final.
Reed ran a personal best of nearly half a second in the 200 (23.67) to make the final, then placed sixth.
“We had some kids who didn’t even score, but who were still PR’ing, just missing the podium,” Snow said. “Charlie just stepped up. Trey had a great weekend. He wasn’t supposed to score in the 200. That was a smoking race.”
Senior Jessica Stockman, in her first year of track, PR’d by nearly two seconds in the 800 (2:43.73) and junior Maria Daniels broke three minutes in that event for the first time with a 3½-second personal best of 2:56.64. Senior exchange student Kanon Nakamura, also in her first year of track, ran a six-second best of 6:33.20 in the 1500.
“It’s just kind of the way the weekend went for us. The kids just stepped up. They didn’t let the largeness of the meet, the fact that this was for all the marbles, get to them. It’s always easy for that to happen.”
The state meet will be held Friday and Saturday, May 22 and 23, with events beginning at 9 a.m. Friday and at 9:30 a.m. Saturday.
Snow said his athletes just have to do what they did at districts.
“Our goal is just to go down there, run our heat and see what happens.”
Sky-Em Championships
State qualifiers (top two) and Sweet Home Finishers (Places below eighth are preliminaries finishes in most events.)
Boys Results
* Personal Best
Team Scores – (1) Elmira 208; (2-tie) Sweet Home, Junction City 122; (4) Cottage Grove 118; (5) Sisters 53; (6) Sutherlin 20.
100 – (1) Zach Beltz (E) 11:34; (2) Jordan Stoppel (E) 11.49; (9) Jacob Erickson (SH) 12.05*; (11) Justin Carpenter 12.14*.
200 – (1) Zach Beltz (E) 22.92; (2) Connor Howard (CG) 23.26; (6) Trey Reed (SH) 24:06 (23.67* in prelims); (14) West Parker (SH) 25.22*.
400 – (1) Connor Howard (CG) 50.62; (2) Trey Reed (SH) 50.76*; (13) Nathan Hager (SH) 57.77.
800 – (1) Morgan McAdams (JC) 2:01.37; (2) Tyler Ledford (CG) 2:04.46; (7) Noah Taraski (SH) 2:13.52*.
1500 – (1) Jakob Hiett (SH) 4:10.42; (2) Jadon Bachtold (S) 4:12.59; (8) Garrett Fox (SH) 4:44.11*; (10) Jason Miller (SH) 5:01.73.
3000 – (1) Jakob Hiett (SH) 9:04.63; (2) Jadon Bachtold (S) 9:09.54; (11) Ricky Yunke (SH) 10:54.12*.
110 Hurdles – (1) Micheal Tharpe (CG) 15.44; (2) Eric Flierl (SH) 15.58*; (6) TJ Baham (SH) 17.46 (17.44* prelims time).
300 Hurdles – (1) Eric Flierl (SH) 40.36*; (2) Nicholas Boykin (E) 41.24; (4) Matt Davis (SH) 42.92*; (13) Nathan Hager (SH) 50.63.
4×100 Relay – (1) Junction City 44.35; (2) Sweet Home (Egan Shamek, Eric Flierl, Matt Davis, Trey Reed) 44.81*; (3) Cottage Grove 44.97; (4) Sutherlin 46.80; (5) Elmira 47.21.
4×400 Relay – (1) Sisters 3:29.68; (2) Junction City 3:30.10; (3) Cottage Grove 3:30.58; (4) Sweet Home (Eric Flierl, Egan Shamek, Jakob Hiett, Trey Reed) 3:32.52*; (5) Elmira 3:33.03.
Shot Put – (1) Zane Wardwell (E) 47-0; (2) Andre Holmes (SH) 46-4¼*; (6) Shawn Worthen (SH) 40-6¾.
Discus – (1) Zane Wardwell (E) 147-2; (2) Brad Geisler (CG) 125-4; (9) Andre Holmes (SH) 105-7*; (12) Trevor Miner (SH) 95-6*; (14) Shawn Worthen (SH) 95-2.
Javelin – (1) Gary Younce (E) 154-9; (2) Mason Beebe (E) 149-6; (4) Dillon Stutzman (SH) 145-11*; (6) Charlie Guerrero (SH) 134-11*.
High Jump – (1) Garrett Nepper (JC) 6-0; (2) Gary Younce (E) 5-10; (6) Jacob Erickson (SH) 5-4.
Pole Vault – (1) Jeff Linn (E) 12-4; (2) Russell Grzeczkowski (E) 12-0; (3) Dillon Stutzman (SH) 12-0*; (4) TJ Baham (SH) 12-0*.
Long Jump – (1) Zach Beltz (E) 21-1; (2) Egan Shamek (SH) 20-5½; (9) Justin Carpenter (SH) 18-9*.
Triple Jump – (1) Zach Beltz (E) 41-4; (2) Gary Younce (E) 40-8½; (3) Egan Shamek (SH) 39-9; (10) Wes Parker (SH) 36-3; (11) Matt Davis (SH) 36-1½.
Girls Results
Team Scores – (1) Sisters 169½; (2) Junction City 113½; ; (3) Cottage Grove 113; (4) Sutherlin 100; (5) Sweet Home 85½; (6) Elmira 64½.
100 – (1) Erynn Ricker (S) 13.13; (2) Cassidy Bell (Suth) 13.28; (4) Josie Knight (SH) 13.56 (13.25* in prelims); (6) Sarah Dunkley (SH) 13.72 (13.50* in prelims).
200 – (1) Erynn Ricker (S) 26.78; (2) Bethany Gingerich (SH) 27.34*; (7) Josie Knight (SH) 28.37; (11) Sarah Dunkley (SH) 29.22*.
400 – (1) Ricki Mock (Suth) 1:00.29; (2) Bethany Gingerich (SH) 1:01.28*; (9) Kendyl Stutzman (SH) 1:08.65*.
800 – (1) Shayla Solomon (JC) 2:25.50; (2) Hudson Weybright (CG) 2:26.19; (9) Jessica Stockman (SH) 2:43.73*; (12) Sierra Swanson (SH) 2:49.84; (13) Maria Daniels (SH) 2:56.64*.
1500 – (1) Aria Blumm (S) 4:57.50; (2) Morgan Craig (E) 5:08.80; (11) Kayleen Keeney (SH) 5:50.60; (14) Kanon Nakamura (SH) 6:33.20*.
3000 – (1) Aria Blumm (S) 10:59.77; (2) Hudson Weybright (CG) 11:34.75; (10) Kayleen Keeney (SH) 13:02.31*; (14) Kanon Nakamura (SH) 14:30.92*; (15) Allison Wickline (SH) 14:40.67*.
100 Hurdles – (1) Michaela Miller (S) 16.06; (2) Bailey Mills (E) 16.22; (9) Dana Hiett (SH)18.38*.
300 Hurdles – (1) Micheala Miller (S) 47.84; (2) Sabrina Reifschneider (S) 49.00; (4) India Porter (SH) 51.35*; (7) Cora McKee (SH) 52.60*; (12) Dana Hiett (SH) 56.71*.
4×100 Relay – (1) Sisters 50.44; (2) Sweet Home (Josie Knight, Sarah Dunkley, India Porter, Bethany Gingerich) 51.83*; (3) Junction City 51.83; (4) Sutherlin 52.88; (5) Cottage Grove 54.11; (6) Elmira 58.11.
4×400 Relay – (1) Sisters 4:15.08; (2) Sutherlin 4:15.25; (3) Junction City 4:18.69; (4) Cottage Grove 4:25.17; (5) Elmira 4:28.75; (6) Sweet Home (India Porter, Jessica Stockman, Kendyl Stutzman, Bethany Gingerich) 4:36.05.
Shot Put – (1) Conner Brigo (CG) 36-2¾; (2) Olivia Gulliford (Suth) 35-8½; (3) Josie Knight (SH) 35-3; (9) Elea Hewitt (SH) 27-3¾; (16) Emily Ramsey (SH) 22-3¼.
Discus – (1) Courtney Hammel (CG) 118-6; (2) Olivia Gulliford (Suth) 111-10; (8) Elea Hewitt (SH) 81-7; (13) Kendyl Stutzman (SH) 68-6; (15) Shelby Dinsfriend (SH) 64-8.
Javelin – (1) Julianne Meeter (S) 114-4; (2) Jordan Miller (SH) 101-3*; (8) Shania Baxter (SH) 90-3*; (13) Barbara Raphaelli (SH) 76-0.
High Jump – (1) Kamryn Knox (JC) 4-10; (2) Sierra Swanson (SH) 4-9*; (4) Caylie Trewin (SH) 4-8; (10) Dana Hiett (SH) 4-2.
Pole Vault – (1) Erynn Ricker (S) 9-8; (2) Tessa O’Hern (S) 9-8; (5) Dana Hiett (SH) 7-0; (6) Natasha Rasmussen (SH) 7-0; (9) Gracie Olson (SH) 6-4*.
Long Jump – (1) Michaela Miller (S) 15-8½; (2) Keara Murphy (CG) 15-4¾; (5) Natasha Rasmussen (SH) 14-9¾; (12) Caylie Trewin (SH) 13-6½; (16) Makenna Ashton (SH) 11-9½.
Triple Jump – (1) Brittany Coleman (Suth) 36-0; (2) Brittany Hanson (Suth) 34-1½; (3) India Porter (SH) 32-1½; (7) Caylie Trewin (SH) 29-4½; (14) Gracie Olson (SH) 27-5¼.