In a final tuneup before the district meet, the Husky track squads competed in the 15-team Stayton Twilight meet, with senior Matt Kragness stepping into the spotlight in a major way.
Kragness broke three SHHS records, including one of his own.
“This meet is a great opportunity for the kids to test their readiness for the district meet,” Coach Billy Snow said. “Stayton has a new facility and runs a great meet. The fact that it is a twilight meet is a bonus for the kids and the last half of the meet is run under the lights. The weather really cooperated this year and allowed all competitors to concentrate on their events.”
Boys results
The boys team finished seventh out of 15 teams with 45 1/2 points, right behind Molalla which was the only Capital Conference team in front of Sweet Home. As a group, the boys had 12 PRs on the night out of a possible 24 tries.
“We competed well and where we were off a bit, we usually weren’t far from our season bests,” Coach Snow said.
Kragness had an evening unmatched in school history. Kragness won the 100M, the 200M and the 400M, all in new school record times.
Before those three events, Kragness anchored the 4 X 100M of Mike Severns, Justin Temple and Jared Allen to a third place finish behind Sherwood and Newport. “This foursome did this despite some poor handoffs which cost us time,” Coach Snow said. “They also beat Stayton handily which is one of the teams that will be battling for a berth to the state meet.”
Out of Matt’s three school records, the most surprising, Coach Snow said, was the 100M. In that race, Kragness came across the line in a time of 10.7 which ties Randy Westrick’s 100 yard converted time from 1972.
“Coach Martin and I both had him clocked under 11.0 and the wind was minimal at the time of the race,” Coach Snow said. “That race, along with some current injuries to team members, solidified what we plan to do with Matt at the district meet. He will run all three sprints along with the short relay.”
In his next race, Kragness got a good start and ran a good first 100M.
“It is so imperative that a 400 runner get out hard and not save himself for the last 200,” Coach Snow said. “If they do, the race is over before you are done.”
Kragness came through the 200M at 24.5 and eased a bit going into the corner. Down the homestretch, Kragness again found the speed that others could not match and cross the line in an official 50.0. Kragness broke his own school record from the finals of last year’s state meet and currently leads all 3A runners in this event.
His last race came under the lights. Kragness’ goal was to be ahead coming off the corner. He was dead-even entering the homestretch.
“Again, he had another gear that put him well ahead of the other runners,” Coach Snow said. His official time of 22.2 bests the school record of Mike Black of 22.54 in 1984.
“I’ve seen a lot of awesome performances from high school athletes in 17 years of coaching, unfortunately they had almost always been athletes from other teams,” Coach Snow said. “It was fun watching a Sweet Home athlete turn in such a sterling effort.”
Other placers for Sweet Home came from Jared Allen, Aron van Dijk and Jake Dahlenburg. Allen ran a good race in the 300 hurdles but not his best race of the season, Coach Snow said. He got off on the third hurdle and lost a lot of momentum on the corner and top of the stretch. His time of 42.9 was still good for fourth overall.
“Jared is an aggressive hurdler and will do very well at the district meet,” Coach Snow said.
In the shot put, van Dijk had a big PR. His best put of the evening was 43-01, almost 3 1.2 feet over his old PR. He came out of an early flight to end up eighth overall. His put throws him into the thick of competition for the second berth in the shot put at the district meet.
Dahlenburg went 12-00 to tied for fifth in the pole vault, well off his season best of 12-10.
“All the top vaulters had to wait at least three hours to vault once the event started and then the lights seemed to affect almost everyone. The winner, all the way down to the lower placers, were all off about a foot or so from their season bests,” Coach Snow said. “Still, Jake’s place was the best for all conference vaulters at the meet.”
Several other Huskies set season PRs on the night. Justin Temple ran 4:33.2 to PR in the 1500M. David Burford ran a great race in the 100M, looking as smooth and as strong as he has in two years. His time of 12.3 was a season best by four-tenths second. Casey Baarson also ran a solid race in the 400M and looked good in tying his best of 57.4. In the 3000M, Chris Burford had a huge PR, going 10:04.0 in perhaps his best race of the year. Richard Westvik also had a PR in the race, running 10:56.4.
In the field, Sam Rodgers had a PR in the shot put, slipping past his season best and going 36-04.75. Jared Allen tied his best in the high jump at 5-06. Noah Gray came through with a PR in the discus going 110-00.
Boys scores: Philomath, 70; Sherwood, 64 1/2; Newport, 64; Siuslaw, 61; Taft, 53; Molalla, 51; Sweet Home, 45 1/2; Scappoose, 45; Yamhill Carlton, 44; Stayton, 43; Junction City, 37; Central, 35; Elmira, 31; Sisters, 10; Woodburn, 8.
Girls results
The girls were able to keep pace with the guys and record 12 season bests out of 24 attempts on the night.
“Our girls did a great job of being competitive and looking for improvement,” Coach Snow said. “We we did not hit season bests, we often weren’t too far oof and showed some improvement from the Sisters meet held Tuesday.”
Nicole Burnside continued her solid year by throwing an eight inch PR in the shot put for sixth place. Burnside’s put of 34-10 puts her No. 9 on the school list. Christine Smith also had a PR by almost two feet at 28-05.5. Burnside placed sixth in the javelin at 99-06, just shy of her season best of 102. Smith had a PR in the javelin, throwing 81-09.
In the jumps, Ashley Smith and Lisa Brocard both placed. Smith went 14-07 in the long jump, good enough for eighth place. In the triple jump, both girls placed with Smith going 31-10 for fourth and Brocard hitting a season best 32-04 for eighth. Brocard’s PR puts her No. 7 on the all time triple jump list.
On the track, the Huskies did have any placers but had some good improvements. Anne Helfrich had an impressive double, setting a season PR in the 1500M at 5:36.9 and coming back to lead a trio of girls in the 3000M in a team leading time of 12:33.4. Megan Snow (12:35.1) and Maria Andrade (12:56.2) also had a season PR in the 3000M.
Stephanie Kragness had her best race of the year in the 100M and hit a season PR of 14.0. Christie Dompier continues to battle back from a series of injuries and ran a season best 18.6 in the 100M high hurdles. Andrea Martin had a 10 second PR running 2:55.8 as did Ana Andrade who ran a season best 3:09.1. Both girls had competitors that they were able to latch onto and hang with. Martin came back to PR in the 300 hurdles at 59.0 in only her second record at that distance.
Girls scores: Sisters, 119; Philomath, 118.5; Siuslaw, 85; Stayton, 59; Sherwood, 47; Yamhill Carlton, 45; Newport, 42; Elmira, 35; Taft, 23; Molalla, 22; Woodburn, 17; Junction City, 16; Sweet Home, 15; Scappoose, 14.5; Central, 14.
Calendar: The district meet is Friday and Saturday at North Marion High School. Friday’s events start at 3 p.m. on the field and 4 p.m. at the track. On Saturday, field events start at noon and running events at 1 p.m. Cost is $4 for adults and $2 for students.