Scott Swanson
The 4×100 relay teams and distance runner Jakob Hiett put an exclamation point on Sweet Home’s track season Saturday at the state track and field championships, turning what had been a somewhat dismal performance into a big finish.
Hiett took second, good for 16 points, in both the 1500 and 3000, which made up the bulk of the Huskies’ 20 points, which put them in 11th place. The boys’ other four points came from Egan Shamek, who placed fifth in the long jump.
Hiett got things rolling in the 3000, but things “went south for a while,” Coach Billy Snow said.
“Our philosophy is to get the kids down here and PR or try to PR and see where that gets you,” he said. “At least on the track, the prelims did not go our way, for whatever reason. We question ourselves as coaches sometimes. The kids gave their best effort for that particular day. But I think they came back Saturday and showed, hey, that was a fluke.”
Henley won the boys competition with 75.5 points, ahead of North Bend (64.5) and Philomath (52). Elmira, which outpaced the Huskies for the district championship a week earlier, finished fourth with 41.83 points.
The girls’ three points came from the relay team’s sixth-place finish, which put them at 32nd. Astoria outscored Newport 76-69 for the team title. The Sky-Em Conference’s top finisher was Sutherlin, with 32 points, good for a fifth-place tie, with Sisters in a four-way tie for 12th with 16 points.
Sweet Home’s girls team of senior India Porter, juniors Josie Knight and Sarah Dunkley, and freshman Bethany Gingerich came into Saturday’s relays seeded 10th but things started clicking for them early, as they stormed to a sixth-place finish in their fastest time of the year by half a second, 51.13.
“We started out and I saw Josie in third and then we moved up to second and I thought, ‘Maybe we’ve got a good chance at this,’” said Gingerich, the anchor runner, who took the Huskies home to victory in their heat. “Then Sisters (which ran in the next heat) had a not-so-good handoff and that was more of our competition – they always beat us.
“India handed off to me and I just took off. It was exciting. It was a good way to end the season.”
Knight said she didn’t expect that, though she was delighted to be back at state after missing out last year when a dropped baton at the district meet ended the Huskies’ chance to continue their streak of consecutive medals in the event since 2009.
“Our plan was to win our heat and see where that put us,” she said. “We did so much better than I anticipated. We got more than half a second PR and that was super exciting. I told (Assistant Coach Jim) Kistner that this so much makes up for last year.”
After the girls were done, it was the boys turn.
Although they placed ninth, one spot out of the medals, it was a big finish for the team of juniors Shamek and Matt Davis, senior Eric Flierl and sophomore Trey Reed – in 44.63, their fastest time of the year by two-tenths of a second. It also made up for some disappointments from Friday’s prelims.
The Huskies were young and it showed Friday. Sweet Home’s only individual athletes with state meet experience were Hiett and Reed, a sophomore.
But Reed went out hard in his 400-meter preliminary heat, leading handily at the 200 meter mark, and then ran out of gas and got caught by the field on the homestretch, finishing fifth and ninth overall, one spot out of the final – to his disgust.
“I went out a little too fast in the first 200. I let my nerves get to me,” he said.
Shamek, a junior in his first state meet, had trouble in the long jump on Friday as rain drizzled down. Shamek fouled his first jump, then jumped 20-3 to get a spot in the finals, hitting his best mark of the day on his first attempt in the finals, before fouling his second and finishing with 20-10½, good for fifth.
Zach Beltz of Elmira was the second-place finisher, jumping 20-11¼ behind winner Drew Matthews of North Bend, who finished with 21-5¼.
“It was a little difficult to get into the groove,” Shamek said. “After I made the finals, it became a little bit easier. My last jump was my best jump, so I got some confidence from that one. Overall, it was a little bit nerve-wracking but I got over it.”
Snow said the conditions were “lousy for jumping, so everybody was down.”
“It was a tight competition. Watching what was happening with the kids sliding on the board and stuff like that, I asked him later, ‘Did that bother you?’ He said, ‘Yeah…’ Watching people crash and burn like that.”
After Friday, the relay on Saturday was very satisfying.
“Even though we didn’t get a medal, it was still a success,” Reed said “We PR’d good, it was good handoffs. It was perfect. We have some pretty good alternates. That gives us some motivation. We can get the title. We have motivation now.”
Shamek said the Huskies know what they have to do next year.
“In districts, we weren’t supposed to make it and we pulled through,” he said. “Ninth place is still pretty good. It was nice. If all goes well, I hope to make more events next year. It would be nice to qualify in the 4×400 for both girls and boys. I think we can do it.”
Snow said the Huskies’ performance in the relays was “big time.”
“The guys were one spot short of the podium, but they ran their two fastest times last two races of the year. Same with the girls. They were ready. For the young ones, they’ll be back.
“It was good to get those young kids here so they get that experience under their belt in a big setting.”
Hiett ran 8:53.80 to finish second in the 3000 to Valley Catholic senior Wilder Boyden (8:52.53) after running in the lead for much of what turned out to be a very tactical race. Boyden had finished second to Hiett in last fall’s 4A cross-country championship, but this time he and teammate Ben Davidson switched off behind Hiett and, with 200 meters to go, Boyden moved into the lead and Hiett couldn’t catch him coming down the home stretch.
Then, in the 1500 on Saturday, Boyden again outkicked Hiett, who finished in 4:06.76 half a second back.
“I think we ran pretty consistent, but (the bumping) was still kind of annoying.
I definitely wish IO could have gotten a lot more competition this year. It was kind of frustrating.
The 1500 was good. Wilder has a really good kick. Both those races were rough and jostling– a lot of pack aggression from both sides. Part of it kind of makes it a fun race.
“I have had any PR’s this season, and that’s frustrating, but racing-wise, I think I’ve raced well both races. I’m pleased with that.”
Snow said Hiett, who plans to run next year at the University of Portland, will be missed.
“He was always a big-points, big-meet kind of guy,” he said. “Somebody like Jakob, you don’t replace somebody like that. They may show up every once in a while. But to have a runner like that, that good and on top of his game like that, we’re going to miss watching him run, at the high school level anyway.
“Hopefully we’ll see him at the collegiate level. But we’ll miss him.”
Always nice to have some big races, but way OSAA counts meets at high school level, if you send one kid to a meet, that’s a meet for your whole team. We had to hope we got some good ones. We had some good ones in the 800, but 1500, 3000, not really. We didn’t have any great races where he could go shoulder to shoulder with somebody. I don’t know if hurt him or not.
Andre Holmes finished out of the medals in the boys shot put, throwing 40-4¾ on the last of his three attempts, well under the 46-4¼ he threw at district to earn a berth in state.
“Andre was just off his game,” Snow said. “The ring was slicker than snot for the shot put. That was kind of hard to handle. I’m not trying to make excuses, but that’s just the way it was.”
Gingerich was 11th in the girls 400 preliminaries, finishing seventh in her heat in 1:03.10.
“I don’t know, I just couldn’t finish it,” she said. “I was so mentally ready. Something in me just couldn’t go any more. I’m just happy I’m at state.”
Gingerich then false-started in the 200, but officials had mercy on her and re-started the race, but she finished 14th, well out of the final, in 27.99.
“I turned around, and said, ‘Yeah, I totally false-started.’ They said, ‘Yeah, you did. You need to make sure you don’t anticipate the gun.’ They were like, ‘false start is on us.’ Then I was stressed out the rest of the race. I just ran through it.”
Sierra Swanson finished out of the medals in the high jump, clearing 4-6 on her first attempt and 4-8 on her third at that height, before missing three times at 4-10 to finish 14th. Cascade freshman Kalulu Ngaida battled Estacada senior Tori Johnson for the win, both clearing all the heights they attempted on one jump through 5-3, before Ngaida missed once at 5-4 and then three times at 5-5 to give Johnson the win.
“In contrast to how I thought it would be, I wasn’t very nervous being at such a big meet,” Swanson said. “I was disappointed that I didn’t make 4-8 on the first jump, but I’d only made it twice before. I had high hopes that I would jump 4-10, so I was a little disappointed, but all my attempts were close.”
Snow said Swanson’s clearing the opening height got her close to scoring, and the difference was misses.
“I was a little worried because she didn’t really clear an opening height in practice all week long,” he said. “But I knew she’d be there. She’s always good, come meet time. That could be a big event for her next year. We can get her to 5 feet and you’re going to place every year at 5 feet. That’s not out of her realm. She had 4-10. She just nicked it with her rear end.”
Jordan Miller finished out of the medals in the javelin, hitting 92-11 on her first throw but unable to improve on that in her next two attempts, missing the finals and finishing well under her personal best of 101-3, which she threw at the district meet.”
“Jordan didn’t quite get there,” Snow said. “That doesn’t take way from the season she accomplished in getting here. She’s one of the 14 best in the state. You can’t argue about that. “