With the district track and field championships approaching at the end of this week, Sweet Home’s athletes got a tune-up last week as they hosted nine other schools, including Newport and partial teams from Cascade and Stayton’s girls, at the Last Chance Meet.
In the team competition, Sweet Home finished second on both the boys and girls sides, behind Newport, with some significant performances from some Huskies, Coach Nathan Whitfield said.
“The kids were a little tired going into it, so we held some of them out,” he said. “But for the most part, the ones that competed did really well. We had some big performances.”
One was senior Mercedes Burks’ 7-9 jump and barely missed at 8 feet to establish a 9-inch personal best in the pole vault to win that event and move into fifth place in the league standings going into this week. That mark stood through Cottage Grove’s Wally Ciochetti Invitational on Friday, which included Cascade, Philomath and Phoenix among a dozen other top 4A teams, and which produced some improvements in the league rankings. The Huskies were scheduled to compete at Cottage Grove, but Whitfield decided that four competitions in 10 days was too much with districts closing in quickly.
Tanner Waldrop won the shot put at the Last Chance Meet with a personal-best throw of 39-9, while senior Evan Jensen moved into the league’s top 10 in the javelin with a 6½-foot personal best of 134-5½.
In the boys pole vault, senior Aiden Shamek, in his first-ever competition in that event, went 8-0 to place fifth, which also moved him into the Oregon West Conference top 10.
Eddie Martinez finished second in the 400 in a speed workout, running a three-second personal-best 55.57, a time that moved him to seventh in the league.
“We knew he could run – he’s run the four-by-four, but not the opening leg,” Whitfield said.
All the teams in the conference are young, thanks to COVID shutdowns over the past two years, but the Huskies are especially so.
What that means is that just about anything could happen as Sweet Home hosts the district meet this Friday and Saturday, May 13-14. The top two placewinners in each event will qualify for the state meet, which will be held May 20-21 in the brand-new world-class Hayward Field at the University of Oregon.
Sweet Home’s boys have solid contenders in several events, and could score points in many.
“It kind of depends on who wants to show up that day,” Whitfield said.
The Huskies are lacking experience depth in the distances on both the boys and girls sides, as well as the hurdles and the jumps.
Mason Lopez is ranked first in the OWC javelin, and Charley Crawford, 8 inches out of second in that event.
Crawford is tied for fifth in the shot, but spots three through five are separated by, literally, 2 inches.
Waldrop is ranked second in the discus, an inch ahead of Newport’s Jonathan Fritz, which shapes up to a be a vigorous competition. Waldrop has steadily improved in both the disc and shot in the past few weeks.
“We have some throwers with Tanner and Charley and Mason, who should do well,” Whitfield said.
In the jumps, Shamek is ranked third in the long jump and fourth in the triple, in which he PR’d at the Last Chance Meet with a leap of 39-3½, which puts him within 8 inches of second place in the league standings.
Although freshman Kasey Kast is ranked ninth in the 800 meters, he ran his best time of the season at the Meet of Champions with a five-second PR, so he’s shown he can show up in big meets.
The boys short relay team of Conner Stevens, Dakota Seiber, Von James and Crawford is ranked second in the league, and Stevens, a freshman, has steadily improved in the 100, standing fifth in the district with a personal best of 11.87.
The Sweet Home girls are not ranked in the top 10 of any running event, except for Kaylynn Mamac in the 300 Hurdles, but Burks is in fifth in the vault and Kami Hart is sixth in the shot – after three others passed her up at the Chiochetti Invitational. Third through sixth place in that event are separated by 7 inches.
“It’s hard to say, exactly, what will happen with as young of team as we are,” Whitfield said. “On the girls side ti’s even harder to read.
“Kami has a good shot to make state, so we’ll see what happens. We’re working on some things.
“It’s going to be interesting, especially how young we are, to see exactly how many we get through and how well they compete. It should be fun.”
District competition begins at 3 p.m. Friday with field events finals, with track preliminaries starting at 3 p.m. Saturday’s action begins at noon with field finals and 1 p.m. with the short relays.