Oregon athletes were forced to endure cool & blustery conditions once again this spring yet the Sandy Invitational saw a number of fine results. The 1500 Meter race for guys was certainly a high-light, as Ian Burgess of Franklin and Andy Bennison of Central Catholic waged a rousing battle down the stretch. Bennison had led a good portion of the race, while Burgess tried to extricate himself from the pack. The splits were 68 & 2:17 with Andy leading. Ian finally got into the clear and moved into second, while Bennison reached the 1200 in around 3:21 but Ian charged down the stretch and nipped Bennison at the line. Their respective times of 4:04.78 and 4:04.94 now rank one and two on the Oregon seasonal list. Nick Roche of Tigard placed third in the event with 4:08.66. Hussein Mohamed of Beaverton edged his team mate Dan Oekerman, who had the leading time in the State going into the day, by a second to earn 4th with 4:09.
The Central Catholic star returned later in the day in the 800 Meters and spent most of the race boxed in a pack of runners. He along with Beaverton’s Kevin Kavanaugh were well back early with seemingly nowhere to go. Aloha’s Alex Foote, who going into the day’s action had the second best time in the state in the 1500, held the lead and seemed to have the edge over a closely grouped trio that included Mark Medgin of Tigard & Ryan Wilson of Redmond. Coming off the final turn Bennison went very wide & then all but sling-shot himself off the final turn moving out as far as lane six. It hardly seemed possible but Andy overcame the deficit to edge Foote at the end. His winning time of 2:02.48 topped Foote by .17 seconds. Right behind with a time of 2:02 & change was Mark Medgin. Wilson took 4th just ahead of Colin Bates of Sandy and Kavanaugh got up for sixth.
Arthur Delaney of Barlow confided after the 400 Meters that the distance is hardly his favorite but, like the poor temperature on Saturday one would not guess it, because he won the event in a very impressive 48.39. Shane Fekete were well behind yet ran fine times given the condition, as both were clocked in 50 & change. Oshay Dunmore of Newport placed 4th in the event with 51.64. Dunmore is only a junior but shows great promise as a decathlon specialist after what must have been a long day shuttling back and forth between various disciplines. Dunmore won the Pole Vault with 13-06 & earned second in the long jump behind Joseph Hart of Tigard (22-10) with 22-00. Oshay also took tenth in the discus.
Jacob Campbell of Barlow won the 3K with a time of 9:10.16 defeating freshman Kyle Thompson of Central Catholic, who finished a second later. Daivik Orth of Beaverton finished a second later & Nick Roche completed a nice double by taking 4th in 9:15. Sheldon Prince claimed victories in both the 100M (11.24) and the 200M (22.57). Sean McGetrick of Tigard triumphed in both hurdles events 16.10 & 41.64. The javelin saw Haydon Plinke of Glencoe edge Samson Ebukam of David Douglas 172-05 to 171-03. Shot Put & Discus titles went to Cameron Clay (54-10) & Tyler Higley of Aloha (14600) respectively.
Shannon Susbauer & Sasha Gonzalez of Milwaukie dueled Beaverton’s Hayley Gregoire for most of the 3K although there was a pack of five runners until three laps to go in the race. Susbauer made a strong surge with 300 meters to go and raced home alone to claim her first invitational title in a time of 10:50.38. Gregoire and Gonzalez went back & forth with the Beaverton runner taking second in 10:52.49 about three seconds in front of Gonzalez. Desyre Balckburn of Aloha secured points for 4th with 11:13.
Samantha Wight of Aloha won the 1500 with her time of 5:07.70 by defeating Caitlyn Lewis of Sandy by four seconds. Leah Norquist of Barlow earned third (5:16) & Dalen Richardson of Sandy placed fourth. Hilary Harris of Glencoe ran 2:19.15to win the 800 meters, while Kelsi Schaer of Tigard finished second. Madison Trowbridge of Franklin followed with 5:16 to take third in the event.
Melissa Baller (5878) of Glencoe and Juanita Birdsong of Sandy (59.81) both broke sixty seconds in the 400 Meters, when they went one – two and Jacey Grimstad of Newport claimed third with 61.86. Bailer came back later to annex the 200M with 25.72, as she topped Caitlyn Safley of Sandy, who ran 26.73. Tefna Mitchell of Redmond won the 100 meter dash with 12.99.
McKenzie Warren won both the shot put (40-01) and the discus (132-02), while Cherilyn Bunker & Caitlin Curtis claimed second in the events respectively. Kaitlin Doyle scored bronze in both events. Makena Schroeder of Sandy edged Kaylie VanLoo of Glencoe as both went over 145. Briana Bain of Aloha went 141-10 to take third. Morgan Rennekamp went 5-03 to win the high jump over Barlow’s Mandie Madduxand Taisha Moore easily scored in the Triple Jump with 36-06. Susannah Philbrick went 16-11 to win the Long Jump by a foot, while Morgan Rennekamp & Maddy Duretete secured the next two medals.
The pole vault competition was quite closeand the top three all topped ten foot in spite of the inclement conditions. Barlow’s Tiffany Nyssen won with 10-06 as Marisa Dean of Newport had more misses. Dannah Martin of Barlow earned third with 10-00.