The Jesuit Twilight Relays on Friday welcomed a new format, which included field events for the first time. That meant all field event winners became automatic record holders but some marks were impressive enough that a number would probably have been records even if the events had been held for a decade. Oregon City’s Greg Skipper placed his name in the record book by throwing the discus 158-00 to defeat Casey Lebo of Barlow (141-05) and Tyler Hipley (140-0) of Aloha. He added a title in the shot put with a heave of 54-11 topping James Kuscher (51-05.25)of Aloha & Beau Brosseau (49-05) of Oregon City. Quinn Hale of Bellarmine Prep secured the javelin title with a mark of 202-06 to easily defeat Andy Rondeau (184-05) of Oregon City and James Euscher of Aloha (173-04).
Alex Salley claimed the Triple Jump with 44-04 to best Jordan Talley of Jesuit (21-05) & Andrew Andrews (21-01). Cameron Ericksen of Tualatin led the way in the Pole Vault with a mark of 14-00, while Chris Un of Aloha was close behind with 43-09.5. Jaron Youngblood sailed 13-00 for third in the event. Rocky Tuft earned a close victory in the high Jump by edging Brendan Hurley of Central Catholic 6-03 to 6-02.
Ariel Oliver of McMinnville won the Discus with 145-6 and then came back to take third in the Shot Put with 38-00. Elizabeth Brennan of Jesuit easily won the shot with 45-11. McKenzie Warren of Sandy had a busy day taking second in the shot (41-07)& second in the discus (137-09), while Briana Bain of Aloha took first in the Javelin with 164-10. Briana was followed by Elizabeth Banner & Makena Schroder of Sandy.
Kristin Coffman, who ran XC for Tualatin last fall, showed that she is adept at the high jump claiming the event with a leap of 5-05. Summit’s Lucinda Howard placed second with 5-4 to tie West Linn’s Maria Green & Ellie Clow, also of West Linn, claimed fourth with 5-03. She tied with Lauren Neff of Camas. Jesuit’s Sierra Arlauska soared 18-05.5 to set a challenging mark in the Long Jump. She was followed by Jazmin Ratcliff of Benson, who went 17-10.5 and Taisha Moore of Aloha (17-07-5). Moore doubled back to annex the Triple Jump with a mark of 37-05.5 to defeat Carisa Conley of Benson & Sierra Arlauska. Jill Doyle went a fine 11-07 in the pole vault and was followed by Annie Sidor of Summit (10-06) & Elaina Moore of Aloha (10-00).
Probably the single strongest field of the day was the girls’ Elite 1500 and Katie Knight of North Central made things very interesting by blazing out a first lap of 69 seconds. In spite of the pace she was closely pursued by Amy-Eloise Neale of Glacier Peak plus Annamarie Maag of Jesuit & Ashley Maton of Summit. Split times of 2:23 & 3:36 did nothing to dislodge Neale, although it did open a gap on the other two challengers. With a little more than 200 meters to go Neale put her impressive kick on display &surged to victory in a time of 4:26.71. The valiant Knight followed in 4:30.89 and was followed by Maag, who announced that she will attend Georgetown next fall, and Ashley Maton, who ran 4:32 & 4:34 respectively. Kelsi Schaer of Tualatin ran 4:36 to edge Summit’s Megan Fristoe by less than a second and Payton Schutte of Jesuit earned 7th. As fine as the field & the pace had been Neale just missed the record of Alyssa O’Connor of Summit, who now runs for Cornell University.
The boys’ Elite 1500 saw a rather slow 66 first lap create very congested conditions for much of the race. Jesuit’s David Leavy led not only for the first but the second lap, which went in 2:15. The Henry Jackson duo of Grant Grosvenor & Blake Nelson extricated themselves first from the crowd and fought for the last 300 meters with Grosvenor winning in 3:58 to 4:00 for Nelson. Centennial’s Badane Sultessa made a late surge to take third in 4:01 to top Nate Brennand of Olympia by a second.
The girls’ 3K saw Jesuit’s Adrienne Demaree take charge after only 200 meters had been run and only Kelsey Fruland of Henry Jackson truly tried to challenge her. Adrienne remained in the lead the entire race and the only major change came, when the Crusader’s Sabrah DeVoir moved into second place around the 5:30 mark of the race. Demaree went on to win the race convincingly with a time of 10:23.91 and DeVoir claimed second in 10:36. Jesuit made it a sweep of the top three places when Genevieve Reaume moved late to take third, while Fruland finished in fourth with 10:39. The boys’ 3K was run in a very different fashion, because Jamie Coughlin of Garfield went out relatively fast with a 69 second first lap. Coughlan continued to led through splits of 2:24 & 3:38 but Matt Baer of Bellarmine Prep took over shortly thereafter & Conor McCandless of Gonzaga Prep joined the fray as well. McCandless moved to take the lead & led through a split of 6:03 with two laps to go but Coughlan fought back to assume the lead once again shortly thereafter. There would be another back & forth switch between the front duo but coming into the last turn it was Coughlan out in front once again. McCandless, only a junior, sensed that he might have more left, given Coughlan’s earlier pace duties & charged out of the final curve and into the last stretch to win in a time of 8:56. Coughlan followed closely behind in 8:57and Max Baer of Bellarmine Prep took third in 9:03. Tanner Smith of Lincoln also had a fine race to take fourth & was just edged by Baer.