Oregon track fans finally were given pleasant conditions and the young athletes competing in the Mount Hood District took advantage of them. At the end of the first day of action Haley Crouser certainly took advantage of conditions, as she was victorious in three final events. She led off with the Javelin competition and established a new meet record with a mark of 169-00, which is probably the fifth best mark overall in the nation this year. Sydney Leliefeld of Barlow placed second with a toss of 123-10 & Brianna Hogan was third with 119-00.
Once the Javelin title was in hand Haley was probably the busiest person during the afternoon, as she shuttled between finals in the Shot Put & Long Jump plus she had to run in the preliminaries of the 110 Meter Hurdles. Timing was so tight that her usual 40 minute warm-up for that event was shortened to but a minute, yet the sophomore won her heat easily in 15.06 & barely missed the Meet record of 15.06. That event, however, was sandwiched between a victory in the Long Jump, which she won with 16-09.5 over Raven McClendon (Central Catholic – 16-00) & Mandie Maddux (Barlow – 15-07.0), and a triumph in the Shot Put . In the last event she threw 43-00 to defeat Katelyn Davisson of Barlow (37-09.5) & Erin Urbanowicz (37-09.25) of Gresham.
Mandie Maddux had a fine day as well for she followed her bronze in the Long Jump with a victory in the High Jump. Mandie won with a leap of 5-04 and made an attempt at a meet record of 5-06. Centennial team mates Brianne Hogan & Courtney Atteberry, who both went 5-00.0 and had to be separated by a jump off after the main competition and Hogan earned a trip to Eugene.
Andrea Dettman secured the only running championship up for grabs on the first day with a methodical run, which saw her always near the lead. Michelle went out conservatively running out in the third lane alongside of Rachel Shelley of David Douglas & Kennedy Martin of Gresham. The trio led through splits of 87 & 2:53 but Michelle pulled away soon after that point. From then onward Dettman increased her lead with splits of 4:15 & 5;38. Most of the field was content to let Dettman go but Martin did her best to remain in contact through the intermediate laps. Well behind them Rachel Shelley ran alone trailed only by Kirra Morally, who was about 15 meters back. Dettman glided through the last laps to earn a berth in the State meet with a time of 10:38.16.
Nora Helfand of St. Mary’s Academy had moved into second place by mid-race and appeared a solid bet to earn the second berth at State. She ran alone in a sort of no-man’s-land during that time. While Dettman ’s victory may have seemed a bit ordained, her freshman team mate Morally began making a surprising run from back in fifth place. She first caught Kennedy Martin & then overhauled Rachel Shelley. Seemingly gaining confidence as she went Kirra was able to catch Helfand and drew away to earn her first trip to the State meet with a 10:47.42 clocking, which was also her PR by far. Helfand finished third with 10:58 & Shelley placed fourth (11:15).
In the boys’ 3K Andy Bennison of Central Catholic was the favorite and like Dettman, he made sure he was always pretty much in control of the race. Unlike the girls, however, the pace was brisk with the first 400M going in 70 and the 800M in around 2:19 or 2:20. Jacob Campbell of Barlow & Bekama Jaldi of Reynolds matched strides with him early, as Brendan Schmuckley of Centennial & Kyle Thompson of Central Catholic ran just a bit behind the trio. In spite of the fact that Bennison had not taken any decrease in his training regimen, he looked smooth and strong, when he inexorably surged away from any would be pursuers. His time at the end was a fine 8:42.84 and he will head to State knowing that there are faster times within his reach, although the ultimate goal is a State title. Jacob Campbell, although visibly tired at the end, held on for a game State-qualifying time of 8:57.75. Like in the girls’ race a freshman runner would make things interesting & in this case it was Kyle Thompson of Central Catholic, who was making his presence felt. Thompson had battled Schmuckley early and with two laps to go he was a good 25 to 30 meters behind Bekama Jaldi but, showing the patience of a veteran, he reeled the Reynolds senior in and came home third in a time of 9:03. Jaldi, whose season has been compromised by injuries, earned fourth with 9:08 & Schmuckley took fifth in 9:10.
Injury has been a factor in Ryan Crouser’s spring campaign after a brilliant indoor season in which he threw 76 feet in the shot put. Earlier in the season the Barlow senior had been hampered by a back problem & shortly after he got that under control he was hit by a groin injury. On Tuesday he competed in the Discus and due to the injury he was unable to use his spin. It may have looked a bit odd and even something like a retro discus competition but Crouser was on hand to throw the discus from a standing position and the results were impressive. He threw 156-06 to gain an automatic qualifier to the State meet and also won the Conference championship. As he noted “the strength is there” and he was hoping to buy “ten more days” of recovery prior to the State meet. Jonathan Treloggen of Gresham also earned a State berth with a heave of 152-11, while Warren Benavente placed third with 145-10 & Casey Leabo of Barlow took 4th in 143-08
Zechariah McLaurin of Centennial set a new meet record in the Long Jump with his leap of 23-10.00 and will head to State in that event with Arthur Delaney, who went 22-11.5 in the event. Conner Skiles had a fine mark of 21-02 to take third. Delaney is another athlete, who has been hampered by injury problems & on Tuesday he ran cautiously not even using blocks in the 400 Meters. Still at day’s end the Barlow runner had qualified for the finals in the 100 Meters (10.29), the 400 Meters (51.55) & the 200 Meters (22.50) and all were the best times of the day.
The qualifiers for the 800 Meters saw Erin Bergmann of St. Mary’s Academy win her heat with the best time of the day with 2:23.22, while Maggie Riley of Central Catholic took second in the heat with 2:23.97. Paige Rice dominated her heat with a victory clocked in 2:24.30. Badane Sultessa of Centennial dominated his heat with the best time of the day by far coming home in 1:58.8. Julia Read of St. Mary’s Academy was the only girl to break sixty seconds in the 400 Meters, as she qualified with the top time of the day.