Paige Rice of St. Mary’s Academy, who was just selected to run in the Dream Mile at the upcoming Adidas Grand Prix meet in New York, triumphed in the girls’ 1500. She ran early with her team mate Ellen Patterson, as well as Kennadi Martin of Gresham. The trio separated themselves from the chase pack early on and stayed together for the first two laps. Martin finally gave way after 800 Meters leaving Rice & Patterson alone to contest the top two places. The SMA duo remained together until the bell, when Paige pulled away and cruised home in a winning time of 4:39.16. Patterson qualified for State with her second place effort of 4:46, while Kennedy Martin followed in third. Julia Stevenson of Central Catholic earned fourth.
The boys’ followed shortly after that and the trio of Jackson Haselnus of Barlow, Kyle Thompson of Central Catholic & Gus Arroyo Vero of David Douglas moved to the front. Haselnus was the titular leader through a first lap of 69 seconds and the group remained together through two laps in 2:17. After two laps there was a distinct gap between that trio & a pack of three runners, which was led by Andrew Green of Central Catholic. Green did a nice piece of running by bridging the gap between groups during the third lap and was ready to contend, when the bell rang. The mark was 3:26 with a lap to go and Kyle Thompson made a move to take over the lead, which reduced to the contenders to just two with Jackson Haselnus also vying for position. While Thompson & Haselnus moved ahead Green took control of third place, as Arroyo Vera ceded ground. Haselnus boldly moved to the front with two meters to go but Thompson reeled him back in coming into the straight before claiming victory in a time of 4:10.89. Haselnus earned a trip to Eugene with his second place mark of 4:11. Andrew Green secured third, while Arroyo Vera finished fourth.
Haley Croyser will represent Gresham in four events and was the District Champion in three. The record-holder in the Javelin easily triumphed in that event with a throw of 165-09. She also was victorious in the Shot Put with a mark of 43-00 and sped down the track to claim victory in the 100M Hurdles with 15.15. Crouser cleared 5-05 in the High Jump along with Marley Yates of Barlow, who was credited with the victory based on fewer misses. Central Catholic's Alex Balducci won the Shot Put with a fine mark of 53-01.
We had driven to David Douglas to cover the meet in person but were told that we would have to pay to cover the meet. Given that we do not even receive payment for gas mileage that is hardly going to happen, so there will be no pictures or interviews, as originally intended. Had we been on hand we would have watched Carly Januzzi of St. Mary’s Academy win the 400 meters in 59 seconds & change.