EUGENE — The possibility of a three-peat by the Philomath High girls track and field team appeared to be in jeopardy Saturday at Hayward Field.
Heading into the weekend, Philomath had already seen its potential for points lessened by a couple of bad breaks in the previous week’s district meet. Then on Saturday afternoon at the 4A State Championships, a difficult-to-watch scene unfolded in the 400-meter dash when junior Natalie Dunn appeared to be cruising to victory but fell close to the finish line.
Gallery: PHS track and field at 4A State Championships — Day 2 (May 18, 2024)
A collection of photos from Philomath High’s second day at the Class 4A State Track and Field Championships in Eugene on Saturday.
But in the end, those setbacks didn’t knock the Warriors off the perch. Philomath won the title yet again — and actually quite handily by a 23-point margin.
Although some wondered if the state title could slip through Philomath’s hands, veteran coach Joe Fulton felt confident that the team would pull it out after the Warriors had opened the meet’s second day with a victory in the 4-by-100 relay.
“Once we got that out of the way, I felt very comfortable that we would win the meet,” Fulton said. “We had 30 points already and that got us up to 40 and we still had so many more events ahead of us. I knew what the other schools had and didn’t have.”
Philomath ended up with 74 points with Cascade and North Bend tying for second at 51. Scappoose (43), Molalla (41), La Grande (41) and Mazama (41) were also in the mix — but only for a top-four trophy. The Warriors won it running away to become the first 4A team to three-peat since Astoria from 2015-17.
“I told you at the beginning of the season that we have depth and we’ll have even more depth next year,” Fulton said, always keeping an eye on the future. “We’ve got a very good eighth-grade class coming in and so the beat goes on. We want to make it four straight next year. Those girls deserve it. They’ve worked hard.”
Dunn’s heartbreaking fall in the 400 was one of the few downers on the day. Running in Lane 5, she began to take control as early as the beginning of the backstretch. She rounded the final turn well in first place and appeared to have enough to hang on for the victory. But maybe only 15 yards from the finish line, Dunn stumbled and tumbled to the track. Cascade’s Lillian Pickett ended up with the win.
“I was just getting tired and I think my spike caught,” Dunn said. “I’m not mad about it. I gave it my all and there’s nothing I can be ashamed of.”
Said Fulton, “I just gave her a hug and told her how proud I was of her.”
Still, the thought of the fall lingered into the final event of the afternoon. Dunn still had to run the anchor leg on the 4-by-400 relay. The Warriors ended up placing fourth in 4:10.31.
“I was scared coming around the corner — I was thinking of it,” Dunn said about her approach toward the finish. “I was a little scared to pass … I was like ‘I’m getting close, close to where it happened.’”
Junior Adele Beckstead, senior Ellie Morton and junior Janice Hellesto ran the first three legs.
“It definitely was nerve wracking but my team was super supportive and they just made it really easy to race with them,” Dunn said.
4-by-100 relay’s victory
As mentioned, Philomath opened the meet with a thrilling victory in the 4-by-100 relay as Hellesto outsprinted Marist Catholic’s Bella Gobrud to the finish line. The Warrior foursome came in with a season-best time of 49.37 seconds, just .07 ahead of Marist.
“I was like ‘I can get her’ so I was really strong and then if I knew if I could have a good lean that I would have gotten her,” Hellesto said. “It’s a good redemption from last year … we got second last year and I know we all really, really wanted to win this year.”
Morton started out of the blocks for the Warriors, a position she prefers.
“It’s a little bit less pressure on me,” Morton said. “I just have a good block start, which I usually do.”
Morton handed off Dunn.
“I wasn’t too worried with this team,” Dunn said. “I knew we all had the potential to get there and am really excited about how we performed today. I am sad to say goodbye to this team but we finished on a good note.”
Petra Hernandez ran the third leg to set up the final stretch for Hellesto.
“It went really well, smooth handoff and we just took off so well,” she said. “We’re all excited.”
The foursome’s time was one-tenth of a second faster than their performance at the district meet.
“That’s always the most nerve-wracking event because anything can happen in that — drop a baton, anything,” Fulton said. “Coach Tyler (Thomas) did a great job preparing those girls to make sure their handoffs were good and they’ve pretty much been picture perfect all year.”
Hellesto and Morton scored 12 points for the Warriors in the 100. Hellesto was second in 12.54 and Morton placed fifth in 12.84. Both of those performances were almost identical to their prelim times when Hellesto had a PR time of 12.50 and Morton equaled her PR with a 12.83.
Hellesto in the sprints
Later in the afternoon in the 200, Hellesto again won a second-place medal. Alice Davidson, a Scappoose senior, beat out Hellesto in both the 100 and 200. Hellesto had a PR time of 25.38.
“In the 100, that definitely pushed me to definitely go farther,” Hellesto said. “In the 200, I was kind of close and really pushed myself. I PR’d in both races so even though I didn’t win, I still feel really good.”
With Hellesto not competing in the long jump, Fulton put her on the 4-by-400 relay. The team went from eighth to fifth on Hellesto’s leg, which was the third, and then with Dunn’s strong finish ended up fourth.
“I haven’t done the 4-by-4(00) since freshman year,” Hellesto said. “Around that 200, it starts to hurt and I’m like ‘I don’t want to do this’ … I pushed really hard and got a couple of people.”
Fulton said Hellesto is an amazing athlete.
“She’ll be the first to admit that she didn’t come out in the best of shape (at the beginning of the season),” he said. “She usually does cross-country and she didn’t do that this year so she pretty much rested on her laurels for several months and when she came out, it was a slow start.”
Hellesto’s season didn’t take long to heat up.
“She caught fire about a month into the season and you just step back and think ‘this girl can do anything,’” Fulton said. “She’s an incredible athlete with so much desire to win — you saw that in the 4-by-1(00). She just would not give up.”
In one of the more interesting events of the afternoon, Beckstead renewed acquaintances with North Marion freshman Macallan Cutsforth and La Grande sophomore Brooke Perry in the 1,500. Beckstead and Perry dueled through the second and third laps and most of the fourth before Cutsforth finished strong for the win. Beckstead beat out Perry for second and finished with a PR time of 4:50.18.
“It was really competitive in the race … there were a lot of good girls so I had to push up and try to get to the front,” said Beckstead, who placed sixth in the 3,000 on Friday. “I think I ran how I wanted to run and I was able to PR by 1 second so I was really happy about that.”
The previous week, Beckstead had beaten Cutsforth at the district meet in Newport.
“That girl set the pace and Adele just stayed with her, stayed with her and then just barely outkicked her to win the district,” Fulton said. “Cutsforth turned the tables on her and stayed behind Adele. And Adele rightly thought Perry of La Grande was the runner to beat because she won the 3,000 and she’s a very tough runner, so Adele wouldn’t let her get away, stayed with her and then took over.
“Cutsforth was smart enough to go right with her,” Fulton added. “They both ended up outkicking Perry but that’s tough, yeah, getting second.”
State track: Bushnell breaks 2 school records, PHS boys finish tied for 7th
EUGENE — As the runners emerged from the final turn in the 400-meter dash Saturday at the Class 4A Track and Field Championships at Hayward Field, Philomath junior Warwick Bushnell found himself in second place. Could he catch the leader? Could he break the 50-second plateau? It soon became clear that Marshfield junior Bodey Lutes…
McDaniel’s 7th, Hood’s finish
Elsewhere, junior Hanna McDaniel placed seventh in the pole vault by clearing 8 feet, 4 inches on her second attempt. Only seven of the 14 athletes in the event made the opening height.
PHS freshman Jordyn Hood had a strong finish to the season by qualifying for state in the discus and she took advantage of the opportunity. Not only did she pick up experience competing at the state meet level but she finished just one placing shy of getting a medal.
Hood’s PR throw of 102-5 on her third attempt put her in eighth place and she held that position until the final round of throws to get knocked down to ninth.
As one might expect, Hood was sad to miss out on scoring.
“I said ‘come on kid, that’s fantastic. You made the finals as a freshman,’” Fulton said he told her. “‘You have three more years and you’re going to keep improving.’ She works so hard, she’s so focused, she really studies the event. She’s the kind of kid that’s just going to keep improving.”
PHS senior Ahnika Tryon got the Warriors off to a good start Friday by winning the javelin with a throw of 123-8. It’s a significant accomplishment considering she only took up the sport in the middle of last season.
“My Dad actually like requested that (I try the javelin) … He thought that I had a good arm,” she said.
Tryon’s dad, Randy, admitted that he purchased a javelin with hopes that she might give in a chance. One day, he strategically placed it outside next to a field. Indeed, she took some throws and was a natural.
“Form is a big part of the jav,” Tryon said. “If you don’t have form, then you’re not going to improve at all. … There’s a lot of getting your steps down and working on going over your shoulder and throwing with your elbow — there’s just a lot of different elements to throwing.”
PHS also picked up important points in the field events on Day 1 with juniors Anneka Steen and McDaniel finishing second and third, respectively, in the high jump. Steen added a point in the triple jump with an eighth-place finish.
“In the high jump, we expected Anneka Steen to finish second but Hanna McDaniel finishing third — that was unexpected,” Fulton said. “So that was a big boost.”
