CORVALLIS — Senior Janice Hellesto had a flawless afternoon and evening as Philomath took part in the inaugural Heart of the Valley Spartan Challenge Friday in Corvallis High’s Bob Holt Stadium.
Hellesto won all three of her individual events — the 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash and the long jump. Plus, she anchored the winning 4-by-100-meter relay. Oh, and by the way, she broke a 31-year-old school record in the long jump victory.
Gallery: PHS track and Field at Heart of the Valley Spartan Challenge (May 2, 2025)
A collection of track and field photos from Philomath High’s appearance in the Heart of the Valley Spartan Challenge on Friday
“Janice has really stepped up her senior year,” PHS coach Joe Fulton said. “She’s a team leader, she organizes all sorts of events for the kids. She’s so positive and it’s showing on the track and in the field events. She’s magnificent.”
Fulton knows what he’s talking about with the hundreds of kids that have come through the program through the years. He was coaching when Cathy McNeely went 18 feet, 1 inch to break the PHS record in the long jump back in 1996 at the Val-Co Championships in Taft. Hellesto went 18-2 in Friday’s meet — but she didn’t know it right away.
“We found out after a mishap … they were measuring from the wrong spot so I lost 6 inches,” Hellesto said. “Afterwards, they were like, ‘oh, actually, we measured that wrong’ so they added it back in. So, I wasn’t expecting it but I was super excited.”
Hellesto’s previous best was 18-0.5.
“I’ve been trying to beat that for maybe like two seasons,” Hellesto said.
It might’ve seemed that way but Hellesto set her previous PR at the Wally Ciochetti Invitational one year ago almost to the day (May 3, 2024). She won the event at state as a sophomore when she went 17-7 and then last season had the unthinkable happen when she scratched on all of her attempts at districts.
Hellesto’s season has also been going well in the sprints. She won the 100 in 12.82 seconds and the 200 in 26.28 — not her fastest times this season but wins nonetheless.
“The 100’s been going really well,” Hellesto said. “I’ve been consistently getting better each meet, which is exciting. But the 200 is my favorite because you just have a lot more time to see your competition and push yourself harder.”
Hellesto’s individual state titles have included the 400 as a freshman and long jump as a sophomore but she had to settle for runner-up in both the 100 and 200 last season. She’s also been on state-winning relays twice — the 4-by-400 as a freshman and 4-by-100 as a junior.
Hellesto has her eye on the 200.
“I’m super excited to do that one at state — that’s the one I’d like to win the most,” Hellesto said.
Hellesto anchored the 4-by-100 Friday in Corvallis with freshman Reagan Nuño, senior Natalie Dunn and senior Petra Hernandez also running on the relay. They finished in 50.62 — more than a half-second ahead of Corvallis.
As a team, the Warrior girls finished second behind the host school in the final standings and ahead of Thurston, Churchill, Roseburg, Hillsboro, Stayton and Central.
In addition to Hellesto’s wins, the team had four other victories to rack up points. Freshman Cassidy Smart won the 1,500-meter run in 4:58.43, senior Anneka Steen cleared 5 feet to take first in the high jump and senior Adele Beckstead turned in a personal-best time of 2:25.03 to win the 800. The meet ended with Philomath’s Smart, Beckstead, Nuño and Dunn running 4:09.87 to easily win the 4-by-400 relay.
Elsewhere, Nuño had to settle for second behind Dunn in the 400 with a PR time of 1:02.17.
Several others had top-six performances. Sophomore Hailey Eckhold had a 32-6 in the shot put for the second straight week, which was good for second place. Hernandez in the 300 hurdles (51.22) and sophomore Jordyn Hood in the discus (98-2) had third-place finishes.
Others among the top six included senior Aspen Russell in the pole vault (fourth, 8-0), senior Melea Lattin in the 800 (fifth, 2:32.08) and Eckhold in the triple jump (sixth, 33-0).
Hellesto, Dunn, Steen, Beckstead, Lattin, Hernandez and Russell are all part of a senior class that has been involved in an impressive and historic stretch in PHS track and field. Brooke McDaniel, Hannah McDaniel and Kateri Pindell are three other seniors that have been with the program through the run — they were not able to participate in Friday’s meet. Madison Provance is also a senior.
“It’s a great senior class,” Fulton said. “You know, we could see the potential in their freshman year when they won state. But the competition wasn’t great that year and the competition has been getting harder every single year. And these girls just keep getting better themselves.”
Hellesto said it’s been a fun experience from the first year.
“The Class of 2025 has just always been so special,” she said. “We were stuck in COVID and then coming out of it and going ‘this is our time’ with a lot of really good athletes and the coaches just pushed us to be better.”
Fulton said the athletes in the class stuck together to try to do something special.
“They knew right away from the beginning that they could make history if they just could keep doing this and so here we are on the verge of it,” Fulton said. “We’ll keep our fingers crossed.”
For Hellesto, she plans to pursue a degree in nursing at George Fox University after high school.
“I’ll be running track there as well — at least my freshman year,” she said. “We’ll see how it goes — if it’s too hard with school.”
PHS boys tie for 6th
In the boys’ portion of the meet, Corvallis also took first place with Churchill a very distant second. Central was third, Roseburg fourth, Thurston fifth and Philomath and Hillsboro tied for sixth ahead of Crescent Valley and Stayton.
Despite the results from a team standings perspective, Philomath was the smallest school competing. Fulton anticipates the boys to be in the running for the Oregon West title later this month.
“Our boys can win their conference title,” Fulton said. “It’s a young team — I mean, Warrick (Bushnell) is the star of the team and he’s a senior but all of the other scorers are younger. We’ve got freshmen that are going to score really well and sophomores and juniors.”
Twenty-eight of the 32 athletes that were on the preseason roster are underclassmen.
“The future looks good for our boys’ team,” Fulton said. “Yeah, we’ll miss Warwick next year but everybody else who is a varsity scorer will be back.”
In the Spartan Challenge, two of those underclassmen had exceptional performances in the field events. In the high jump, freshman Sammy Hernandez cleared 6 feet but had to settle for second behind Roseburg sophomore Emery Hurtienne, who ended up going 6-3. In the triple jump, sophomore Kaden Howard had a PR distance of 41-2.25, which got him second place behind Thurston senior Tyler Raven, who went 43-4.
Sophomore Jamin Peters had a pair of fourth-place performances in the weight events with a 43-5 in the shot put and 131-2 in the discus. Junior CD Nuno placed fourth in the 100 in 11.68 and fifth in the 200 in 23.01.
Others with top-six finishes included junior Lukas Hernandez in the 1,500 (4:16.60), Howard in the long jump (20-5), sophomore Galen Murch in the 3,000 (9:34.25) and Bushnell in the 200 (23.41).
Philomath placed third in the 4-by-100 relay with CD Nuño, Howard, freshman Dreyton Nuño and Bushnell finishing the sprint in 44.09.
The Warriors will compete again on Tuesday in a three-school meet at Stayton with Cascade also scheduled to participate. Then on Friday, the team heads to the Dean Nice Invitational at Gresham.
