Waiting in a light rain Saturday afternoon on the infield not far from the finish line at the Philomath Invite Relays, sophomore Ana Candanoza, senior Ellie Morton, junior Melea Lattin and junior Adele Beckstead waited for coach Joe Fulton to verify their official time in the distance medley relay.
The girls easily won the event with a Cottage Grove contingent finishing a distant second. And the PHS foursome soon knew they could celebrate the breaking of a school record that dated back to 1984 with their time of 13:04.16.
Candanoza started out with a 1,200-meter run and was ahead by 7 seconds when she handed off to Morton, who followed with a 400 and lengthened the lead to 12 seconds. Lattin then ran an 800 for a 17-second lead and Beckstead finished with a 1,600 to give the Warriors the win by 32 seconds.
The only question that remained was whether or not they had a better time than La Grande, a school on the eastern end of the state that has become a rival in track and cross-country.
“They crushed the school record by 16 seconds,” Fulton said. “La Grande ran two-hundredths of a second faster.”
OK, so it was a tiny blip of disappointment during a fun home meet that saw Philomath’s girls dominate the running relays. The Warriors had a clean sweep in those five events. Although the day turned out to be a wet one, the kids seemed to enjoy the atmosphere.
Gallery: PHS track and field at Philomath Invite Relays (April 13, 2024)
A collection of track and field photos from the Philomath Invite Relays at Clemens Field on Saturday.
“I feel like the relays are way more fun, it’s way less pressure, it’s a good little break from all the stress,” PHS junior Warwick Bushnell said about competing in a relays meet.
Added senior Simon King, “I’m definitely ready to get back into some of the solo races that get competitive. I love team races though and it’s so fun to come out here with the team and just hang out and cheer each other on.”
Fulton enjoys the team-bonding experience of a relays meet.
“If they were on a specific relay or even if it was a JV relay, I could see the kids running along yelling at their teammates because they wanted them to do good,” Fulton said. “I think it’s just a way to impress upon the kids that this is a team sport as well as an individual sport. You know, we can’t be state champions if we’re not a team.”
The meet provided another opportunity for athletes to show what they can do in certain events as Fulton and his staff try to make decisions on point-scoring strategy down the line.
“Some people make it hard like that darn Warwick Bushnell has to be good at everything,” Fulton said in reference to Bushnell trying the long jump for the first time and placing second with 19 feet, 7.5 inches. “He won’t be doing that most likely at district though, he’s too valuable on the track.”
Bushnell’s individual events this season have included the 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1,500 along with both relays and the long jump. He’s also competed in the mixed 4-by-400 and sprint medley relay in two meets with those events.
“This year I’ve been trying a lot of new things and today was my day to try the long jump,” said Bushnell, who then responded to his thoughts on what he might do at districts. “I think we’re looking right now at the 100, 200, 400 and 4-by-4(00) — those are my top ones.”
The opportunity for an athlete to step forward in the jumps for the boys appears to be wide open.
“If you noticed, we didn’t have a shuttle relay — we’ve only got one boy even trying there,” Fulton said. “The high jump, long jump, triple jump, we’re trying to find kids that can really key in on those and improve.”
As for the girls, Fulton has a better idea about how the meet strategy will come together when the district meet arrives next month.
“It’s never really been too much of a puzzle on our girls’ side,” he said. “We still have over a month and somebody could still get hurt but we have a pretty good idea what our girls are doing.”
Junior Janice Hellesto, who won the Most Outstanding Athlete honor at last year’s 4A meet, anticipates participating in the long jump at districts for a chance to defend her state title in that event. The other events are to be determined.
“I’d love to do the 200,” she said. “I really want to win the 200 this year at state, that’s kind of my goal. But the other two are kind of open-ended right now. I’m super sure that I’ll do the 4-by-1(00) but we don’t know if I’m going to be in the 4-by-4(00) at state.”
As mentioned, Philomath swept through the girls’ running events. The sprint medley relay of senior Ellie Morton, junior Petra Hernandez, Hellesto and junior Natalie Dunn easily won the race in 1:54.09, a time that ranks second on the school’s all-time charts (the record set in 2000 by Kathy Gellatly, Bri Kelly, Chelsey Gellatly and Toni Adair remains in place).
The 4-by-800 relay of Candanoza, junior Aspen Russell, Lattin and Beckstead came in with a winning time of 10:33.07. The 4-by-100 shuttle relay for the Warriors also had a win with freshman Jordyn Hood, freshman Annaleise Brown, senior Sadie Francis and sophomore Delaney Thomas beating a Cottage Grove team with a time of 1:16.20.
Philomath’s boys entered a team in the 4-by-100 relay for just the second time this season and sophomore CD Nuno, King, sophomore Seth O’Harra and Bushnell won in 45.33.
“They improved by about a second,” Fulton said. “We’ve got a brand new kid on it, a sophomore, Seth O’Harra, and the handoff was a little shaky from CD. But once they get those things down, we’ll have three big strong guys in there and a young kid who’s got to learn his position in there. And then we might end up qualifying for state in that event, it’s possible.”
The boys also won the sprint medley relay with O’Harra, King, Nuno and Bushnell in 1:39.49.
In the field events, senior Madison Juhl and freshman Jordyn Hood had a 1-2 finish in the discus with marks of 98-0 and 90-2, respectively. Senior Ahnika Tryon eased her way to victory in the javelin with a throw of 103-5. Hellesto won the long jump with a 17-2.5 with Morton second at 16-0.75. Junior Anneka Steen won the triple jump with a 30-0.75 with junior Brooke McDaniel second at 29-4.75. Junior Hanna McDaniel was runner-up in the high jump by clearing 4-8.
For the boys, in addition to Bushnell’s finish in the long jump, sophomore Josiah Peters easily took first place in the discus with a throw of 157-5.
To end the meet, Hellesto, Nuno, Dunn and Bushnell teamed up to win the mixed 4-by-400 relay in 3:49.75. The foursome won the event for the second straight time — also taking first in a meet at Newberg with a time of 3:47.32.
The time qualified the Philomath foursome for this summer’s Nike Nationals at Hayward Field.
“They have qualifying standards to be in the meet and they qualified for the elite mixed relay,” Fulton said. “It’s 3:50 and they ran 3:47 last week and probably ran 3:49 today. So if they want to stick together and continue to work out, we’ll go down there. None of them are seniors so maybe it’ll be easier to keep them around.”
In the team standings, Philomath’s girls won easily while the boys were second.
Up next for the Warriors will be the Meet of Champions, scheduled for April 20 at Sweet Home (field events begin at 10 a.m., track events at 11:30 a.m.). Philomath will have an exceptional number of athletes competing in the meet, which has qualifying standards.
The following week, Philomath’s top athletes will be challenged in another large-school meet at Gresham.
“We’ve gone to a couple of bigger meets with some 6A schools … it feels really good to have some hard competition that we really don’t get in our division,” Hellesto said. “I’m excited that we still have a couple more meets against 6A schools.”
