Philomath High’s dynasty in girls track and field continued Saturday with the local school winning the Oregon West Conference title for the seventh straight time and qualifying eight athletes in 13 individual events plus both relays for the May 17-18 state meet in Eugene.
In a feat that could be considered just as impressive considering a roster that wasn’t quite as loaded as their female counterparts, the Warrior boys ended up in a tie for second place and qualified five athletes in eight individual events plus one relay.
Juniors Adele Beckstead and Warwick Bushnell were standouts with their individual performances on the track. Beckstead set Oregon West meet records while winning the 1,500 and 3,000 while Bushnell dominated the sprints with victories in the 100, 200 and 400.
Beckstead’s come-from-behind performance in the 1,500 was the seventh-fastest in PHS history with a time of 4:51.36.
“It was an exciting race,” PHS coach Joe Fulton said. “The girl from North Marion is quite a talent and she pretty much led all the way until the final 10 meters. Adele just has the will to win — she is gritty.”
In the 3,000 on the first day, Fulton said Beckstead tagged frontrunner Charlotte Gardner of Newport until the final 600 to 800 meters and then took off. Beckstead ended up winning by over 13 seconds in 10:47.70.
Bushnell scored 32.5 points on his own with the three individual wins and as one of the four athletes running on the 4-by-400 relay.
“What an athlete. I mean, he could’ve won other events, too,” Fulton said. “To win all three sprints in our league — and our league is good in the sprints this year — is pretty impressive.”
Bushnell won the 200 with a personal-record time of 22.54 seconds with his cousin, sophomore CD Nuno, finishing second in 22.99, also a PR. Those times are good for second and sixth on the school’s all-time charts. In the 100, Bushnell broke the tape in 11.30 and in the 400, he was first with a time of 51.34.
Both Beckstead and Bushnell earned awards as the meet’s top runners.
The girls ended up with 208.5 points to beat out Cascade’s 170 for the top trophy honors. In addition to Beckstead, junior Janice Hellesto, senior Ellie Morton, junior Natalie Dunn and junior Hanna McDaniel all won individual events Saturday to join first-day champions Ahnika Tryon, a senior, and Anneka Steen, a junior. Philomath also won the 4-by-100 relay.
Hellesto and Morton had a 1-2 finish in the 100 and were the only two sprinters to finish in under 13 seconds with times of 12.66 and 12.88, respectively. In the 200, Hellesto took first in a personal-record time of 25.86.
Dunn ran the second-fastest 400 in school history for a win in 57.36. McDaniel cleared 8-4 to win the pole vault. And in the long jump, Morton had the winning jump at 15-8.
Hellesto, last year’s champion in the long jump who had the best distances in Class 4A coming in, scratched three straight times.
“It was pretty unusual for the best long jumper in the state not to qualify … On the last attempt, she just barely scratched and it was heartbreaking,” Fulton said. “There are some other girls in the state smiling right now because they suddenly have a chance to win that event. One of them is our own Ellie Morton because she can jump 17 feet.”
With the long jump out of the picture, Hellesto will now run in one of the 4-by-400 relay spots.
The 4-by-100 relay of Morton, Dunn, junior Petra Hernandez and Hellesto won a close race in 49.47. It’s the fastest time in 4A this season and second-fasted in the PHS record books. As previously reported from the meet’s Day 1 results, Tryon won the javelin (112-4) and Steen was the champion in the high jump (5-1).
Among the other state qualifiers for the girls, the 4-by-400 relay was second with a time of 4:11.45 with junior Brooke McDaniel, Beckstead, Morton and Dunn.
And freshman Jordyn Hood pulled off a surprise in the discus by taking second place with a PR throw of 102-2.
“She’s an example of a kid that takes it seriously and worked hard at her events … she’s like the last one to leave practice,” Fulton said. “I think she was probably seeded fifth or sixth in the conference going into the meet and then she steps up and improves by a dozen feet or so and takes second. That’s a kid that’s going to help us a lot in the future because she’s so focused on what she’s doing.”
Unfortunately for PHS, senior Madison Juhl missed out on returning to state in the discus with fouls factoring into her performance.
Also qualifying with second-place finishes on Day 1 were Steen in the triple jump (32-5) and Hanna McDaniel in the high jump (4-10.5).
A few others came close to qualifying in a few other events with third-place finishes, including senior Sadie Francis in the 100 hurdles (17.96) and junior Kyah Weeber in the pole vault (7-4.25).
Fourth-place finishes were turned in by junior Aspen Russell in the 800 (2:39.13) and triple jump (31-6), junior Melea Lattin in the 1,500 (5:05.97), freshman Annaleise Brown in the 100 hurdles (18.18) and Hernandez in the 300 hurdles (51.38). Hood finished fifth in the 100 hurdles (18.30), Hanna McDaniel was fifth in the 300 hurdles (51.52) to go along with the fifth that sophomore Lucy King had Friday in the 3,000 (12:16.16). Placing sixth in individual events were junior Kateri Pindell in the 800 (2:43.95), junior Hallie Morrison in the 1,500 (5:28.15) and junior Madison Provance in the discus (89-10).
King, Peters, 4-by-400 win for boys
Bushnell’s showing certainly added up to a lot of points but the boys also had two other individual champions in senior Simon King and sophomore Josiah Peters. The 4-by-400 relay also tallied a victory.
“We’re really not favored to finish first in anything (at state),” Fulton said. “But if everybody has their best performance of the year, we’re going to score.”
In the 800, King had taken it easy in prelims with a sixth-place finish to advance to the finals. He turned on the jets when it counted, however, and will head to state after a time of 2:02.53. Peters won by 2 feet, 1 inch in the javelin with a throw of 156-11. Running legs on the 4-by-400 were senior Lukas Dunn, King, Nuno and Bushnell. They won with a time of 3:33.04.
Distance runner Lukas Hernandez, a sophomore, qualified in two events. After placing second in the 3,000 on the first day in 9:16.81, he took third in the 1,500 with a time of 4:15.56. He goes to state on a wildcard berth in the 1,500 as the top third-place finisher out of the five conference meets.
Missing out on advancing to state but placing high included fourth-place finishers Dunn in the 800 (2:05.59) and sophomore Leo Pausch in the 1,500 (4:18.89). Pausch also missed qualifying the previous day in the 3,000 (9:22.07).
The 4-by-100 relay of freshman Ezra Smith, junior Emmitt Gaskey, sophomore Cameron McLennan and sophomore Seth O’Harra placed fourth in 49.55. Other fourth-place finishes were seen on the first day with freshman Jamin Peters in the discus (110-1) and Gaskey in the pole vault (9-9).
Fifth-place finishers were Nuno in the 400 (53.80) and sophomore Blake Hauck in the pole vault (9-9), the latter result from Friday. Gaskey in the triple jump (35-8.75) and the first-day result of senior Jonathan Doig in the pole vault (9-9) were sixth-place finishes.
The 4A State Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene begins on Friday at 9 a.m. (in both the track and field events) and on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. (field) and 12:30 p.m. (track).
