The Philomath High School girls track and field team took first place Friday in the Wally Ciochetti Invitational at Cottage Grove despite not having its full lineup. Four girls had first-place finishes, including impressive performances by Janice Hellesto in the long jump and Natalie Dunn in the 400-meter dash.
The girls remain undefeated this season against Class 4A teams. Philomath scored 85 points with North Bend second at 77.5 in the 15-school field.
Hellesto, a junior, had a personal-record distance in the long jump by going 18 feet, 0.5 inch. She outjumped the nearest competitor a quarter-inch shy of a full foot. Hellesto also had an individual win in the 200-meter dash with a time of 26.03, which was about a second ahead of the runner-up.
Dunn, meanwhile, ran her fastest-ever 400 with a time of 57.86, bettering the 58.32 that she ran at last year’s state meet. The race wasn’t close with the second-place finisher coming in 3.05 seconds behind Dunn.
Overall, Philomath’s girls were not at 100% with athletes either involved this week at Outdoor School or nursing nagging injuries. The kids that did compete did so on a wet and chilly day.
Juniors Adele Beckstead and Anneka Steen were the other two individual winners for PHS. Beckstead won the 800 in 2:25.79, nearly 3 seconds ahead of the runner-up and a PR performance. Steen cleared 5-0 to win the high jump over four others who could only get up to 4-10.
In the relays, Philomath placed second in both. Senior Ellie Morton, Dunn, junior Petra Hernandez and Hellesto covered the 4-by-100 oval in 50.12 seconds in a close race against Marist Catholic, which won in 50.04. In the 4-by-400, the Warriors came in at 4:16.45 with Beckstead, junior Melea Lattin, Hellesto and Dunn.
Others placing among the top six included senior Ahnika Tryon in the javelin (fourth, 114-7), junior Aspen Russell in the pole vault (fifth, 7-6), Morton in the long jump (fifth, 14-8.75) and Lattin in the 1,500 (sixth, 5:14.70).
The boys also competed but with limited roster depth, were not able to rack up the type of points needed to challenge for the team title. Crook County won by scoring 127 points and Henley was second with 108.7. Philomath finished seventh with 42.5.
Philomath’s Warwick Bushnell had a pair of second-place finishes in his running events. In the 100, he hit the finish line in 11.14 seconds and in the 800, Bushnell ran at 2:01.45. Both times were PRs for the junior.
In the javelin, sophomore Josiah Peters placed third with a throw of 166-3. Sophomore Lukas Hernandez was fourth in the 3,000 with a PR time of 9:21.83.
Sophomore CD Nuno had two top-six performances. Nuno was fifth in the 200 in 23.65 and sixth in the 100 in 11.67, the latter being a PR. Another sophomore, Leo Pausch, also had a fifth and sixth in his distance-running events. Pausch was fifth in the 3,000 in 9:27.24 and sixth in the 1,500 in a PR time of 4:15.32.
The next varsity event for Philomath will be the Oregon West Conference Championships on May 10-11 in Newport. The Oregon West JV Championships will take place Monday in Philomath with the first events beginning at 3:30 p.m.
