The Philomath High School girls track and field team won 13 of 17 points to easily outdistance the competition Tuesday in a five-school meet at Cascade.
Janice Hellesto and Anneka Steen each had two individual wins to go along with first-place finishes by Ellie Morton, Natalie Dunn, Melea Lattin, Kateri Pindell, Adele Beckstead, Madison Juhl and Ahnika Tryon. Both relays also had victories.
The Philomath girls won the meet with an impressive 206 points. Cascade was a distant second with 89 and Newport third with 38.
Philomath’s success in the 3,000-meter run continued with a 1-2-3 finish. Beckstead, a sophomore, won in 10:56.95 to move into the No. 11 spot on the school’s all-time track charts. The time was also the third-fastest in 4A so far this season. Freshman Ana Candanoza was second in 11:02.72, which was No. 13 all-time and No. 5 in the state. Freshman Lucy King placed third and became the 51st girl in PHS history to break 12 minutes in the event with a time of 11:57.57.
Seven girls on the current PHS roster have finished with sub-12 times, coach Joe Fulton said.
Philomath performed well in the sprints with Morton, junior, winning the 100 (13.20), Janice Hellesto, a sophomore, winning the 200 (26.59) and Dunn, a sophomore, taking first in the 400.
The Warriors also had wins in the 800 and 1,500 with sophomores Lattin and Pindell, respectively. Lattin had a time of 2:34.07 in the 800 and Pindell finished the 1,500 in 5:33.19.
In the field events, Steen, sophomore, won both the triple jump (30-10) and the high jump (4-10). Tryon, junior, won the javelin with a throw of 101-3. Janice Hellesto took first in the long jump with a distance of 16-4. Juhl, junior, won the discus with a 100-5.
The 4-by-100 relay with Morton, Dunn, senior Ingrid Hellesto and Janice Hellesto won in 50.51. The 4-by-400 relay of Lattin, King, Ingrid Hellesto and Dunn had a winning time of 4:21.72.
Runners-up included freshman Aspen Russell in both the pole vault (7-6) and triple jump (29-11), sophomore Petra Hernandez in the 100 hurdles (19.09), Ingrid Hellesto in the 300 hurdles (48.74), sophomore Heidi Bacho in the javelin (83-2) and Morton in the long jump (15-6).
Cascade took first in the team standings with 122 points to Newport’s 105 and Philomath’s 92.
Seniors Mateo Candanoza and Ben Hernandez finished 1-2 in the 3,000. Candanoza came in at 9:12.48 for the fourth-best time in Class 4A this season. Candanoza paced alongside Hernandez, who was running his first 3,000 since his sophomore season. Hernandez finished in 9:20.02, which ranks as the fifth-fastest time this season.
Freshman CD Nuno had a personal-record time of 23.92 to win the 200. Sophomore Warwick Bushnell took first in the 100 in 11.83. The 4-by-400 relay of junior Lukas Dunn, Nuno, junior Simon King and Warwick Bushnell took first in 3:39.08.
Besides Hernandez, other runner-up finishes for the Warriors included King in the 1,500 (4:25.69), freshman Josiah Peters in the javelin (140-1), senior Micah Matthews in the high jump (5-6), senior Seth Arthurs in the long jump (18-1.5) and freshman Nate Houck in the triple jump (30-0).
Philomath’s next meet is scheduled for May 9 at Newport with mostly junior varsity-level athletes competing. The final regular-season varsity meet will be May 12 at the Wally Ciochetti Invitational at Cottage Grove.
