The Philomath High School boys and girls track and field teams got a taste of competition for the first time this season at the Mid Valley Dental Icebreaker at Dallas.
For the girls, Warriors junior Janice Hellesto won the 200-meter dash and the long jump, junior Natalie Dunn took first in the 400 and senior Ahnika Tryon had the best throw in the javelin, but perhaps the most noteworthy victory occurred in high jump.
PHS junior Hanna McDaniel took up the event just this week in practice and ended up taking first place in Dallas by clearing 5 feet — two inches higher than the runners-up from a pair of 5A schools.
Hellesto’s win in the 200 featured a sprint of 26.77 seconds, which was 1.39 seconds faster than she ran at the same meet last year. In the long jump, she went 17 feet, 1 inch to outdistance the runner-up by more than 6 inches. Hellesto was a close third in the 100 in 12.93.
Dunn won the 400 by a good margin of 3.01 seconds over the runner-up with a time of 1:00.28. In the javelin, Tryon also won decidedly with a throw of 113-4, more than 8 feet over the second-place finisher.
Philomath had a strong performance in the 3,000-meter run with junior Adele Beckstead finishing second in 11:05.47 and sophomore Ana Candanoza right behind in third at 11:10.93. Junior Petra Hernandez was second in the 300 hurdles in 52.58 seconds, which was 1.12 seconds off the winning pace. The 4-by-400 relay placed second in 4:24.73 with junior Melea Lattin, junior Brooke McDaniel, Hanna McDaniel and Dunn.
The Warriors 4-by-100 relay had a chance to win but was disqualified with the foursome’s final baton exchange out of the designated zone.
Sadly, coach Joe Fulton said one of his long jumpers suffered a broken leg in the long jump. The situation involved an ambulance coming onto the track for transportation to the local hospital.
In the boys’ portion of the meet, Philomath’s 4-by-400-meter relay ran a fast early-season time with a 3:32.10. Senior Lukas Dunn, sophomore CD Nuno, senior Simon King and junior Warwick Bushnell participated on the relay, which won by a margin of 8.45 seconds over the runner-up foursome from Crescent Valley.
Top-three individual finishes for the boys included Nuno in the 200 (23.15), Bushnell in the 400 (51.30) and King in the 800 (2:03.73). The times turned in by Nuno and Bushnell were career bests.
Team scoring was not reported for the meet. Besides Philomath and the host school, other schools sending athletes were Alsea, Corvallis, Crescent Valley, Falls City, Lebanon, Perrydale, Santiam Christian, South Albany and West Albany.
Philomath is scheduled to compete next on Wednesday at the Cottage Grove Icebreaker. The small meet, which will include Philomath, Cottage Grove, Glendale and Yoncalla, begins at 4 p.m. with the field events and 4:30 p.m. with running events.
