Philomath High’s track and field teams won five events Friday in Dallas at the Mid Valley Dental Invitational, a meet that featured mostly Class 5A schools.
Highlighting the invite were victories by the Warrior girls in the short and long relays. The foursome of freshman Reagan Nuño and seniors Natalie Dunn, Petra Hernandez and Janice Hellesto sprinted the 4-by-100-meter relay in 50.79 seconds to beat out runner-up Lebanon by nearly a full second. In the 4-by-400 relay, seniors Melea Lattin and Adele Beckstead along with Nuño and Dunn finished in 4:15.95 to edge Crescent Valley by nearly eight-tenths of a second.
Individual winners for the girls included Dunn in the 400 (1:00.21) and Hellesto in the long jump (17 feet, 5.5 inches) and for the boys, junior Josiah Peters in the javelin (172-11), who was pretty much unchallenged with a win of of nearly 25 feet.
Philomath’s girls had four runner-up finishes with Hellesto in the 100 (12.62) and 200 (26.18), and Beckstead in the 800 (2:28.18) and 1,500 (4:57.53). The 1,500, in particular, proved to be one of the most exciting races of the day with Dallas sophomore Amber Green just edging Beckstead at the finish by three-hundreds of a second.
Other top-six performances for the Warrior girls were Nuño in the 800 (fourth, 2:31.56), senior Aspen Russell in the triple jump (sixth, 31-1), senior Hanna McDaniel in the pole vault (fourth, 8-6) and senior Madison Provance in the shot put (29-1).
In the team standings for the girls, Crescent Valley won with 149 points, followed by Dallas (135.25), Corvallis (127.75) and Philomath (96). Ten schools participated.
So far this season in Class 4A event rankings, Philomath has the top performances in the 100, 200, 400, 1,500, 3000, long jump and both relays.
Among the boys’ results, senior Warwick Bushnell sprinted the 200 in 22.85 to place second and sophomore Kaden Howard went 20-7 in the long jump for second. Junior CD Nuño placed third in the 200 (23.08) and fourth in the 100 (11.41).
In addition to his performance in the javelin, Josiah Peters also placed fourth in the discus (129-2) and sophomore Jamin Peters finished sixth in the same event (125-11). Sophomore Galen Murch placed fifth in the 1,500 (4:28.70).
Corvallis won the boys’ portion of the meet with 182 points. Lebanon was second (113.5) with Crescent Valley third (102). Philomath finished fifth (61.5).
PHS represented at Oregon Relays
Philomath also sent three boys and one girl in eight events to the Oregon Relays, a highly-competitive meet staged Friday and Saturday at Hayward Field in Eugene.
With all of the Warriors’ events occurring on Friday, freshman Cassidy Smart was 12th in the 2-mile run (11:38.25). While en route, times were also recorded for the 3,000 (10:56.00) and 3,200 (11:29.42) — she was in 12th in both.
For the boys, junior Lukas Hernandez finished 12th in the 2,000 steeplechase (6:39.02) and Bushnell was 17th in the 400 (50.44). Junior Leo Pausch competed in the 2-mile run (9:52.88). Just like Smart, the meet also recorded times for the 3,000 (9:13.52) and 3,200 (9:49.72) in the same race.
Philomath is scheduled to compete next on April 11 at the Vic Downs McMinnville Invitational.
