Track and field coach Joe Fulton tends to get right to the point when discussing his Philomath High athletes. With a background in the sport that goes back decades, the man’s perspectives carry a significant amount of weight.
So while responding to a question about the girls track and field team heading into this spring, Fulton could describe the lineup with a single word — “loaded.” And that doesn’t bode well for the rest of 4A with the Warriors in contention for a third straight state title.
“We’re deep — we should be able to cover every event and should have kids that score at state in at least 12 of the 17 events,” Fulton said.
That’s exactly what the Warriors have done the past two seasons en route to state titles — score in 12 of the 17 events. Last year, it added up to 90 points and a 27-point spread ahead of runner-up La Grande. In 2022, Philomath scored 87 points and beat second-place Marist by 18 points.
Junior Janice Hellesto, who earned the Most Outstanding Athlete award at last year’s state meet, brings back a lot of points in the sprints and jumps. She won the 4A title in the long jump and also placed high in the 200 and 100.
Junior Natalie Dunn is also back after taking first at state last season in the 400. Senior Ellie Morton is another key returnee in the sprints.
“Our distance events are super strong, obviously, the girls being state cross-country champions,” Fulton said. “We’re mostly strong in the longer races though. I’ve got so many good 1,500-, 3000-meter runners that it’s going to be difficult to only put three in a meet.”
Junior Adele Beckstead, junior Melea Lattin and sophomore Ana Candanoza top the list with Fulton saying they’re all in great shape heading into the season. But he also has sophomore Lucy King and junior Hallie Morrison in the mix.
Said Fulton, “We’re loaded in the distance events.”
The one event on the track where Philomath has the least amount of experience coming back is in the hurdles with Ingrid Hellesto now graduated.
“Hurdles is a work in progress because we lost Ingrid but (junior) Petra Hernandez is showing some potential and we’ve got some other young girls, including a couple of freshmen that are coming out from the basketball team in Reagan Heiken and Jordyn Hood,” Fulton said. “But we also have (senior) Jayden McMullen, who is a hurdler, and (sophomore) Delaney Thomas is showing that she’s in much-better shape than she was last year.”
Junior Kyah Weeber and freshman Annaleise Brown could also factor into Philomath’s options in the 300 hurdles.
Junior Anneka Steen is the headliner in the field events following her state medal-winning performances in the high jump and triple jump last season.
“And she can also run any event,” Fulton said. “I mean, she’ll probably be on our long relay but she’ll have four events — she’s so valuable.”
Morton appears to be set at the long jump — she can go 17 feet, which would put her among the top group in the state. Morton is also competitive in the high jump but Fulton believes she will focus on the long jump and the sprints.
Senior Ahnika Tryon emerged as one of the state’s top javelin throwers last year and placed third in Eugene to represent another potential source of big points for the Warriors. Tryon is also learning the triple jump. Team newcomer Madyx Mooney, a junior, is showing potential in the javelin.
In the other throwing events, senior Madison Juhl returns in the discus after qualifying for state last season and junior Madison Provance has shown to be reliable in the shot put. Junior Heidi Bacho is also in the mix.
The Warriors have competitors in the pole vault that include junior Aspen Russell, who finished ninth at state last year, along with Juhl and the McDaniel sisters, juniors Brooke and Hanna.
A significant statistic to consider with Philomath’s lineup is that 76 of the 77 points scored by individuals are back this season — all of those coming from performances involving underclassmen. The other 13 points came in the relays and the team lost only Ingrid Hellesto from those foursomes.
Fulton said Janice Hellesto, Dunn, Morton and junior Petra Hernandez will team up on the 4-by-100 relay. He’s undecided on the four participants for the 4-by-400 relay but added, “it’ll be good … we’ve got a lot to choose from.” Three of the four on last year’s long relay return in Steen, Lattin and Dunn.
Boys overall have young roster
Philomath’s boys have a situation opposite of the girls with a roster that lost most of its points from last season. Only three athletes that competed at state return — senior Simon King, junior Warwick Bushnell and sophomore CD Nuno.
“We graduated pretty much all of our points from last year, the last couple of years,” Fulton said, who added that he believes King, Bushnell and Nuno “are going to score some good points for us at state.”
King placed fifth in the 800 in Eugene and is the third-leading returnee in the event this season behind runners from Baker and Marshfield. Bushnell scored points in both the 400 (sixth) and 200 (eighth) at state last year. Nuno qualified for state in the long jump, just missed going in the 400 and competed on both state-qualifying relays. King and Bushnell ran legs on the 4-by-400.
“After that, we’re developing most places,” Fulton said. “I’m a little worried about the track races other than the distance events.”
Sophomore Leo Pausch, freshman Galen Murch and sophomore Mason Stevens provide the Warriors with options in the longer events, as does sophomore Lukas Hernandez, who is on the track this spring after playing baseball last year. All of those athletes competed at state in cross-country with Hernandez putting in the top performance at 14th.
Fulton said Hernandez will be the team’s top 1,500-meter runner and Pausch will be the main competitor in the 3,000.
Another contributor could be senior Lukas Dunn, who is currently working through a knee injury.
“We should be OK in the distance events but unfortunately, Newport is in our conference and they won the state cross-country meet,” Fulton said. “In any other conference, I’d be confident that we’re going to send some kids to state in the distance events but we’ve got to get around Newport to do that.”
Fulton will need to develop athletes in the sprints and hurdles.
“As far as the hurdles, we’ve got some work to do,” he said. “And we need to find sprinters to back up CD and Warwick.”
Fulton spoke with optimism about what he’s been seeing in practice with throwers.
“We’ve got a lot of big kids, a lot of strong kids,” he said. “Time will tell but I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t have pretty good throwing events this year, which is not the usual situation for us on the boys side.”
The Peters brothers — sophomore Josiah and freshman Jamin — have shown promise in the javelin. Sophomore Jake McGaughy, senior Jared Gerding and sophomore Jake Lesire figure into the point-scoring opportunities as well.
In the jumps, sophomore Luke Arthurs has some experience in the triple jump.
“The boys team is pretty young,” Fulton said. “We’ve got a lot of freshmen and sophomores — your guess is as good as mine. It really depends on what are the other schools like … did they lose a lot of people, too … do they have kids that aren’t coming out that they expected?”
But Fulton added, “I imagine we’ll develop and be a decent team by the end of the year like we were in cross-country.”
It’s an interesting point to consider. The cross-country team was also decimated by graduation but developed throughout the season and ended up placing fifth at state.
In all, Fulton as of Thursday has 70 students in the track and field program — 38 girls and 32 boys.
The track and field teams open the season Friday at the Mid Valley Dental Icebreaker at Dallas. Schedule highlights include the Philomath Invite Relays on April 13 followed by the Meet of Champions and invitationals at Gresham, Junction City and Cottage Grove before getting to districts and state.
A late addition to the schedule was a March 20 jaunt down to Cottage Grove for a small early-season meet. There are also appearances in early April at an elite meet at Newberg with a limit of two athletes per event and at the Newport Open.
