News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sorted by date Results 670 - 694 of 917
The Sisters Outlaws will be chomping at the bit to compete this week at the Sky-Em district meet, with a pair of goals in mind: First, to compete well as a team and challenge for the district title, and second to qualify as many athletes to the state meet as possible. The final tune-up for district took place Friday, May 14 at the Wally Ciochetti Invitational in Cottage Grove. The twilight meet attracted a number of the Sky-Em schools and served as a great comparison to the... Full story
Parker Bennett slipped below the four-minute barrier for 1,500 meters at the Jesuit Twilight Relays Friday, May 7, continuing his string of record-breaking performances and leaving his coaches to wonder just how fast he will run this year. Bennett placed second among an assemblage of many of the finest high school middle-distance runners in Oregon and Washington in a time of 3:59.16. The champion, Daniel Winn of 6A Cleveland, clocked 3:58.78. "Parker ran a well-paced race and then showed just how gutsy he is on the final... Full story
It was a great day to be an Outlaws senior at the Dick Baker Track and Field Invitational, as some of the Sisters 12th graders had career bests. Parker Bennett destroyed the school record for 3,000 meters, running alone at the head of the pack to win in 8:49.92, breaking Daniel Kemp's 1996 record of 8:55. Bennett's mark is the fifth best among all high school runners in Oregon thus far. Bennett now owns the top marks in school history for 1,500, 3,000, and 5,000 meters. Anothe... Full story
The Sisters Outlaws enter the final third of the track season with a number of athletes ranked at or near the top in their events after a very competitive meet at Summit High School on Saturday, April 24. The girls team placed third and the boys fourth among 12 teams, tops among 4A schools in the largely 5A meet. At Thursday's Sky-Em four-way meet, Sisters easily captured first place on both the boys and girls side as both teams remained unbeaten among league teams. Among the... Full story
Think Again ParentS (TAPS), a community organization dedicated to the prevention of alcohol and drug use among teens in Sisters, will offer a forum for parents and community on Thursday, April 22, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Sisters High School auditorium. Students are also welcome. The TAPS committee is made up of school personnel as well as community members who organize and implement prevention strategies in addition to providing data, education and resources to families on the issue of alcohol and drug use among Sisters... Full story
Ashley Nordell, an accomplished ultra-marathon runner who recently moved to Sisters, took top honors right here in her own new backyard, winning the Peterson Ridge Rumble 60 kilometer trail race Sunday, April 11. Nordell covered the course in five hours, one minute and 32 seconds to place 11th overall and eight minutes ahead of the second female finisher. The race turned into a family affair for Nordell, as her husband, Josh, finished a close second in the 30-kilometer... Full story
The path to becoming an Olympic gold medalist can take quite a few twists and turns, but seldom does an athlete create a technique largely on his own that leads him to the heights of Olympic glory. Such is the case for Dick Fosbury, the 1968 Olympic high jump champion, who began experimenting with a new method for high jumping while he was a high school student in Medford, Oregon. Fosbury conducted a clinic and shared a message Friday, April 2 at Sisters High School as a... Full story
The Sisters Outlaws didn't have quite the finish they hoped for at the Oregon High School Nordic State Championships, held February 26 and 27 at Mt. Bachelor, but the teams still had a successful season in the eyes of coach Tom Blust. Summit swept both the boys and girls team titles, while the Outlaws ended up in fourth place for both boys and girls after expecting to finish as high as second. "It appeared that we were a little off our best, and most of the other teams really... Full story
After two months, my New Year's resolution to run nearly every day remains intact and I even have my first "race" under my belt. I qualify the word "race" because I've never run slower in a timed event than last weekend's Buck Mountain Mudslinger trail run near Silver Falls. My wife Deirdre and I, along with other local runners Rhonda Schantz, Sean Meissner, Wendy Miller, Tami Gill, Lois Kaping, and Char Sundstrom, traveled over the mountains for the first running of the... Full story
Local artist Alma Cox can officially refer to herself as an author since the publication earlier this year of her first book "Collage Fusion: Vibrant Wood and Fabric Art using Telamadera Techniques." She signed copies of the book last month at Stitchin' Post, where the book is available for purchase. Cox decided to write the book after she penned an article for the magazine Cloth, Paper, Scissors that described her mixed-media technique of Telamadera Fusion or "TF". "The... Full story
Despite calls from the announcer to "think snow," the rains never stopped at the annual Hoodoo Nordic Night Race held Thursday, February 11 under the lights at Hoodoo Mountain Resort. The weather didn't appear to cool the fires of the Outlaws skiers, who once again showed competitiveness against the powerful skiers from Summit High School. A total of 175 skiers took part in the race, which included the regular OHSNO teams from Summit, Redmond, Bend, Sisters, Corvallis and... Full story
With pun fully intended, I believe a running movement is afoot in Sisters Country. Since the start of the year and the resurrection of my own running career, I have encountered many people around town who ask me about running. They want to know about races, about how to train, and what running events we might be able to get started here in Sisters. I am thrilled. Let me explain. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a running boom took place all across America and it had its root... Full story
I have discovered that putting my personal athletic goals for 2010 in the newspaper is one way to be held accountable. Ever since I wrote about my daughter giving me a running calendar for Christmas and my subsequent plan to actually use it, area people have been inquiring about my progress. I am happy to report that I ran 27 of the 31 days of January, and while the weight loss has not been particularly significant, I feel healthier than I have been in a few years. While a number of those runs have only been a couple of... Full story
The largest meet of the Nordic ski season resulted in the strongest performances of the season for the Outlaws team. The boys team finished second among 11 teams, and the girls placed third at the Skadi Cup Classic Ski Race, near Mt. Hood. The race featured the southern division of the Oregon High School Nordic league and most of the northern division of the Oregon Interscholastic Ski Racing Association as well. Parker Bennett once again paced the Outlaws boys, this time with... Full story
The Outlaws Nordic ski team faced its toughest challenge of the season at Saturday's Mt. Bachelor Pursuit and came through with some top finishes. Snow conditions were "absolutely perfect" for classic waxing, according to head coach Tom Blust. Pursuit racing includes two stages. In Saturday's race, stage one featured a 3.5-kilometer classic leg, followed by a 4.8- kilometer skating leg. The classic leg began as a mass start and results from the race determined the starting order for the pursuit leg. Amity Calvin finished... Full story
The New Year, perhaps along with our unseasonably mild weather, appears to have inspired a number of locals to get out on the trail, either for the first time or in increased numbers. I feel almost proud to report that I have run every single day of 2010 through the seventeenth, bumping my weekly total up to 25 miles as of January 16. I have my first race of 2010 planned for the end of February and hope some other Sisters folks will journey over the mountains to join me for the February 27 Buck Mountain Mudslinger Run at... Full story
The Matsiko Children's Choir, comprised of 35 Ugandan orphans, treated the fifth and sixth grade students at Sisters Middle School to an hour of singing and dancing on Friday, January 8, that left everyone in the crowd with a smile and possibly a new perspective on the impact of education. Sixth grade teachers Carol Packard and Deirdre Kanzig invited the group to come as a tie-in to the sixth graders study of Africa last term. "Any time you can expose American children to... Full story
Courtney Blust came through as the top individual performer for the Sisters High School Nordic team in an Oregon High School Nordic league skate race held Saturday, January 9, at Virginia Meissner Sno-Park. Blust finished fourth in a field of 65 girls, skating over the 5.8-kilometer course in 21:29 to lead the Outlaws. Janelle Hjelmstad scored next for Sisters in 26th place (25:25) and Amity Calvin, off her normal pace, finished in 30th (25:51). The remaining girls finishing... Full story
I got my New Year's resolution for Christmas this year when my daughter Claire presented me with a beautiful running calendar, complete with an "activity log" and a place to record my weight. As a runner who will turn 50 in 2010 and who needs to drop some pounds, it was a perfect gift. I have remained inspired in the days since then and actually made up a preliminary plan of some races to run in the first half of this year. My research led me to writing a New Year's column for the rest of you runners out there that includes... Full story
Tate Metcalf, of Sisters Athletic Club, loves to support a cause, so imagine his delight when more than 100 SAC members took part in the annual Jingle Bell Run/Walk in Bend on December 5, to help raise money for the Arthritis Foundation. In all, over $42,000 was raised, according to organizers, and folks from Sisters played no small role in that number. The 102 participants signed up through SAC ended up being the largest group from a single organization and the second-largest... Full story
Sisters High School junior Taylor Steele wrapped up a long cross-country season at the USATF Junior Olympic cross-country meet Saturday, December 12 at the San Rafael Regional Park in Reno, Nevada. Runners from throughout the country took part in the meet, which is divided into a number of age group races varying from three kilometers to five kilometers. Steele, running in the intermediate race, which included 15- and 16-year-olds, finished in 73rd place among the 180... Full story
Stefan Redfield, a 2007 graduate of Sisters High School, was the top finisher for Willamette University at the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships held at Highland Park Golf Course near Cleveland, Ohio on November 21. Redfield clocked 26:26 for the eight-kilometer course, good enough for 57th place overall among 276 finishers. The Bearcat team placed 20th among the 32 teams competing in the meet. North Central College of Illinois won the team title by a landslide... Full story
"Fiddler on the Roof," the first dramatic musical at Sisters High School in nearly two decades, was a smashing success during its four-day run last week under the direction of choir director Michelle Summers. Playing to strong audiences each night as well as Saturday's matinee, the cast of performers set the bar high for future musicals and established the expectation for SHS to produce a musical every year, according to Summers. "People in town and at the school have wanted t... Full story
Parker Bennett and Taylor Steele continued their successful high school cross-country seasons, while an up-and-coming runner also did well in races held last weekend. Steele, who placed eighth in the OSAA State Championships for the Outlaws November 7, traveled to the USATF Regional cross-country championships in Spokane, Washington, ran his personal best of 16:41, placed fourth and qualified for the national meet, scheduled for December 12 in Reno, Nevada. Steele competed... Full story
Wrapping up fall means the end of cross country and most of the local trail races. A few notable efforts by locals highlight the competitive fall season. Stefan Redfield, 2007 SHS graduate, helped his teammates at Willamette University qualify for nationals as the Bearcats' number-two finisher last weekend in the NCAA West Regional Championships. Redfield finished eighth overall in the meet in 26:00.1 for the 8-kilometer (4.98-mile) course. Willamette's team finished second in the meet to earn an automatic berth to the Nation... Full story
