Track girls place first, boys third at meet

In its first scored meet of the season the Outlaws girls track team tore up the competition while the boys finished a strong third at the eight-team Junction City Invitational on Saturday, April 2.

The meet uses Wisconsin scoring in which every finisher scores. Each of the eight schools can enter three athletes per event, so first place is awarded 24 points, second 23, and so on.

The Lady Outlaws racked up 771 points to outdistance second place Newport by nearly 100 points (674). Team scores for the rest of the field included Junction City (637), Stayton (590), Sweet Home (585), Central (380.5), Elmira (354), and Toledo (238).

The Outlaws girls garnered first-place medals, including freshmen Kelsey Neilson who won the triple jump with a mark of 32 feet 5 inches, just four inches ahead of Molly Van Acker, who finished second in the event.

Anna Pepperling won the pole vault at 8-feet-6-inches, and Jenny Boswell captured the 300-meter hurdle title in 48 seconds flat. Boswell also placed second in the 400 meters in 1:02.7 and anchored the third place 1,600 meter relay squad with team-mates Jena Rickards, Natice Nield, and MacKenzie Williams.

Iris Powell placed second in the 800 meters (2:37.4) and the Outlaws got a slew of fourth-place finishes, including the high jump by Jenny Boswell (4-feet-8-inches), 400 meters by MacKenzieWilliams (1:04. 2), 800 meters by Jena Rickards (2:44), 3,000 meters by Kaitlin McAlister (12:21), javelin by Tara Hermens (85-feet-2-inches) and long jump by Molly Van Acker (14-feet-3.5-inches).

The boys got only one first-place finish, but showed depth in accumulating 608 points to finish third in the team contest behind Newport (672) and host Junction City (669).

Daniel Holloman tied for first in the high jump with a leap of six feet even and placed fourth in the triple jump with a mark of 38-feet-10-inches.

Wes Hodson was the only second place finisher for the team with his effort of 11-feet-6-inches in the pole vault.

Eli Callan scored substantial points in three individual events and freshman Cory Macaffery in two. Callan placed third in the 110 hurdles (17.5), third in the 300 hurdles (45.3), and sixth in the long jump (18-feet-5 inches) while the freshman Macaffery placed fourth in the 400 (53.5) and third in the long jump (19 feet).

Stefan Redfield finished a strong third in the 1,500 (4:44) in his first meet of the season and Cory Bigelow was the top Outlaws finisher in the 3,000, placing sixth in 10:45.

The Outlaws host the Sisters Rotary Invitational on Saturday, April 9. The meet features 11 teams. The Rotary Club will provide refreshments for sale.