Sisters athletes qualify for state

The track season will continue for another week for 14 Outlaw track team members following very strong performances by both the boys and girls teams that qualified them for the state meet.

The boys finished second to a powerful Molalla squad in the team race and the girls were a close third behind seven-time champion Cascade and second place Molalla. But the Outlaws had their fair share of state qualifying individuals and relay teams.

In Friday’s events, the Outlaws had their first champion and state qualifier of the meet as Cory McCaffery claimed the long jump by nearly two full feet with a jump of 20-feet-5.5-inches. Ande Phillips was disappointed with his fourth-place finish at 18-feet-3.5-inches, which was just 3.5 inches out of second. Travis Myrick finished fifth with a mark of 17-feet-11-inches.

Jeff Sampson smashed his personal best in the discus to secure a second-place finish and a trip to state with toss of 137-feet-4-inches.

Ben Mansker was the runner-up in the pole vault at 12-feet-6 inches and will compete at state as well. Dom DeLeone was sixth at 10-feet-6-inches and frosh Nick Head tied for eighth at 10 feet.

The girls team did most of it’s scoring on Saturday, but notable performances on Friday came from Jena Rickards (11:32) and Courtney Johnson (12:25) who finished sixth and eighth respectively in the 3,000-meter run. Tara Hermens placed sixth in the javelin with a toss of 96-feet-9-inches, while Cali Ulmer (14-feet-10-inches) and Aubrey Cretsinger (14-feet-5 inches) finished fourth and sixth in the long jump.

Saturday got off to a thrilling start as the boys 4 x 100 meter relay team led from start to finish, winning in 44.41 seconds. Relay members are Travis Myrick, Cory McCaffery, Kelly Crowther and Nick Purvis.

Following the relay, freshmen Benton Urquhart (4:26.98) and Jared Henderson (4:30.25) placed fourth and sixth respectively to bring in some big points for the team. Henderson was rated 13th going into the final and slashed 15 seconds off of his previous best.

Eli Callan ran his fastest of the season to finish a close third in the 110 hurdles in 16.12, but came back with fire in his eyes to claim second place in the 300 hurdles in 41.67 seconds.

Another state qualifier for the Outlaws provided one of the most dramatic moments of the meet as Stefan Redfield moved into second place with 180 meters left in the 800, only to relinquish that margin in the final stretch. However, Redfield pushed himself to a four-second personal record of 1:59.6 to meet the automatic qualifying standard to enter the state meet. Sophomore teammate Andrew Legg completed a great season to finish sixth in 2:09.17.

The 1,600-meter relay team of Nick Purvis, Kelly Crowther, Stefan Redfield, and Cory McCaffery wrapped up the running events for the boys with a solid second-place finish behind Molalla to advance to state with a time of 3:33.58.

The girls team got what it expected from Jenny Boswell as she successfully defended both of the hurdles races and returns to Hayward field to defend her state crowns next week. Boswell won the 100 hurdles in 15.9 seconds and the 300 lows in 45.12, nearly 3 seconds ahead of second place.

Anna Pepperling earned her ticket to Eugene by placing second in the pole vault at 8-feet-6-inches. She advanced ahead of teammates Lani Ulmer and Cammy Jacobson, who also cleared the same height but had more misses.

Kelsey Neilson will be competing in two events at state after winning the high jump with a personal best leap of 4-feet-11-inches, just one inch ahead of her friend Cali Ulmer who finished second at 4-feet-10-inches. Neilson picked up second place in the triple jump (32-feet-9.5-inches), just edging Ulmer (32-feet-4 inches) and Aubrey Cretsinger (32-feet-1.5-inches).

Neilson also placed sixth in the 200 (28.78), just two one-hundredths of a second ahead of teammate Tiffany Martin and ended up as the second highest individual scorer in the meet.

In the 1,600-meter relay, sprint coach Sally Taylor-Pillar told her girls, Jena Rickards, MacKenzie Williams, Kirsti Burck and Boswell to chase Cascade, the state leader, rather than just trying to beat Molalla for second place.

The girls took their coach’s advice and pushed the Cougars to the absolute limit to finish second in 4:05.81, a season’s best by nearly seven seconds. Cascade won in 4:04.98.

The 3A and 4A State Championships commence Friday morning and continue all day Saturday at Hayward Field on the University of Oregon campus in Eugene.

For more information visit http://www.osaa.org