Boswell defends titles at State meet

Jenny Boswell capped a stellar high school athletic career by defending both of her hurdles titles at the state meet Saturday, May 27, at Hayward Field in Eugene.

Wet, cool conditions kept times in most events a bit slow, but Boswell had no trouble with the rain as she blasted to a clear win in the 100-meter hurdles in 15.29 seconds. Three hours later she was back in the driver’s seat for the 300-meter hurdles and was never challenged, winning by more than a second in 45.47 seconds.

In winning both events, Boswell remained unbeaten over a span of two full seasons.

She joined teammates Jena Rickards, Kirsti Burck, and MacKenzie Williams in placing sixth in the 1,600-meter relay in 4:07.83 to conclude the meet and her high school career.

“As a coach you only get a Jenny Boswell once or twice in a career,” said head coach Ross Kennedy.

The boys team nearly had a state champion as well, as Cory McCaffery led the long jump competition with a school record leap of 21-feet-10.25-inches until A.J. Dutra of Sherwood popped an effort of 21-feet-11.5-inches in the finals to win.

“Considering Cory only worked with me for part of the final five weeks of the season his jumps are amazing,” said jump coach Alex Cretsinger. “I look forward to seeing what he’ll do next year.”

McCaffery also had a part in both of the boys relay teams that made the finals. After running 44.0 in the prelims on Friday, the quartet of McCaffery, Travis Myrick, Kelly Crowther and Nick Purvis placed a solid fourth in the final on Saturday in 44.11.

Wilsonville won the event in 43.72 in a very tight race.

The 1,600-meter relay team of McCaffery, Crowther, Purvis, and Eli Callan also staged a great battle, finishing seventh in 3:28.94. Eight-tenths of a second separated fourth place from seventh.

Callan showed tremendous heart in the 300 intermediate hurdles in running 41.6 seconds to place sixth. He beat Capital Conference rival Kyle King of North Marion for the first time this season in the process.

“Eli puts his all into every race,” said Kennedy.

Jeff Sampson, a junior, continued his steady improvement, throwing a personal best of 144-feet-10-inches to place fifth in the discus.

“It is incredible for a first-year thrower to do the things that Jeff has done this year,” said Kennedy. “He and his coach Jeff Reynolds should be very pleased.”

Other qualifiers for Sisters competed well, but did not score, including Ben Mansker who tied for 11th in the pole vault, clearing 12 feet. Stefan Redfield ran his second best time ever in the 800- meter preliminaries at 2:00.9, but needed to be at 1:58.9 to advance.

Anna Pepperling placed 14th in the girls pole vault with a heighth of 8-feet-6 inches. Kelsey Neilson placed 11th in the triple jump with a mark of 32-feet-10.25-inches.

She and teammate Kali Ulmer joined a total of seven girls who failed to clear the opening height in the high jump of 4-feet-8-inches. Emily Gillespie of Marist, who cleared 5-feet-8-inches earlier this year could only manage 5-feet-2-inches to win in the difficult, rainy conditions.

The girls scored a total of 23 points to place eighth in the teams competition, which was won by Marist with 68 points. Henley placed second with 64, followed by Wilsonville (48) and Capital Conference champion Cascade (46). The boys tied for twelfth with 22 points. Wilsonville racked up 66 points to easily outdistance Capital Conference champs Molalla (51), Siuslaw (45) and Estacade (37).

“It was another great year for Outlaw track,” said Kennedy. “It was a pleasure to work with all the kids on the team.”