Outlaws dominate three-way track meet

The Outlaws track teams enjoyed fair weather and a lot of success at last Thursday's three-team home meet versus La Pine and Junction City.

As the team prepares for the most competitive part of the season, a relatively laid-back triangular meet was just what coach Bob Johnson's tracksters needed.

"We were really able to incorporate training right through the meet since we only had this one contest for the week," he said.

That's not to say that some excellent marks weren't recorded, even as some athletes tried events they normally don't do. German exchange student Max Gruettner, who has been focusing on the sprinting events battled with teammates Drew Harrison and Jared Henderson in a very exciting 800-meter race. Gruettner and Harrison were nipped at the wire by a late charging Henderson who claimed the win in 2:09.

When asked how he liked the two-lap race, he replied, "It was one lap too long!"

McKenzie Williams also moved up to the 800 and pulled away from freshman Hayley Palmer to win in 2:36.8. Palmer finished second in 2:40.9. Cory McCaffery tried out the triple jump and seemed to catch on fairly well, winning with a jump of 41-feet-2-inches.

The Outlaws produced a number of sweeps of the top places, including the boys 1,500 meters in which Sisters took the top six spots.

Henderson won the race (4:24.2), followed by Luke Glick (4:30.2), Parker Bennett (4:30.9), Benton Urquhart (4:35.3), Mike Calavan (4:35.6) and Seth Schneider (4:49.0).

Bennett (9:48), Glick (10:27), Schneider (10:38), Taylor Steele (10:59) and Zander Albertson (11:48) took the top five places in the 3000.

Lee Elder (55.1), Harrison (55.8) and Andy Stahn (57.3) went 1,2,3 in the 400 meters.

Justine Head (4-feet-10-inches), Kali Ulmer (4-feet-8-inches), Kelsey Neilson (4-feet-8-inches) and Susan Ruettgers (4-feet-6-inches) swept the high jump, while Lani Ulmer led six Outlaws girls in the pole vault with a winning height of eight feet.

Other winners for Sisters included Neilson in the triple jump (34-feet-6.25-inches), Head in the javelin (105-feet-8-inches), Courtney Satko in the 100 (12.7) and Rachel Tenneson in the 300 hurdles (53.2). Boy winners included McCaffrey in the 200 (23.1), Evan Eady in the shot put (37-feet-11-inches), Nick Head in the 300 hurdles (44.9) and Dane Moorehead, who notched a personal best in the 100 hurdles, in 17.4.

Official scores of the meet were not reported, but Sisters teams easily outdistanced the Tigers and Hawks, according to Johnson. The Outlaws travel to Elmira for a Sky-Em meet Thursday and about two dozen boys and girls will head to Gresham on Saturday for the 44th Annual Centennial Invitational, which is one of the top caliber meets held each year in Oregon.