Outlaws are track leaders

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 state leaders is Parker Bennett, who lowered the school record for 1,500 meters for the second week in a row and achieved a certain redemption in the process. Bennett ran 4:07.48 to win the race, just .04 ahead of teammate Taylor Steele, and most importantly, in front of Jed Tolbert of Henley, who beat Bennett at the state cross country meet last November in their only meeting.

The Sisters pair are ranked 1-2 among 4A runners. Bennett, who won the 3,000 at Summit as well, in 9:05, is also ranked first in the 3,000 with a best of 8:59, while Steele is positioned sixth in the 800 at 2:01.89.

The Outlaws girls 400-meter relay has closed within .5 seconds of the school record and is ranked first among 4A teams at 50.33. The quartet of Annie Mutchler, Courteney Satko, Jodie Reoch and Cindy Steele took first place over a number of 5A teams at Summit.

Mutchler is having "a banner year" according to head coach Bob Johnson, as a key member of the relay team as well as a top jumper. She is ranked fourth among long jumpers at 16 feet 2.5 inches, seventh among triple jumpers (33 feet 1 inch), and seventh among high jumpers at five feet even. She is ranked sixth in the state in the 100 as well at 13.14. Her teammate Satko leads the league in the 400 (59.8), which is third in the state, as is Reoch's 200 mark of 27.06.

Sophomore Chelsea Reif-schneider won two events at Summit, claiming the 100 hurdles (16.94) and the 300 hurdles (48.17), which were both personal records. She is currently ranked fifth among 300 hurdlers at the 4A level.

Sara Small got knocked out of the first-place ranking among 4A pole vaulters despite clearing a personal record of 11 feet 6 inches on Saturday, but still leads the third-ranked vaulter by a full foot. Sammie Clark, the defending state champion out of North Bend, set a personal best of 12 feet 1 inch this week as well.

Sisters is ranked second in both the boys and girls 1,600-meter relays as well, with times of 3:30.18 and 4:07.91 respectively.

"We have performed very well so far in a lot of areas, but of course, it is the district and state meets where we really want to be ready to go," said Johnson.

"The early season success is a testament to great work by the assistant coaches," according to Johnson. "Dennis Dempsey, Ken Ruettgers, Bob Casper, Carlos Garcia, Nik Goertzen, Wayne Powell - all those guys are doing such a great job coaching and mentoring the kids."

Other notable improvements on the team include Jeremiah Stahn, who lowered his best 200 time to 23.95, and Drew Harrison, who won the 800 at Summit in 2:03.86 with his best mark in two years.

Injuries have kept two of the boys team's best sprinters out of full-time action, so Johnson looks forward to the return of David Cowan and Easton Curtis.

The Outlaws host a home meet against La Pine, Elmira and Junction City on Thursday, April 29 with field events beginning at 4 p.m. On Saturday they will face some top teams again at the Dick Baker Invitational at Gladstone.