District up next for track teams

The Sisters Outlaws will be chomping at the bit to compete this week at the Sky-Em district meet, with a pair of goals in mind: First, to compete well as a team and challenge for the district title, and second to qualify as many athletes to the state meet as possible.

The final tune-up for district took place Friday, May 14 at the Wally Ciochetti Invitational in Cottage Grove. The twilight meet attracted a number of the Sky-Em schools and served as a great comparison to the district and state meets, according to head coach Bob Johnson.

"We got to see quite a few kids who will be top finishers at the district meet, and a number who will score at the state meet level," he said. "We've gotten to see good competition all season, which will really help our kids in the next couple of weeks."

The Sisters girls placed second to Philomath among 15 teams, while the boys placed seventh. Notable performances on the girls' side included Courteney Satko's 2:24.57 in the 800, Annie Mutchler's two-foot improvement to 35 feet 3 inches in the triple jump, and Emi Conrads' 11:00.86 3,000 meters, which was her best by over 30 seconds.

Mutchler moved up to the fourth-ranked 4A triple jumper to go along with her top ranking among long jumpers, while Conrads moved all the way up to sixth among 3,000-meter runners, just two-tenths of a second behind Sky-Em foe Heidi Goiri of Marist.

Jodie Reoch inched closer to the sub-1-minute 400 meters, finishing fourth in 1:00.88.

Jeff Wilder (52.11) and David Cowan (52.96) put the pedal to the metal in the 400, both lowering their best times of the year in the process to finish second and third respectively.

Drew Harrison found himself in a state-meet-level 800 meters where he ran near his best time and still finished in tenth place at 2:02.70 behind Jeff Schreiner-McGraw's state-leading 1:56.52. Jed Tolbert of Henley finished just behind in 1:56.74. Both times were faster than last year's state champion.

The 4x400-meter relay team of Cowan, Wilder, Harrison and Jeremiah Stahn got a certain preview of next week's district meet as they were edged to take third place (3:30.99) in a very tight battle between Philomath (3:29.11) and Sky-Em rival Cottage Grove (3:30.27).

Chad Cummings matched his best effort in the high jump (5 feet 10 inches) and looks ready to pop over the six-foot barrier, according to coaches, while Jared Nelson continued his consistent pole vaulting with a third-place effort of 13 feet 6 inches. Taylor Steele dropped over 13 seconds from his 3,000-meter best to finish fourth in 9:22.02.

The Sky-Em District meet runs Thursday, May 20 and Saturday May 22 at Cottage Grove High School. The top two finishers in each event along with athletes meeting the OSAA qualifying standards will advance to the state meet the following weekend at Hayward Field on the University of Oregon campus.