Falk breaks school record at State

One school record fell along with numerous personal bests for the eight members of the Sisters High School track and field team who represented the Outlaws at the OSAA State Championships held May 24-25 at Hayward Field in Eugene.

Zoe Falk broke her own school record for 800 meters on her way to a second-place finish behind reigning champion Emily Bever of Molalla. Falk's 2:15.95 time, by far her best of the year, knocked .40 seconds from the mark she set last year.

"Going into the race I wasn't too worried or nervous because I had faith in my training and my coaches," she said. "I knew that all I could control was how much effort I put in and I decided to race my hardest. I was surprised by how fast my time turned out."

Bever set a scorching pace that helped Falk to her fine time, finishing in 2:12.83, the fastest winning time in recent memory at the 4A meet.

Falk was not the only Outlaw on the awards podium during the weekend. Her friend and fellow junior Brandon Pollard put together an impressive double in the middle distances, placing third in the 1,500 and following up with a fifth-place finish in the 800.

In the 1,500, Pollard followed his plan to stick with the leaders throughout the race, which he did all the way to the finish line in thrilling fashion, where he finished third behind Mack Marbas (4:03.24) and Matthew Campbell (4:04.61) of Siuslaw, in a lifetime best of 4:04.9.

"Brandon runs with incredible poise and did all he could to stay with those guys," said Josh Nordell. "He ought to be among the best at all state levels next year."

Pollard came back a couple of hours later for the 800, which featured Seaside's Brett Willyard, who announced before the race his intention to break the state meet record, which he went on to do. The fast pace seemed to take its toll on the rest of the field, but Pollard held things together to finish fifth in 2:00.33.

The day before, he dipped under two minutes for the first time in his career in the qualifying prelims (1:59.14), while is teammate, freshmen Izaak Kanzig, dropped his time to 2:03.1, but did not advance to the final.

Aria Blumm faced the same double as Pollard and while she did not crack the top eight, she had season bests in both the 800 (2:27.02) and the 1,500 (5:10.80).

Alisha Haken had a busy meet, participating in four events.

In Friday's high jump final she placed sixth by clearing 4 feet 10 inches, two inches shy of her personal best.

She did not advance out of the prelims in the 100 hurdles, missing the final spot by .07 seconds.

On Saturday, Haken started the day with the pole vault, where she cleared 8 feet 6 inches for twelfth place, but came back strong in the triple jump, in which she hopped, skipped, and jumped 33 feet 7 inches on her final jump to secure fifth place.

Michaela Miller earned an individual medal of her own by placing sixth in the long jump with an effort of 15 feet 10.5 inches. Oregon-bound Claire Thomas of Molalla won the event, soaring 18 feet 2.75 inches.

Jake McAllister found that the state meet literally is a game of inches, placing ninth in the long jump, one point out of a medal, by just over an inch. He leapt 20 feet 6.75 inches and the eighth-place jumper went 20 feet 8 inches.

Concluding the meet, Falk, Miller, Blumm, and Macadia Calavan put

together a gem of a 4x400-meter relay, which earned the foursome a seventh-place finish in 4:04.91. The two teams just in front of the Outlaws ran in the second heat and came through with times just thousandths of a second faster than Sisters.

"Those girls put it all out there and definitely deserved the medals they earned," said Nordell.

Without enough qualifiers to compete for a team trophy - the boys finished 19th and the girls 12th - the Outlaws look to the future, with Haken the lone departing senior on the squad.

"We had a great season and everyone is now looking forward to the future as well," said Nordell.