Outlaws shine in twilight track meets

Brandon Pollard made the record books in more ways than one at the Jesuit Twilight Relays, crushing the school record for 1,500 meters in what may have been the fastest field ever assembled at a high school meet in Oregon.

Pollard place fifth in the elite section of the metric mile in 3:56.02 as 10 boys cracked the four-minute barrier. Matthew Maton of Summit High School won the race in 3:49.38, which is the fastest time in the entire nation this year.

Included in the field was Mack Marbas of Siuslaw, last year's 4A state champion, who finished ninth in 3:57.98.

"The race was really fast, but I knew I could run that time," said Pollard. "I was super stoked to be there to compete with some of the top kids in the whole nation."

Despite his record performance, Pollard believes he can run even faster. "I am not 100 percent satisfied," he said. "I would like to run 3:55 or under."

Pollard broke Parker Bennett's record of 3:59.16 in the same week that Bennett was named the Outstanding Male Athlete of the Year at Willamette University in Salem.

While Pollard was blazing through the warm spring air at Jesuit, his teammates competed at home in the annual Sisters Rotary Twilight Invitational, which featured 17 teams, mostly from Central and Eastern Oregon.

The Sisters girls tallied 117 points to win the team title, while the boys took the runner-up spot with 82 points behind Sky-Em foe Elmira, which piled up 130 to earn the trophy.

Zoe Falk's win in the 800 (2:21.88) marked the only individual win among the girls team, but a host of others contributed to the team victory with second-place finishes including Katie Aryanfard in the 100 meters, (13.47), Natalie Ambrose in the 200 meters (27.28), Macadia Calavan in the 400 meters (1:03.12), Michaela Miller in the 300 hurdles (50.99), and Tessa O'Hern in the pole vault (9 feet).

Aria Blumm ran the fastest time of the day among girls in the 1,500 (5:08) but did not score since she ran with the boys in an effort to record a fast time.

The 400 relay team of Aryanfard, Miller, Calavan, and Ambrose also placed second (51.52), just .04 behind Redmond.

The 1,600 relay foursome of Falk, Miller, Ambrose and Calavan won easily in 4:12.13.

For the boys, Jadon Bachtold earned the blue ribbon on his way to a personal best in the 3,000 meters (9:46) after lowering his best 1,500 time to 4:21.5 earlier in the meet for second place. Devon Calvin placed second in the 3,000, in 9:53.

Keenan O'Hern placed second in the 400 meters (53.22), while Jake McAllister picked up a pair of runner-up finishes in the 300 hurdles (42.77) and the long jump (20-9) which was a personal best.

The Outlaws travel to another twilight meet Friday, May 9, in Cottage Grove for the Wally Ciochetti Invitational.