Outlaws shine at Rotary track meet

Sisters hosted 11 teams at the Sisters Rotary Invitational Saturday, April 29. They flexed some muscle on the way to shining performances and the third school record in the past week.

The Outlaws won a combined 13 events among the boys and girls, but it was Julianne Meeter who put together the brightest performance of the day as she had the best javelin series of her career, including the school record toss of 120 feet 5 inches.

Throwing Coach Eden Miller could not have been happier for her star, who has been pursuing the record for over two years.

"We all figured it would happen someday, but it was special to have it take place at the final home meet of her career," she said.

The mark popped Meeter up into the top six among 4A spear-chuckers. Only two other 4A throwers have surpassed 130 feet, including the 4A leader Rhiley Fritz of Corbett, who threw 143 feet 1 inches last week. Fritz has placed at state each of the last four years, including her second-place finish last year.

Other winners for the Lady Outlaws included Nicole Kersavage in the pole vault where she established a personal best of 8 feet 7 inches. Freshman Jade Anaya won the triple jump with a mark of 31 feet .75 inch and classmate Ryliereece Morgan won the long jump with a mark of 16 feet 3.5 inches. Both were personal records.

"We have a lot of youth on the team who are doing very well while still learning their events," said Coach Jim Anderson. "My hope is that they will work hard to find out how good they can really be."

Morgan placed second in the high jump at 4 feet 8 inches, second in the 100 meters (13.28) and teamed up with her sprintmates Mandi Calavan, Brooke Robillard, and Sabrina Reifschneider that took first in the 4x100-meter relay in a time of 52.86.

Reifschneider, who ranks among the top three 4A 100 hurdlers, won her specialty in 16.06, which is her best of the season. She also won the 300 hurdles in 49.92.

Anna Bartlett won her first 1,500-meter race of the season with a personal best of 5:18.60 after biding her time and coming from behind after the leader went with a brisk first lap.

The 800-meter trio of Tate Ricker, Amy Hills, and Alexa Stewart picked up lots of points for the Outlaws as they finished second, fourth, and sixth respectively. Hills also placed third in the 300-meter hurdles with a personal record of 53.73 and tied for second in the pole vault at 7 feet 1 inch.

For the boys, Tucker Flannery piled up some points for the team with a win in the javelin (153 feet 11 inches), third in the 400 meters (54.55), and fifth in the long jump (19 feet 5 inches).

Keegan Greaney ran away from the field in the 300 hurdles to win in 41.37 seconds and ran a leg on the winning 4x100-meter relay with teammates Korbin Sharp, Brogan Petterson, and Sam Garbrecht (45.31).

Sharp placed second in the 400 (53.56) and Garbrecht took second in the 100 to tack on a few more points for the team.

Sam Lewis picked up a win in the pole vault at 12 feet 1 inch, which was a personal best, and placed fifth in the triple jump as well with another personal record mark of 37 feet 7 inches.

Jordan Pollard took an early lead and dominated the 3,000 meters to win in a season best time of 9:48.16, while teammate Asher Bachtold ran a furious final three laps to move all the way up to second place, also in a personal record of 10:13.16.

"I wasn't sure how to run the race," said Bachtold afterwards, "so I started off easy and realized I had a lot left and started catching people."

In one of the most exciting races of the day, Keaton Green found himself in a three-way battle in the 800 meters. Green ran even with the leader through 400 meters, but a gap developed between the two in the next 200. Coming off the final curve Green caught the leader, as did Peter Drost of Triad Christian, and the three lurched toward the finish line with Green coming in second (2:09.75), just .5 seconds behind Drost.

Freshman Josh Liddell lowered his personal record in the 1,500 meters where he placed fourth in 4:41.05 and Zach Anderson tied for third place in the high jump with a clearance of 5 feet 6 inches.

Coach Jeff Larson tipped his hat after the meet for the help of the Rotary Club of Sisters and all the volunteers that helped the meet go off without a hitch.

"It was a team effort in every way and I think every one enjoyed the competition and the beautiful sunny weather that we had," he said.

Teams in the meet included Culver, Triad Christian, Mazama, Madras, Redmond, Paisley, North Lake, Lakeview, Lost River, La Pine and McKenzie.

The Outlaws turn the corner into May, which is considered the championship month for the team, with a high quality meet in Cottage Grove Friday at the Wally Ciochetti Invitational, which includes sixteen 4A teams along with two 3A teams in the most competitive meet of the season other than State, according to Larson.

"It's a great meet every year and we expect a ton of season best performances due to the high quality of the competition," he said. "It's a great lead-up to the District and State meets."