Outlaws rack up track personal bests

Just like the spring weather, track-and-field athletes showed notable improvements as the Outlaws’ team entered the month of May with two local meets last week.

Wednesday, May 3, the Outlaws competed against Caldera and Redmond on the Panthers track, which turned into a personal record fest for both the boys and girls teams.

The triple jumpers led the way for the boys team in sweeping the top three places, led by sophomore Spencer Tisdel’s effort of 39 feet, 3 inches for the win. Freshman Reid Woodson (37 feet, 11 inches) and senior Corbin Fredland (36 feet, 2.25 inches) also achieved PRs.

Fredland earlier won the long jump with a mark of 18 feet, 6 inches, just one inch shy of his best.

Charlie Moen pushed his best in the javelin to 107 feet, 9 inches on his way to fourth, and Jayden Vogt tacked on another half-foot to his best in the shot put (35 feet, 1/2 inch) to also place fourth. Keegan Kroytz added two inches to his best in the high jump to place fourth as well behind teammate Taine Martin, who cleared 5 feet, 8 inches.

The boys picked up a few PRs in the running events as well. Tisdel ran 2:22.9 in the 800 meters, and Kyle Pilarski established bests in the 100 (12.13) and 200 (25.67).

Freshman Brooke Duey’s time in the 300-meter hurdles highlighted the personal bests for the girls team. Duey lowered her time to 50.8 seconds to win the event and moved into the top 10 among 3A girls. Molly Meyer placed second in the javelin with her best-ever throw measured at 82 feet, 1.5 inches, and fellow junior Lilly Sundstrom dropped her time in the 100 hurdles to 17.18 seconds to place second as well. Freja Pedersen, SHS’s exchange student from Denmark, clocked 1:09.13 in the 400, her best ever, while Ila Reid dropped her time in the 100 to 13.83.

On Saturday, May 6 the Outlaws joined 20 other teams, mostly from the 5A and 6A ranks, at the Secure Storage Summit Invitational, which featured a record-breaking day for Oregon’s fastest female high school sprinter.

Mia Brahe-Pedersen of Lake Oswego wowed the crowd with wins in the 100 meters (11.08) and 200 (22.61). The junior’s 100 time broke her own Oregon record and vaulted her into first place in the nation this season. In the 200 she smashed her own record by .33 seconds and moved into second in the nation.

“You don’t see a performance like that every day,” said Assistant Coach Dennis Dempsey.

For comparison, her time in the 100 was over a tenth of a second faster than the winning boy.

The tremendous depth of competition in the meet made it tough to nab a spot in the top eight. Duey and Sundstrom placed fourth and seventh respectively in the 300 hurdles, and Ella Bartlett took seventh place in the 1,500, where she set a new personal best of 5:07.52.

For the boys, Taine Martin placed eighth in the pole vault at 11 feet, 6 inches.

A number of Outlaws did, however, establish new records.

Hayden Roth dropped his best in the 1,500 to 4:22.41 and Finn Clark dipped under the five-minute mark for the first time at 4:59.62.

Pilarsksi came ever so close to going under 12 seconds in the 100 for the first time with a mark of 12.04. He also set a PR in the long jump (17 feet, 10 inches) to best his teammate Teegan Schwartz, who also had a PR, by .25 inches. The team’s biggest PR came from Logan Ryba as he launched the javelin nearly nine feet farther than ever before to set a record of 112 feet, 4 inches.

For the girls, Annalycia Erdekian broke the 3-minute barrier in the 800 (2:59.52), and Kate Singleton cleared 8 feet, 6 inches in the pole vault for the first time.

The Outlaws will compete in their final meet before District on Friday, May 12 in Cottage Grove at the Wally Ciochetti Invitational, which includes a total of 16 teams from the 3A and 4A ranks.