PHS girls off to stellar start at district track meet

The Philomath High School girls’ track and field team takes first place on the first day of the Western Oregon Conference championships.

Competing in Newport on Friday, the Warriors won three of the four final events held: junior Adele Beckstead in the 3,000 meters, senior Ahnika Tryon in the javelin and junior Anneka Steen in the high jump.

Beckstead ran a season-best 10:47.70 to finish first in the 3,000m, just under 15 seconds faster than the runner-up. Sophomore Lucy King placed fifth in 12:16.16.

Tryon had a throw of 112 feet, 4 inches to win the javelin, which was 6-3 further than the runner-up. Steen scored 5-1 to claim the victory in the high jump. Teammate Hanna McDaniel, a junior, finished second with a record of 4-10.5.

Philomath also had 15 points in the triple jump, with Steen second (32-5), junior Aspen Russell fourth (31-6) and junior Brooke McDaniel seventh (28-6.75).

In unfortunate circumstances, sophomore Ana Candanoza did not finish the 3,000m due to injury.

The girls are in first place with 57 points ahead of Newport’s 42 and Cascade’s 31.

The first day also included preliminary races in six track events. Qualifiers for Saturday’s finals included junior Janice Hellesto in the 100 (first, 12.53) and 200 (first, 26.13), senior Ellie Morton in the 100 (second, 12.83), junior Natalie Dunn in the 400 (first, 58.03), Brooke McDaniel in the 400 (1:06.68), Russell in the 800 (sixth, 2:43.51), junior Kateri Pindell in the 800 (seventh, 2:43.95) , freshman Jordyn Hood in the 100 hurdles (third, 18.30), senior Sadie Francis in the 100 hurdles (fourth, 18.37), freshman Annaleise Brown in the 100 hurdles (sixth, 18.79), junior Petra Hernandez in the 300 hurdles (sixth, 52.22) and Hanna McDaniel in the 300 hurdles (seventh, 53.58).

The Philomath boys finished second in the 3,000 final with sophomore Lukas Hernandez running a personal best 9:16.81. Sophomore Leo Pausch finished third in 9:22.07, which was also a PR. Freshman Galen Murch placed seventh in 10:30.51.

Freshman Jamin Peters placed in two events with fourth place in the discus with a throw of 110-1 and eighth place in the shot put at a distance of 38-5 – both PR marks. The team also tallied points in the pole vault, with junior Emmitt Gaskey placing fourth, sophomore Blake Hauck fifth and senior Jonathan Doig finishing sixth – each of them going 9-9 and earning PR.

In the team standings, Cascade leads with 74 points, Newport is second with 46, Philomath is third with 34 and Sweet Home is fourth with 28.

In the preliminary races, qualifiers for the finals included junior Warwick Bushnell in the 100 (second, 11.36), 200 (fourth, 23.52) and 400 (third, 54.18), sophomore C.D. Nuno in the 200 (third, 23.33) and 400 (sixth, 55.24), senior Lukas Dunn in the 800 (fourth, 2:10.06), senior Simon King in the 800 (sixth, 2:11.33 ) and sophomore Luke Arthurs in the 110 hurdles (seventh, 20.18).

Saturday’s action begins at noon with the field events and at 1 p.m. with the track events.