The Dalles’ senior Taylor Morehouse successfully clears 13-feet on his first attempt as the iconic wood beams that surround Hayward Field loom in the background.
The Dalles’ Juan Diego Contreras leads the pack in the 5A boys 1500m run.
Ashley Quisenberry photo
The Dalles’ senior Taylor Morehouse successfully clears 13-feet on his first attempt as the iconic wood beams that surround Hayward Field loom in the background.
Senior Taylor Morehouse etched his name in The Dalles High track and field record book Saturday when he capped an undefeated season by winning the Class 5A boys pole vault state championship.
The confident Morehouse matched his personal best of 15 feet in the meet at historic Hayward Field in Eugene. He said there wasn’t any added pressure from being undefeated, in part because he had won a state championship last year (in a season-ending meet in 2021), and also because he vaulted in Eugene the day before his competition and was feeling good.
“Honestly, I was lucky enough to be able to vault the day before; we went down to Lane and got some jumps in,” he said of nearby Lane Community College. “I cleared 15 feet the first try.”
Morehouse vaulted in 12 meets this spring, finishing first in each one. “A lot of details in the vault — that can go wrong,” Morehouse said. “Honestly, I had a lot of bad days this year — a lot of subpar days. But I got myself in a position that I could have subpar days.”
He was pressed Saturday by junior Joel Rush of 5A boys team champion Silverton. Rush had missed three times before Morehouse entered the competition at 13 feet. He cleared that height on his first attempt, then passed to 14-0 which he also cleared on his first try.
Rush, whose previous best before state was 13-7, had one miss at 13-0 and then two more before he cleared 13-6. He missed his first attempt at 14-0 before clearing, which left he and Morehouse as the final two vaulters.
Rush cleared an 11-inch personal best 14-6 on his first try, which led to some anxious moments for Morehouse, who needed three attempts. “That got my heart going a little bit,” Morehouse said. “But honestly, I was hitting the bar on the way up; I just had to adjust.”
Rush, who borrowed one of Morehouse’s poles when the bar reached 14-6, failed to clear 15 feet. Morehouse needed two tries to clinch the win. “My first one, I was running down and right as I approached the box the gun goes off on the track and so I just bailed,” he said of the starter’s gun at the nearby 200-meter start. “I was thinking they might give me another (vault), but they didn’t.”
After he cleared 15-0, with room to spare, Morehouse had the bar moved to a state-meet (and school record 15-9), but he could not erase The Dalles’ Mitch Wolfe’s 1981 mark of 15-7 nor the state meet mark of 15-8.
“You know, I thought I had a shot at it,” he said. “But from the adrenaline of the meet to the tailwind, I was running way faster than I was used to. My first one was the best attempt.”
Morehouse’s junior teammate, Juan Diego Contreras, did set a school record in the meet. Contreras raced to a lifetime best 8 minutes, 35.39 seconds in a fast 3000-meters and placed fourth on Friday. A day later, Contreras was in a tactical 1500, where he finished sixth in a season-best 4:04.45. The 3000-meter time eclipsed the school record of 8:46.5, set in 1976 by Steve Taylor.
Morehouse scored 10 team points and Contreras added eight for the Riverhawks, who finished in a tie for 13th with 18 points. The Dalles distance runner Leo Lemann ran a non-placing 8:59.9 in the 3000 (11th). Lemann chopped 19 seconds off his best from last season during this, his sophomore year.
The three had nothing but rave reviews about Hayward Field, site of this year’s world track and field championships in July. “It’s incredible; a crazy place,” Morehouse said.
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