Nine Gorge athletes win IMC crowns; Hood River Valley girls second in team competition

“I brought the idea to her (last) Monday,” Coach Brandon Bertram said of the unusual triple. “It’s one of those things where I won’t ask if I don’t think you can do it. She came to me later and said, ‘I want to do that’.”

Bullock easily won the 1500 in 5 minutes, 9.82 seconds. Then, after resting during the 100 meters, she ran a lifetime best 63.78-second 400 for fourth place. Two events later, Bullock churned a personal best 800 in 2:24.72. What followed was her longest break between events, about two hours, before she teamed with Kate Siekkinen, Simone Tillman and Ximena Santillan and anchored the HRV 4x400-meter relay to first place in a season best 4:17.03.

“Give me Bullock on an anchor leg or give me nothing at all,” Bertram said of his senior’s 62-second split.

As expected, HRV scored heavily in the distance races (55 points). Phoebe Wood and Sophie Kaden finished second and fourth in the 1500, giving the Eagles 23 points in that event. Wood was third and Kaden fourth in the 800, which, along with Bullock’s win, produced 21 team points. In the 3000, Lucy Hennessy and Mieka McKnight were third and fourth for a combined 11 points.

But the Eagles couldn’t answer Crook County’s strength in the throws (a 64-12 point advantage over HRV). The Cowgirls swept the shot put for 24 points, went 1-2-4 in the discus for 23 more, and went 1-5-6 in the javelin for 17. Crook County took the team lead after 10 events, and with 12 complete, the Cowgirls had a slim two-point margin over HRV and Pendleton. The Eagles stayed close thanks to frosh Tillman’s win in the 200 in a two-second lifetime best of 26.73 seconds. Senior Poppy Miller, the 2019 Class 5A state champion, won the pole vault, Tillman placed second and Charlize Peterson tied for fourth, giving the Eagles 22.5 more points.

But once Crook County’s discus points were figured in, the Cowgirls’ lead was secure. They won with 151 points and Hood River settled for 127, two ahead of Pendleton.

The Dalles took fifth with 83 points. The Riverhawks were led by sophomore Zoe Dunn, who won her specialty, the long jump, at 17-feet, 5.25 inches. She added a sixth place in the 100 and a fifth in the 200. All her individual event performances were lifetime bests.

Teammate Emily Adams did her part to contribute to the Riverhawk total. She was second in both the 100 and 200, and fourth in the long jump. The Dalles scored 15 points in the 200, as frosh Madeline Harrison added a sixth-place finish (28.43 PR). Senior Hannah Ziegenhagen finished second in the 800 and then doubled back with a leg on the Riverhawk 4x400, third place relay.

The 3000 bolstered the standing of The Dalles, as senior Emily Johnson was superb in the 7.5-lap race during the hottest — 85 degree — part of the day. Johnson won by half a minute in 11:46.19; she finished third in the 1500 (5:23.45) earlier in the meet. Teammate Fiona Dunlap was seventh in the 3000.

The Dalles distance coach Mandi Williams said Johnson had been prepping for the district meet 3000 the past few weeks. “The 3000 is her favorite event,” she said. “It was very hot, so she was told to stay in second until I gave her the go ahead. She stayed right (there) until just after the mile. She then got the go-ahead to take the lead. She made a move just after the mile … and never looked back.

“The smile she had on her face the last 100 when she knew she was going to win was priceless. Pure joy.”

As with any district meet, joy was tempered by disappointment. The Dalles had the top-ranked girls 4x100 relay, with Adams, Elena Cardosi, Madeline Harrison, and Dunn, but they couldn’t get the baton around cleanly.

On the boys side, pre-meet district favorite Pendleton didn’t disappoint, winning by 24 points. Hood River was third behind Ridgeview and The Dalles was sixth.

Riverhawk junior Jaxon Pullen won the 100 and 200 — in personal best times of 11.32 and 23.08, was third in a long jump at 20-5, and ran a leg on The Dalles’ third place, 4x100 relay (which edged Gorge rival Hood River, 45.65 to 45.67). Teammate Juan Diego Contreras won the 1500 and 3000 and ran a leg on the Riverhawk 4x400 relay. Contreras flirted with the four-minute mark in the 1500 before settling for a 4:02.71. He led nine of the 11 runners in the field to personal bests, including his own. Teammate Nick Caracciolo was sixth.

Williams said the wire-to-wire effort in the 1500 was a different racing style for Contreras, who prefers to wait in the pack and then unleash a finishing kick. “We knew he needed to start picking the pace up with 600 to go because there were three guys in the field with sub-2-minute 800s so he couldn’t wait.

“I could see his stride change with 600 and 400 to go. He ran a gutsy race that paid off with a win and a huge PR.”

Contreras doubled back later in the 3000, trying to pace his distance mates — Caracciolo and frosh Leo Lemann — to times that might get them into this week’s state meet (the top 16 times statewide qualify). The hot weather and a little wind that had kicked up may have prevented that from occurring, but Caracciolo finished third behind Hood River frosh Jackson Bullock and Lemann was fourth.

Other top marks for The Dalles boys were senior Jesus Arceo’s 116-8.25 personal best discus throw, good enough for fifth place; and senior Jesse Larson’s runner-up finish in the 400 in a lifetime best 53.22. Larson also ran legs on both The Dalles relay teams. Junior Connor Blair ran a leg on the Riverhawks’ long relay, after finishing seventh in the open 400 in a PR 55.17 and clearing 9-0 for sixth in the pole vault.

Hood River Valley had two boys champions: senior Steven Stanley in the pole vault and senior Josh Haynes in the 800. Stanley won at 13 feet and Haynes ran a personal best 1:59.76 in the two-lap race. Haynes took control with about 300 meters remaining.

“At the 300, he had that look in his eyes,” Bertram said. “You can just tell sometimes. He just ran his best race in a Hood River jersey, hands down. It was fun to see him have success.”

A few hours earlier in the meet, Haynes was part of the fast 1500 which produced multiple personal bests, including his time of 4:05.65, good enough for third place. Teammates Elliot Hawley (4:07.14, fourth) and William Bunch (4:19.56, sixth) also PR’d in the 1500.

The Hood River sprinters were led by Ethan Rhoads and Shaw Burns, who were fifth and sixth in the 100 and also joined Zac Wells and Joshua Humann for legs on the Eagles’ fourth-place relay. Humann added a PR 55.17 in the 400, good enough for sixth. Burns had a 14-point day for HRV, adding a runner-up finish in the triple jump and a sixth place in the long jump. Senior Michael Goodman was second in the high jump and javelin for 16 HRV team points, tying him with Haynes as the Eagles’ top boys scorer.