Horizon Christian’s Track and Field team was building throughout the season, with athletes improving their individual performances in preparation for the team’s season finale — the district championship meet. Well, that meet occurred last Saturday and the Hawks can reflect on their season with pride; the boys team finished second, just six points behind first, and the girls placed fifth in a competitive field.
The meet awarded points to the top eight placements in decreasing values, with first place earning 10 points and eighth place earning one. Senior Alec Coats ran 11.66 in the 100 meters and earned fourth, while sophomore Skyler Leeson ran 12.16 and took seventh. The pair doubled up in the 200m alongside sophomore Caleb Lingel; Coats took fourth (24.68), Leeson fifth (25.42) and Lingel sixth (25.53). In the 400m it was senior Kyle Brown running a personal best of 54.24 to take third place, Lingel running 56.69 to take sixth and freshman Josh Rogers legging out a personal best of 59.66 to take eighth. A few underclass Hawks shined in the 800m — freshman Luke Hardin had a PR of 2:20.57 and earned fourth, and sophomore Kai Robertson had a PR of 2:22.21 and took sixth.
In the 1500m, it was sophomore Josiah Sohal running a personal best of 4:46.76 to take sixth. Sohal returned in the 3000m, running a PR of 10:58.71 and earning third place. He was joined by two teammates, sophomore Deacon Lundby who ran a PR of 11:59.91 to take sixth and junior Gunnar McCaw who ran 12:05.82 to take seventh. Horizon managed a couple points in both the 110m and 300m hurdle races; sophomore JJ Holste and junior John Tran finished seventh (20.78) and eighth (20.87), respectively, in the former and sixth (50.34) and seventh (52.13) in the latter.
The boys 4x100m relay team was disqualified, a result that may have cost them the championship; their team had consistently recorded times of 46 seconds, which would have placed them third and earned six points, the difference in team score between them and first place Dufur. The 4x400m relay team finished third in a time of 3:48.88. Senior Andrew Wells had a big personal best in the shot put, throwing 41 feet 8.75 inches and taking second place while senior Joseph Durham threw 37 feet 10 inches and took fourth. Wells and Durham returned in the discus with throws of 121 feet 10 inches and 93 feet 3 inches to take first and eighth place, respectively. Senior Alex Petshow threw 150 feet 1 inch in the javelin on his way to earning second place.
Petshow was joined by senior teammate Derek Johnston who threw a huge PR of 118 feet 2.5 inches to sneak into eighth place. In the high jump it was Holste, Robertson and Rogers taking fourth, fifth and sixth, with the former two clearing 5 feet 2 inches and the latter clearing 5 feet. Senior Kyle Brown won the pole vault for the Hawks when he cleared 10 feet 1 inch and Lundby took third place by clearing 8 feet. Senior Bailey Holste managed to get seventh place in the long jump with a distance of 17 feet 4 inches, and Rogers and Petshow were sixth and seventh in the triple jump with marks of 37 feet 1.5 inches and 35 feet 4.25 inches, respectively.
On the girls side, sophomores Valerie Bruggeman and Sarah Winters took sixth and seventh in the 200m with times of 29.94 and 30.62 (PR), respectively. Senior Kaitlin Wenz finished third in the 400m with a season best of 1:05.52. Freshman Augustina Decker was fourth in the 800m with a personal best of 2:50. Sophomore Kayla Kilgore took seventh in the 1500m with a time of 6:35.16. Sophomore Grace Schreiber ran PR times of 18.24 and 52.91 in the 100m and 300m hurdles, earning third and first, respectively. The girls 4x100m relay team was disqualified, but the 4x400m relay team took second in a time of 4:43.92. Senior Marena Decker earned first place in the shot put with a PR throw of 32 feet 4 inches. Bruggeman returned in the pole vault and took first place with a PR clearance of 9 feet, while teammate Augustina Decker took fourth with her own PR clearance of 6 feet 3 inches. Wenz wrapped things up for Horizon with a second place finish in the long jump at a distance of 15 feet 2.75 inches.
State qualifiers are those who finished in the top two placings of each event. Additional spots, known as wildcards, are given as well, but the definitive qualifiers for Horizon are as follows. For the boys team: Andrew Wells in shot put and discus, Alex Petshow in javelin and Kyle Brown in pole vault. For the girls team: Grace Schreiber in the 300m hurdles, the 4x400m relay team, Marena Decker in the shot put, Valerie Bruggeman in the pole vault and Kaitlin Wenz in the long jump. The state meet occurs on May 17-18 at Western Oregon University.
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