Staff report
Columbia Gorge News
THE DALLES — There’s track and then there’s field. On paper, The Dalles High School (TDHS) is the premier boys team in the Tri-Valley Conference on the track based on times this season. In field events, the Riverhawks are a notch below other TVC teams like Molalla and Madras.
Which leaves the relays — and that’s where The Dalles has been exceptional this season.
Molalla is the host school for the May 21-22, 2026 TVC championships, where athletes from the five league schools will contend for district titles and berths in the May 29-30 OSAA Class 4A state meet. The Riverhawks boys have twice been team runner-up at district during their recent stint in the Tri-Valley.
First-year head coaches Jill Pearson and Aaron Long have one 2025 boys district meet champion returning in senior Derek Goulart, who won the high jump (and is a two-time placer in the sprints). Goulart also was part of The Dalles’ 2025 first-place 4x100 meter relay along with David McCracken, Julian Morehouse and River McClure. Morehouse and McClure have graduated, but McCracken is back and is the No. 1 ranked sprinter in an abbreviated season because of an injury. He was runner-up in the 100 and 200 in 2025, and he is part of a talented and experienced Riverhawk team in running events.
That group includes senior Tyson Long (coach’s son), who has placed third, third and second at the past three district meets in the 800. Long is the top-ranked 1500- and 3000-meter runner, as well, this spring in the TVC. Senior Noah Preston and junior Patrick Rankin give The Dalles a 1-2 punch in the 400 and with legs on the top-ranked Riverhawk relays.
The Dalles has numerous athletes who are ranked near the top of their events. Such as Tyler Irving in the 110 and 300 hurdles; Mason Morehouse in the pole vault; throwers Conner Hajek and Adam Trosper; and distance runners Aiden Erickson, Lazarus Taylor, and Luke Sorenson.
The Dalles girls have five top-ranked TVC athletes, including sophomore Willow Ziegenhagen, who is ranked first in the javelin and high jump. She placed second in the high jump in 2025 and third in the javelin at district.
Distance runners Flamingo Duyck and Abigail Pope are ranked first in the 800 meters and 1500 meters, respectively. Pope, a senior, has placed at district (top eight spots) the past two seasons in the 800 (2025) and 1500 (2024). Duyck, a sophomore, has a distance running resume highlighted by a third-place finish in the Tri-Valley district cross country meet this past fall.
Senior Laura Black is the top-ranked girls pole vaulter, having cleared her personal best of 9 feet May 8 at the Dean Nice invitational. Black, a gifted 800 runner, also has been a member of the Riverhawks’ 4x100 and 4x400 relays this season; those relays will be in the 4A state meet qualifying conversation — based on times thus far. Teammate Evelyn Rogers is the league leader in the girls shot put and she also is ranked No. 2 in the javelin behind Ziegenhagen — and just ahead of teammate Bryce Newby.
Freshman Rozlyn Elliott is No. 2 in the girls high jump.
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