By James Day
Sometimes I need some help to pull this thing off every other week.
This edition’s column benefited greatly from Our Town correspondent Steve Ritchie, the track and field and cross country coach at Kennedy High School in Mount Angel.
Ritchie, who really knows his stuff, forwarded some information on track and field exploits of area athletes, so I’ll just get out of the way and note the accomplishments.
*Bishop Mitchell, an eighth-grader at Mount Angel Middle School, currently is tied for second in the high jump nationally with a mark of 5-10, which broke his old school record of 5-8, set earlier this season.
*Eastern Oregon junior Kody Coxen, the former Silverton High athlete, ran 9:16.33 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the Stanford Invitational on March 29. The time is a provisional qualifying mark for the NAIA nationals. Coxen also ranks first for the Mountaineers in the flat 3,000 (9:09.44), is third in the 5,000 (16:08.41) and fourth in the 1,500 (4:04.14).
*Kennedy sophomore Loghan Sprauer has the fastest time for Oregon Class 2A girls in the 800 (2:26.19), is third in 400 (60.38) and fourth in the 200 (27.38). Sprauer also leads Class 2A in the high jump (5-3). Trojans’ senior Sadie Manley is second in the 100 for 2A girls (13.14) and Amelia Grosjacques is second in the 100 hurdles (17.09), and Madison Sprauer is fourth in the pole vault (8-feet). Kennedy’s girls 4×400 relay squad is third statewide at 4:28.82.
*Silverton senior Andrew Rogers is third in Class 5A in the javelin (177-4) and Foxes teammate Preston Kirk is fourth in the pole vault (14-2). Kirk is the defending state champion in the event. He won the Class 5A title a year ago with a 14-9 effort. Freshman Maddie Fuhrmann is tied for third in the 800 for Oregon 5A girls with a 2:20.30.
*Kennedy’s baseball team, the defending Class 2A-1A champions, is locked in a three-way battle for dominance in Special District 2. The Trojans fell 7-3 at Regis on April 24 and Kennedy and the Rams are now tied for the league lead at 7-1, one game ahead of Country Christian. The Trojans scored an 11-1 win against Country Christian on April 17. Kennedy and Regis also close out the conference season May 16 with a game in Mount Angel. The Trojans are 12-3 overall and ranked sixth by the OSAA. Regis is ranked 10th and Country Christian is 14th.
*Silverton High boys basketball player Toby Roth has reportedly committed to play for Corban University. Roth, a first-team all-Mid-Willamette-Conference player this past season, helped lead the Foxes to a third-place finish in the OSAA Class 5A state tournament.
*The Silverton softball team is 8-6 overall, tied for third in the Mid-Willamette with Corvallis, five games behind co-leaders Dallas and West Albany through games of April 24.
If you have a sports tip to share, contact me at [email protected] or follow me on Twitter @jameshday
