By James Day
Silverton High’s Steeley Mucken scored in 4 events on May 26-27 to lead the Foxes to a tie for 5th in the OSAA Class 5A track and field meet at Hayward Field in Eugene.
Mucken won the long jump and took 5th in the 100, and 6th in the 200 and the javelin to help Silverton score 39 team points, tied with Canby for the fifth spot behind champion Summit (118.5).
Joel Rush took third in the pole vault and Josef Dettwyler was 4th and Jonathan DuVal was 8th in the high jump for the Foxes. JD Arthur (6th, 800) and Sam Schaffers (6th, shot put) and Elijah Willis (8th, javelin) also scored.
The Silverton girls team, led by Kirsten Kuenzi, scored 15 points to tie for 15th place with Lebanon, Springfield and North Eugene. Summit also won the girls meet with 99 points.
Kuenzi took 4th in the 200, 7th in the 200 and the long jump and ran the anchor leg on the Foxes’ 4×100 relay squad that finished 4th. Also on the relay were Sicily Becerra, Lexi Enzenberger and Brooklyn Schurter. Madison Stackpole finished 8th in the shot put.
Kennedy, meanwhile, scored 12 points in the Class 2A boys meet, while the Trojans girls scored 10,. Both teams finished in 21st place.
Scoring for the boys were Cole Vogel (5th, 110 hurdles) and JeremiahTraeger (6th, 110 hurdles), Isaac Berning (8th, javelin) and Johnathan Kintz (8th, 3,000) while the 4×400 relay squad of Dakota Heard, Griffin Kilbourne, Elijah Traeger and Javier Rodriguez finished 6th.
On the girls side Tia Allen of JFK was 5th in the discus, Yulia Chavez Cortes was 7th in the 3,000 and the 4×400 relay squad of Precious Ifenuk, Briar Hachenberg, Alyse Williams and Haley Kline took 5th.
Baseball: Two-time state Class 2A-1A champion Kennedy dominated the all-state and all-Special District 2 selections after finishing 31-0 and routing Blanchet 10-0 in the state title game.
Ethan Kleinschmit was named player of the year in Class 2A-1A, while coach Kevin Moffatt took home coaching honors. Kleinschmit was a pitcher on the first-team, where he was joined by catcher Charlie Beyer and third baseman Andrew Cuff. Shortstop Luke Beyer, centerfielder Brett Boen and rightfielder Owen Bruner were named to the second team, while Brian Beyer was selected third-team utility player.
The all-district team included Moffatt as the top coach and Kleinschmit as both pitcher and player of the year. Kleinschmit was a first-team pitcher. Joining him on the first team were Charlie Beyer, Cuff, Luke Beyer, Boen, Bruner, Brian Beyer and utility player Brody Kleinschmit. First baseman Matt Hopkins was a second-teamer and outfielder Nick Cuff earned honorable mention.
In the Mid-Willamette Conference Carson Waples of Silverton was selected as a first-team pitcher, with infielder Cade Wynn on the second team. Sawyer Enderle and Brash Henderson earned honorable mention for the Foxes, who finished 10-16 overall and 8-10 in league play.
Softball: Silverton, which finished 17-8 overall and 11-5 in MWC play, earned 6 slots on the all-league team. Kate Kofstad was a first-team outfielder, while the pitcher and catcher battery of McKenzie Peterson and Braezen Henderson were placed on the second team. Morgan Stadeli, Hannah Houts and Paisley Rains of the Foxes received honorable mention.
Choir: The Silverton choir took third in the OSAA championships May 5 at the LaSells Stewart Center at Oregon State University. The Silverton team, under the direction of Kimberly Skondin, earned 290 points and trailed only champion Canby (344) and runner-up McKay (329).
“Concert choir had stellar growth this year,” said Skondin. “I would say the group at the end of the year was almost unrecognizable to the group at the start of the year. The kids chose to dig in and work extremely hard every day (in class and in their own time) to be at least 1% better every day. They often exceeded that 1%. I am so proud of them.”