By James Day
Kennedy High has the honor of hosting the combined Tri-River/PacWest District Track and Field Championships May 14-15 at its newly remodeled facility.
“All of us are very excited about having this meet on our home track and we are already working hard to make this a great meet for all the competitors,” veteran Trojans Coach Steve Ritchie said.
This year marks the first time Kennedy has hosted the district meet in Ritchie’s tenure.
“Our new track and field event venues are a huge improvement and it will be great to have district right here. Hopefully, we’ll get a lot of Kennedy students and fans there providing that extra boost for our athletes,” Ritchie said.
The Trojans’ girls squad is coming off a Class 2A state title, the boys team took second at districts last year and Ritchie reports a record 48 athletes on the two squads.
Kennedy returns a strong veteran core from that girls state title team. Loghan Sprauer won the 100, 200 and 400 while finishing third in the high jump. Lauren Stokley was third in the 3,000 and Mia Grosjacques took fourth in the 100 hurdles despite an injured hip. The three seniors will be assisted by junior Taylor Brown (sixth in the long jump and eighth in the triple jump) and freshman Kaylin Cantu, who starred for Kennedy’s cross country team in the fall.
“We believe we’ll be in contention at district as well as state,” Ritchie said.
Standouts on the boys squad include long jumper Bishop Mitchell, distance runners Adrian Parra and Noe Jines and throwers David Wright and Jacob Lopez.
“We have good depth and a lot of boys who can vie for individual titles (at districts),” Ritchie said.
Meanwhile, at Silverton, the Foxes’ boys and girls squads are off to 2-0 starts in dual meets.
“The girls team is showing signs of being very good,” Coach Erik Cross said. “We had a lot of questions to answer and holes to fill on the boys side coming into the season. However, several have stepped up into leadership roles and have gotten better each week.” Top performers on the girls team include Cheyenne Partlow, who leads Class 5A in the shot put (39-8 3/4) and Allyson Ridling, tops in 5A in the 300 hurdles (47.59). In addition Maddie Fuhrman leads the Mid-Willamette Conference in the 800 (2:21.45) and 3,000 (10:39.10) and ranks second in the 400 (62.99) and 1,500 (4:58.28).
Top performers on the boys team include vaulters Spencer Hately (12-7) and Lucas Wilson (12-1), who are ranked 1-2 in the MWC in the event. In addition, the Foxes’ 400 relay squad of Colton Harle, Travis Sinn, Austin Haskett and Brock Rogers leads the league with a 44.71 clocking. Robbie LeParc has been scoring points in races from 400 meters to 3,000.
Here is an update on local college athletes for the winter season: Zach Gengler (Silverton), a sophomore guard at Portland State, averaged 4.6 points and 2.5 rebounds per game for the Vikings. Gengler played in 22 games and started 12. Toby Roth (Silverton), a sophomore guard at Corban, averaged 7.5 points per game for the Warriors. Roth led the team in steals with 27 and was third on the squad in assists (84). He dished off nine assists Dec. 27 against New Hope to establish a team high in the category for the season. Morgan Anderson (Silverton), an Oregon State sophomore, had the top mile mark (4:47.32) and the second-best 800 mark (2:15.88) in the indoor season. The marks rank Anderson second in both races on the OSU all-time indoor list. Anderson also has turned in a 2:12.05 800 and a 4:30.42 1,500 in the early stages of the outdoor campaign.
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