By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– Sprague’s Carson Hunsaker came close to PR-ing in the Pole Vault Saturday at the Titan Track Classic at West Salem High School. Coming close to clearing 14-feet-9-inches after already winning the event at 14-feet-even before going the possible PR attempt.
“I’m happy with the win, but I’m not too ecstatic with my performance, I could’ve done better,” the senior vaulter starts. “That last jump…when you reach a point in the vault where it’s a go or it’s a no-go. You either shoot, and you trust that you’re over the landing pad or you bail out, and I bailed out where I shouldn’t’ve bailed out. I could’ve made that jump happen. It just didn’t work out.”
Hunsaker has set lofty goals every year he’s been in High School that, in a way, has driven him to reach new heights in one way or another. And it’s paid off in the Pole Vault. Slowly going from a 12th place finisher in conference as a freshman, to qualifying for State as a sophomore and then placing sixth in the event at 6A State last Spring. It’s just been work, work, and work at practice for Hunsaker in the event that has made it possible for him to be as successful as he is. Something that he’s looking forward to continuing towards the Central Valley Conference District Meet and hopefully back at the State Meet in a few weeks.
“I’ve always had big goals, and I’ve set a goal for the end of the year for each year of high school. I’ve yet to meet one of those goals, which is ok. I like doing it that way, you set an extremely high goal and even if you don’t make it, you still end up jumping higher in my philosophy than if you set more mediocre goals,” Hunsaker said.
Joining Hunsaker as Olympians who brought home first was Jovi Johnson. The freshman 800-meter racer dug deep in the final lap of the two lap race to take first. Sitting third with 300-meters left in the race, Johnson trailed only West Salem’s Avery Meier and Samantha Woods. But by roughly the 600-meter mark, roughly 200-meters left, Johnson passed Woods and slowly found enough juice to run down Meier, edging Meier at the finish line by just 0.38 of a second for the victory. A good stepping stone for the freshman moving forward.
“I just saw that I had two girls ahead of me that I had to pass, it took a lot of mental thinking and this is the last lap, I have to give it all I got and I tried to push as hard as I could until the end,” said Johnson. “It was so great, it was the best I’ve ever ran and I had some good competition.”
Working on her distance workouts, passing strategy, and starts will be the areas of focus for Johnson during the next few weeks.
After tearing her PCL last year as a junior, Jaida Carodine has been taking this year to just take it all in, having fun and just getting back to the sport that she enjoys doing. And it’s paying off as the 100-meter hurdler has won three of the five meets she’s competed in, including a sixth-place finish at the Titan Track Classic on Saturday.
“My mom helped me realize it’s about the sport and not about the marks. I’m just taking it week-by-week, meet-by-meet, practice-by-practice, and not focusing on Districts or the big meets, just focusing on each practice and each meet,” Carodine said.
Dakota Neaman won the 3,000-meter race and finished second in the 1,500-meter race Saturday. Carter Lovell won the 110-meter hurdles with Merrick Scott finishing second in the 300-meter hurdles. Emmett Hunsaker won the Shot Put. Tatum Jones finished second in the 3,000-meter race, Jocelyn Neufer finished second in the Javelin
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
