By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
DAYTON, Ore.– Blanchet’s Geovanny Escobar came out of nowhere to win the 300-meter hurdle race on Saturday afternoon in the finals of the event.
Dayton’s Erick Chinchilla came out hot from his 110-meter hurdle District victory and seemed as if he was going to be on his way to a hurdle sweep of the event until the final 100-meters of the 300-meter race.
Escobar crept up on him, entering the final 200 meters, and eventually passed Chinchilla coming down the front stretch and never looked back.
Escobar won the event with a time of 42.05, beating Chinchilla by nearly 1.5 seconds. This came off of the heels of Escobar doing the 200 and 400-meter races earlier in the day.
“I wanted a first-place medal, so I had to catch up to him. He had a big lead over there at the end…I was really tired because of the other events that I had, but I did the work, and I won,” said Escobar. “It showed that I can prove a lot more with my technique in the hurdles, and hopefully, when State comes, I can be on the podium with good technique.”
The Blanchet Boys Track and Field team finished first at the District Meet with 160 team points, the Cavalier Girls finished second with 159.5 team points, a half-point behind Taft.
Molly Mucken and James Barnett each won the Discus event. Horte Gemedo (High Jump), Eilee Mucken (Pole Vault), Bella Vargas (Long Jump), Joe Barra (Pole Vault), Tatum Fleming (Triple Jump), Carson Smith (110-meter Hurdles) and Adam Barnett (Triple Jump) each finished District Runner-Up this past weekend. 18 Blanchet athletes qualified for the State Meet.
