By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
DAYTON, Ore.–Down to her final race at her final meet of her High School career, Sheridan senior Chole Ayala found a way to keep her final season going.
After finishing sixth in the 100-meter dash, Ayala found herself in contention for the State Meet in the 200-meter dash. Sitting in second place coming down the stretch, Ayala leaned forward at the finish line to finish second in the race by 0.06 of a second to clinch a spot at the State Meet for the fourth-straight year.
“It feels good. I didn’t make it for the 100-meter, but I did for the 200-meter. The girl from Amity was pushing me in the first half… but I’m so happy. Being at a small school, going for all four years, i love it,” said Ayala.
Joining Ayala is the Sheridan 4×100 meter relay team.
The Spartan relay team won the District Title in the race with a slightly altered lineup, having to use one of their alternates after one of their relay regulars was injured during the first day of the District Meet.
But that didn’t slow the Sheridan squad down. From the starting gun, they started to build a lead that by their anchor leg was roughly 50 meters in length. Blanchet cut the lead down a bit during the final 100 meters, but it wasn’t enough as the Sparts took the relay race with a time of 44.04, winning the race by 0.51 of a second.
“It was big. It’s a pretty big deal if you get a good start so you can be ahead, and at the end, it worked out,” said Chase Eichler, who was the first leg of the relay. “It felt good coming out of the blocks.”
“I got to give the props to my start Chase, he’s insane,” adds Jayden O’Reilly. “It’s a huge weight lifted off our chest. We’ve been waiting for this moment for so long. Failure after failure every year, this feels amazing.”
Eichler qualified for State in the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes. Zachery Dauvin qualifed for State in the 3,000-meter race with a PR time of 10:07.96, and Taylor Yoder qualified for State in the Long Jump. Ayala was the lone Sheridan Girls Track and Field athlete to qualify for State.
