By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SWEET HOME, Ore.– Evelyn Welch has really made a name for herself in the 300-meter hurdles the last three years for Stayton.
She finished fourth in the event as a freshman and sophomore before finishing third this past Spring as a junior. Not to mention a 14th-place finish the 4A State in the 100-meter hurdles as a junior as well.
Entering this year, Welch has taken a different approach to her hurdling in preparation for hopefully one last State run in the event she’s etched her name in to this point of her career.
The approach has been more on the sprints side of the hurdles. Focusing on the 100-meter dash and the 100-meter hurdles to make her more explosive out of the blocks and to the first wave of hurdles. And the 400-meter races to help keep her endurance up for those 300-meter hurdles.
And you were able to see it a little bit in the Meet of Champions on Saturday afternoon in the 300-meter hurdles as Welch was able to get out of the blocks in a hurry. She built a lead, but fatigue perhaps running in just her second 300-meter hurdles race of the year, she faded a bit. Finishing second in the event behind Delphian’s Lily Olivares.
“I felt good for my first couple of hurdles. I was trying to 17-step in between the hurdles, that’s been my goal, so that felt pretty good. I think at the end, I lost a little bit. Along with that speed and endurance, I’ll have to work on. That’s why I’ve been doing a lot of 400 work on my end,” Welch said.
Carter Soernson finished third in the Shot Put with Abe Richter finishing eight in the same event. Sorenson also finished sixth in the Discus. .
Madelyn Olson won the Long Jump event with Molli Emmert finished fourth in the Shot Put and Melissa Hettwer finishing seventh in the Discus.
Mila Morely, throwing in her second Javelin event of the year, finished second with a throw of 123-feet-8-inches. Morely had a brief lead with two throws left before Dayton’s Hadley Hughes passed Morely for the win in the finals.
Not bad considering Morely is currently juggling both Track and Softball the last two seasons.
“I would’ve liked to have done better, but I also haven’t practiced a lot because I’ve been doing softball, so I just need to be working,” said Morely. “It’s just the trajectory I need to work on. I feel like my fundamentals are good, but I can improve.”
