By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
STAYTON, Ore.– Stayton’s Madelyn Olson made her mark at the Oregon West Conference District Meet the last two days.
On Friday, she broke the school record with the Triple Jump, winning the District Title in the process with a jump of 36-feet-4.75-inches.
“It was an awesome way to start. It’s been kind of the goal all season and it’s finally cool to finally get it and know that I can do it,” Olson said of the record breaking performance.
On Saturday, Olson won the District Title in the Long Jump with a jump of 16-feet-1.75-inches. Olson won the District Title by a slim margin of an inch over Livia Free of Cascade.
“It was good, we’ve done smaller meets…that was really fun to have a close jump because State, there’s a lot of competition there and I’m excited about next week,” Olson said of the Long Jump Title.
Free had a busy day herself. Second-place finish in the Long Jump, winning the 200-meter District Title, helping the 4×400 meter relay team to a fourth-place finish and helping the 4×100 meter relay team to a District Title.
Free was the anchor leg of that District winning and put an exclamation point to a successful run that saw the squad winning in 50.70, a full second ahead of the second-place team from Newport.
“We’ve been working really hard this season,” starts Free. “Locking in on our hand-offs and everything and being very encouraging coming in towards this time and keeping everyone together in the right mind space and knowing what we can do. We’re here to win and that’s what we did.”
Molli Emmert also brought home a District Title for Stayton. The two Spring Sport athlete, juggling Softball with Track, came in and threw an 36-feet-11.25-inch throw to win the District Title, which happened to be her first after finishing behind Cascade’s Kalin Saechao.
“You just keep on working, I also play Softball so I’m only coming to practice a few times a week, so this is just big, I’ve done a much better job staying out of my head and I think that’s helped me a lot,” Emmert said.”My Softball coach is super great and letting me do this too. Softball comes first since it’s a team sport, but my parents and the coaches are super great supports.”
The Philomath Girls Track and Field Team took the District Title with Cascade Finishing Second.
Newport’s Serenity Bacon and Philomath’s Kya Bolton went one-two int he 100-meter dash. Philomath’s Reagan Nuno won the 400-meter District Title with Cascade’s Makenna Fraser finishing second. Philomath sae Cassidy Smart win the 1,400 meter and 3,000 meter races. Sienna Bushnell alos won the 800-meter race for the Warriors.
Cascade’s Makenna Burns and Stayton’s Evelyn Welch traded the 100-meter and 300-meter hurdles. Burns winning the 100-meter hurdles and finished second in the 300-meter. Welch finished second in the 100-meter hurdles and won the 300-meter hurdles.
The Philomath 4×400 meter relay team won the District Title, Stayton was second. Philomath’s Hailey Eckhold finished second in the Shot Put behind Emmert. Newport’s Mysti Ferguson and Cascade’s Brayley Ford went one-two in the Discus. Stayton’s Mila Morley and Sweet Home’s Selah Wright went one-two in the Javelin. Cascade’s Emelia Aitabef and Philomath’s Nuno went one-two in the High Jump. Eckhold won the Pole Vault with Stayton’s Ruby Strawn finishing second.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
