McKenzie Boys Run Away With Districts

Saturday dawned gorgeous once again in the McKenzie Valley, just in time for our 1A District Championships at the McKenzie Community Track. The sun was out, the clouds were scattering and people were pouring into parking lot by 9:00. The actual meet kicked off at 10a.m. with the start of multiple field events.

In the pole vault, McKenzie’s Rhys Hamlow cleared 9 feet 10.5 inches, a new personal record (PR), to finish 4th. First and second place were won by Logan Grassman (12’ 11.5”) and Luke Roth (12’ 8.75” PR), both of North Lake. In the girl’s pole vault, Hannah Long of Pacific cleared 8’ 0.75” to take the win.

Rhys Hamlow clearing the bar in pole vault. Kiger Plews and Brent Meister sporting the yellow officials vests. Coach Angelo on the right, cheering on his athlete.

There were some impressive performances in the shotput competition. McKenzie’s Noah Borden threw a 35’ 8.5” personal record (PR) to finish 9th. The boys winner was O’Riley Lewis of Chiloquin who threw the ball 50’ 3.5”, also a PR. Senior shotputting young lady, Beckah Short reached past her old PR with a throw of 21’6”. And our favorite German exchange student, Linn Goette, managed a great throw of 23’ 2.75”. But they couldn’t quite beat the ladies top thrower from Triangle Lake, Samara Baker who blew the field away with a 34’ ¾” cannonball shot.

Beckah Short getting to throw the shot put while Megan Weiss and Paz are working the tape

The javelin girls speared the crowd with some impressive performances, the least not being a 67’ 11” launch by the featherweight, Myra Dion. Linn Goette was right behind her with a 66’ 5” throw. The top thrower for the ladies was North Lake’s Hannah Roth with an impressive 118’ 1”, adding another medal to her win from the pole vault.

The javelin also had some good performances from the McKenzie boys. Jacob Norlund finished an impressive fifth place with his standing toss of 130’ 5”. Owen Young got a PR with a 107’ 8” throw. Chiloquin had the two top throws of the competition with Marques Hescock at 151’ 1” and Denver Bravo at 145’ 8”.

The discus had some solid attempts by the young gentlemen. Jacob Norlund reached 82’ 2” with Noah Borden mere inches behind him landing at 81’ 11”. The winner, however, sailed past them all. Cayden Hernandez from Crow threw the discus a whopping 140’ 6”! O’Riley Lewis of Chiloquin landed second at 136’8” and Marques Hescock was third with 136’ 5”.

In the ladies discus competition, Linn Goette threw a solid 60’ 11” for McKenzie. Liliana Jones was literally an inch behind her teammate with 60’ 10”. Senior Beckah Short was there as well with a 59’ 11”. But it was Chiloquin’s Lizzie Bonomo who took the girls discus title with a 110’ 1” launch.

Enough of the throwing. Time to leap into the jumping. (Bad pun)

McKenzie had three awesome ladies representing our community in the long jump. Grace Weiss leapt to 11’ 5.5” while Imani Hagins reached 10’ 3.75”. Claire Weiss landed at 13’ 9.75”. The winner for the girls was Ava Barnett of New Hope Christian. She reached an impressive 16’ 8.5”.

Claire Weiss sailing into the long jump. Tim Hooten on the far left. Sorry, not sure who the other volunteers are.

On the boys flight, McKenzie’s Auden Vailes reached 15’ 4” and Owen Young landed at 13’ 2”. The McKenzie team’s best jumper of the day was Rhys Hamlow who took eighth place in the competition with an 18’ 1” leap. The longest jump of the day, however, was from Yoncalla’s Jayden Churchwell. That boy sailed 20’ 3” to take the win.

Jayden Churchwell also took second in the triple jump with 40’ 9”. But he couldn’t beat Isaiah Ibrahim from Riddle who put forth a 41’ 8.5”effort. That was yet another PR for the day as well.

The triple jump competition saw a couple of our McKenzie girls on the runway. Beckah Short landed her leaps at 22’ 9” while Grace Weiss bounded to 25’ 11”. The overall girls winner was Ava Barnett of New Hope Christian with her 16’ 8.5”combo.

The high jump had some serious competition. On the girls side, North Lake showed it’s power with Hannah Roth clearing 5’ 1” for first and Acacia Roth reaching 4’ 10.25” for third. Sandwiched between the Lake ladies was Keira Mahan from Crosspoint Christian. She grabbed the second slot at 4’ 10.25”. In the boys competition, Jayden Churchwell of Yoncalla took yet another gold medal, soaring over the bar at 6’ 4”.

The starting gun sounded shortly after noon with the 4x400m relays. The Day’s Creek ladies had their first taste of the top medal stand with their relay win at 53.75 seconds. Shortly after that, the McKenzie boys team, Elijah Santiago, Allen Acevado, Hayden Harbick and Aytan Brown, topped the stand with an impressive 46.11 second lap to take first for the gentlemen and guarantee them each a spot in the state championship.

In the 1500m there were some great efforts. In the girls race, Jordan Zumhofe of New Hope Christian took the win in 5:19, a great PR for her. Ezra Pennel of Triangle Lake won the boys race in 4:23. Our own Will Meister finished fourth in 4:40, a new PR. Noah Prado put in a great effort with a 5:40 time.

Will Meister came back to the track to earn his own spot at the state championship with his 3000 meter performance. He finished second in 10:27. Ezra took the district title in that event too, though, with his win in 10:16.

Coach Angelo holding up an exhausted Will Meister after the 3000m

Zyla Drake and Myra Dion showed their mettle by taking on the seven and a half lap 3000m race. They finished fourth and fifth to gain a few more points for the lady Eagles. The 3000 meter girls winner was Madelin Byle of Elkton with a time of 11:58, a PR.

Myra Dion on the outside and Zyla Drake on the inside giving all they have. Pretty sure that's coach Kayla watching from the infield. Excuse me if I'm wrong.

The fastest runner of the day was McKenzie’s Aytan Brown. He wiped out the 100m field with his 11.26 second dash, yet another PR. Cannon Smithers of Cascades Academy of Central Oregon took second in 11.55 and Elkton’s Brayden Schmidt took third in 11.82 (PR).

Aytan also won the 200m in 22.49 seconds (PR) followed closely by Cannon Smithers again in 23.27 seconds.

The fastest girl of the competition was Ava Barnett from New Hope Christian. She won both the 100m (12.54 PR) and the 200m (26.54).

Claire Weiss showed her own speed in the 400 meter race, blowing the field away with a 1:03 lap. That’s another PR and a trip to state for the talented freshman. Mia Dalton of Mohawk finished second in 1:06 and Briana Huggins of Pacific took third in 1:08.

Allen Acevado doing his warmup dance.

Allen Acevado took second in the boys 400 meter race. He finished with another PR in 53.90 seconds. He was a hair behind the winner, Corbin Dalton who won in 53.66 seconds. William Valtinson, one of our McKenzie sophomores, ran a great race as well, finishing in 57.50 seconds and making it into the top 10.

In the 800 meters races, Camas Valley showed their cards. The top two ladies spots were claimed by Jaiden Adams in 2:32 and Liberty Sexton in 2:39 (PR). Both girls are from Camas Valley. Myra Dion took fifth with a 2:50 PR and Zyla Drake took sixth with a 2:52 PR. The boys 800 meters had another Camas Valley winner, Tatum Sexton. His two trips around the track only took him 2 minutes and 6 seconds.

Rhys Hamlow ran a great 110 m hurdle race, finishing fourth with a new PR of 19.10. Luke Roth of North Lake won the 110m hurdle race in 16.72. Luke also came in third in the 300m hurdle competition with a 44.01 run. He couldn’t quite beat the top two finishers in that event, Tristen Adams (41.29 PR) and Andrew Houx (43.11 PR).

Both girls hurdle races were dominated by Triangle Lake’s Samara Baker. She won the 100m in 15.56 and the 300m in 48.69.

The final race of the day was none other than the 4x400m relay. Crosspoint Christian took the win for the girls in 4:33, a new PR. The McKenzie boys sealed their victory in 3:40, also a PR.

Left to Right: Liam Acevado, Will Meister, William Valtinson, Elijah, Santiago, Aytan Brown, Allen Acevado Jacob Norlund and Noah Prado. There are a few boys missing but these are a few of our champions.

With that final race under their shoes, the McKenzie gents took the team title for the boys competition with 77 points. Elkton finished an impressive second with 65 points and Glendale made their mark taking third place with 60 points.

The ladies of North Lake took the team title for the girls competition with 86 points. They were followed by New Hope Christian with 60 points and Crosspoint Christian with 59 points.

Over the course of the day, there were 135 new PR’s for the boys and 97 new PR’s set for the girls who competed for a total of 232 new personal records in one day. This is truly amazing. It says a lot about the coaches, facilities and mainly the kids and shows how when everyone works together we can all move forward.

Congratulations to everyone who competed. Whether you won or not, you toed the line and that takes courage.

Good luck to all the athletes going to the state championships next weekend at Hayward Field. May the weather gods have mercy and your shoes stay dry!

And most of all… Thank you to all our volunteers!!

** All Photos are courtesy of Liliana Jones and Myra Dion.