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Sweet Home spoils North Bend championship hopes
By John Gunther, Sports Editor
Monday, May 26, 2008 | No comments posted.
EUGENE — North Bend track coach Steve Greif found himself trying to keep things in perspective for a group of standout athletes for the second straight year at the state meet on Saturday in Eugene.
Just as had happened in 2007, the North Bend boys found themselves holding the second-place trophy after being passed in the final event, the 4x400-meter relay. This time Sweet Home’s fourth-place finish in that race was enough to cap a stellar day that saw the Huskies rally for a one-point victory over the Bulldogs, who had led since the start of the three-day meet.
While the Huskies, led by their star Dakotah Keys, were celebrating, several of North Bend’s athletes wore long faces.
Greif was not among them.
“My first four years as head coach, we didn’t bring one boy to the state meet,” Greif said of the start of his tenure in the mid-1990s. “I’m putting things in perspective.”
Though North Bend ended up with its third second-place trophy in the last five years, the team has emerged into one of the great programs in the state and should be proud of that, Greif said.
“Here’s the most important thing,” he said. “Last year, I challenged seven boys to get back here — to stay eligible and stay healthy. And they did it.
“I can’t be disappointed.”
And, as Greif noted, Sweet Home performed better than expected to rally for the victory.
“Just like last year, when Marist earned it,” he said. “This year, they knew what they had to do and Sweet Home earned it.”
North Bend entered the day with 46 points — 30 more than the Huskies. Trevor Berrian and Spenser Lynass added nine points by finishing fourth and fifth in the 1,500, while Travis Berrian was seventh in the high hurdles for two more points.
Sweet Home cut into the lead with a second-place finish by Keys in the javelin and then a runner-up effort in the 4x100-meter relay, where the Huskies were edged by Central. Keys later finished second in both the hurdles races and Land Florek was fourth in the 400 meters.
That set the stage for the 4x400-meter relay, with Sweet Home’s squad knowing it needed at least a fourth-place finish to win the title outright — the Huskies and Bulldogs would have tied if Sweet Home finished fifth.
Sweet Home was sixth after the second leg, but freshman Alex Santana caught the team up two places on the third leg and Florek held that position to the finish.
“I was thinking I had to go as hard as I could,” said Santana, the key runner on the team that set a season best for the second straight day, finishing in 3:26.99. Before the state meet, the fastest Sweet Home had run all season without Keys, who did four individual events at state, was 3:29.87.
“Our guys worked really hard,” said Florek. “We said we were nervous. We did a little prayer and we pulled through.”
All North Bend could do was watch, which wasn’t easy.
“We worked hard all season,” said senior Lane Seals, one of the team’s leaders. “We just came up a little short at the end.
“It was pretty rough watching the end of that last race. Keys is a stud.”
North Bend’s team, too, is full of talented athletes, a fact that might easily have been lost in Sweet Home’s celebration.
Greif clicked off some of the Bulldogs’ accomplishments at state. Lane Davison broke his own school record while winning the pole vault. Though he finished second in the event, Seals jumped 46 feet in the triple jump — better than his winning mark two years ago and the mark of last year’s champion. He also beat his own winning mark in the long jump last year while finishing fourth in that event. Trevor Berrian ran the third fastest time in school history while finishing fourth in the 1,500 on Saturday.
“We had some great marks,” he said.
Elliot Adams won the school’s first-ever title in the shot put and had the school’s best finish in the discus in recent years. Travis Berrian’s finish in the high hurdles came after he missed nearly the entire season to an injury and just getting to the state meet was an accomplishment. Lynass finished second in the 3,000 and fifth in the 1,500 despite having about four quality workouts, including meets, in the last two weeks because of a possible stress fracture in his lower left leg that he refused to see a doctor for because he might have been told he couldn’t finish the season.
The only Bulldog who didn’t score Saturday, high jumper Luke Clark, was a first-year high school track athlete who had to sit around more than two days waiting for his event and hadn’t been able to practice since Wednesday — not ideal conditions for essentially a track rookie.
Lynass and Trevor Berrian walked away happy from the 1,500 in the early afternoon Saturday.
Phoenix junior Elliott Jantzer won the race in 3:58.53, followed by Siuslaw’s Travis Stevens in 4:00.96 and Marist’s Matt Hollander in 4:01.69. Berrian was timed in 4:02.27 and Lynass in 4:04.73.
“We scored quite a few points for our team,” Lynass said.
Berrian, who got badly boxed in during a physical 800 that saw him cross the line exhausted in eighth place, was much more pleased after the 1,500.
“That’s my first PR this year in the 1,500,” he said. “I’m really glad.”
Stevens, meanwhile, was ecstatic after setting a new best while finishing second two days after placing third in the 1,500.
“I couldn’t be happier,” he said. “I knew I had something like that in me. I didn’t want to walk away from this race thinking I had anything left in me.”
Travis Berrian later had mixed emotions about his high hurdles race, disappointed about his finish, but happy for the experience after his earlier injury.
“It’s awesome,” he said of the state meet. “I should be just happy to get to run here.”
Both Berrian brothers showed respect for Sweet Home and acknowledged North Bend’s success.
“They’re a good team,” Travis said. “They kind of came out of nowhere.”
“Whether we win or not, we did our best,” Trevor said.
The only other SouthCoast boy to place Saturday was Siuslaw’s Kody Reavis, who took fourth in the javelin.
The South Coast teams finished out of the running for trophies in the girls meet. North Bend was 11th, four points in front of Siuslaw.
Individually, Siuslaw’s Raelyn Robinson completed an outstanding freshman season by running to fourth place in the 1,500 meters.
“That was good,” said Robinson, after finishing the race in 4:53.98. “It’s pretty good for a freshman.”
North Bend’s girls, meanwhile, got nine points from a trio of sixth-place finishes Saturday.
North Bend’s Jessianne Heley got her second medal of the meet in the event, dipping under 5 minutes for the first time to finish in 4:59.66.
“I’m happy with it,” Heley said. “It’s kind of weird thinking it’s my last high school race, though.”
Heley will compete next for Eastern Oregon University. She will be a heptathlete in the spring, but first will run cross country for the Mountaineers in the fall.
“I’m going to like that,” she said.
Henley’s sensational junior Taylor Wallace won the 1,500 with a time of 4:33.79, the best of any of the girls in all three classifications Saturday.
North Bend’s Kayla Yokbay received her medal before many of the fans got to Hayward Field.
Throwing in the bright morning sunshine, Yokbay finished sixth in the javelin with a mark of 117 feet, 9 inches.
“I’m very happy I got sixth,” said Yokbay, who did not get a medal in her first trip to state last year.
Like many athletes Saturday, she also was pleased to see blue skies after two days of overcast or rainy conditions.
“I’m so thankful it’s sunny,” she said.
Gladstone’s Nikki Ramsey won the event with a big throw of 133-1 on her final attempt.
North Bend’s third medal came from Kristina Hossley, who was sixth in the 300-meter hurdles, running her second straight strong race in the event.
“I’m really happy with that,” said Hossley, a sophomore who had never run the event before April.
“In the beginning, I didn’t think I could run the 300 hurdles,” said Hossley, adding that she first tried it at North Bend’s Frosh-Soph Invitational “to do something new.”
Henley won the girls team title by a half-point over Astoria when Wallace anchored the Hornets to victory in the final relay.
The Class 6A titles went to Jesuit’s girls and Barlow’s boys.
Just as had happened in 2007, the North Bend boys found themselves holding the second-place trophy after being passed in the final event, the 4x400-meter relay. This time Sweet Home’s fourth-place finish in that race was enough to cap a stellar day that saw the Huskies rally for a one-point victory over the Bulldogs, who had led since the start of the three-day meet.
While the Huskies, led by their star Dakotah Keys, were celebrating, several of North Bend’s athletes wore long faces.
Greif was not among them.
“My first four years as head coach, we didn’t bring one boy to the state meet,” Greif said of the start of his tenure in the mid-1990s. “I’m putting things in perspective.”
Though North Bend ended up with its third second-place trophy in the last five years, the team has emerged into one of the great programs in the state and should be proud of that, Greif said.
“Here’s the most important thing,” he said. “Last year, I challenged seven boys to get back here — to stay eligible and stay healthy. And they did it.
“I can’t be disappointed.”
And, as Greif noted, Sweet Home performed better than expected to rally for the victory.
“Just like last year, when Marist earned it,” he said. “This year, they knew what they had to do and Sweet Home earned it.”
North Bend entered the day with 46 points — 30 more than the Huskies. Trevor Berrian and Spenser Lynass added nine points by finishing fourth and fifth in the 1,500, while Travis Berrian was seventh in the high hurdles for two more points.
Sweet Home cut into the lead with a second-place finish by Keys in the javelin and then a runner-up effort in the 4x100-meter relay, where the Huskies were edged by Central. Keys later finished second in both the hurdles races and Land Florek was fourth in the 400 meters.
That set the stage for the 4x400-meter relay, with Sweet Home’s squad knowing it needed at least a fourth-place finish to win the title outright — the Huskies and Bulldogs would have tied if Sweet Home finished fifth.
Sweet Home was sixth after the second leg, but freshman Alex Santana caught the team up two places on the third leg and Florek held that position to the finish.
“I was thinking I had to go as hard as I could,” said Santana, the key runner on the team that set a season best for the second straight day, finishing in 3:26.99. Before the state meet, the fastest Sweet Home had run all season without Keys, who did four individual events at state, was 3:29.87.
“Our guys worked really hard,” said Florek. “We said we were nervous. We did a little prayer and we pulled through.”
All North Bend could do was watch, which wasn’t easy.
“We worked hard all season,” said senior Lane Seals, one of the team’s leaders. “We just came up a little short at the end.
“It was pretty rough watching the end of that last race. Keys is a stud.”
North Bend’s team, too, is full of talented athletes, a fact that might easily have been lost in Sweet Home’s celebration.
Greif clicked off some of the Bulldogs’ accomplishments at state. Lane Davison broke his own school record while winning the pole vault. Though he finished second in the event, Seals jumped 46 feet in the triple jump — better than his winning mark two years ago and the mark of last year’s champion. He also beat his own winning mark in the long jump last year while finishing fourth in that event. Trevor Berrian ran the third fastest time in school history while finishing fourth in the 1,500 on Saturday.
“We had some great marks,” he said.
Elliot Adams won the school’s first-ever title in the shot put and had the school’s best finish in the discus in recent years. Travis Berrian’s finish in the high hurdles came after he missed nearly the entire season to an injury and just getting to the state meet was an accomplishment. Lynass finished second in the 3,000 and fifth in the 1,500 despite having about four quality workouts, including meets, in the last two weeks because of a possible stress fracture in his lower left leg that he refused to see a doctor for because he might have been told he couldn’t finish the season.
The only Bulldog who didn’t score Saturday, high jumper Luke Clark, was a first-year high school track athlete who had to sit around more than two days waiting for his event and hadn’t been able to practice since Wednesday — not ideal conditions for essentially a track rookie.
Lynass and Trevor Berrian walked away happy from the 1,500 in the early afternoon Saturday.
Phoenix junior Elliott Jantzer won the race in 3:58.53, followed by Siuslaw’s Travis Stevens in 4:00.96 and Marist’s Matt Hollander in 4:01.69. Berrian was timed in 4:02.27 and Lynass in 4:04.73.
“We scored quite a few points for our team,” Lynass said.
Berrian, who got badly boxed in during a physical 800 that saw him cross the line exhausted in eighth place, was much more pleased after the 1,500.
“That’s my first PR this year in the 1,500,” he said. “I’m really glad.”
Stevens, meanwhile, was ecstatic after setting a new best while finishing second two days after placing third in the 1,500.
“I couldn’t be happier,” he said. “I knew I had something like that in me. I didn’t want to walk away from this race thinking I had anything left in me.”
Travis Berrian later had mixed emotions about his high hurdles race, disappointed about his finish, but happy for the experience after his earlier injury.
“It’s awesome,” he said of the state meet. “I should be just happy to get to run here.”
Both Berrian brothers showed respect for Sweet Home and acknowledged North Bend’s success.
“They’re a good team,” Travis said. “They kind of came out of nowhere.”
“Whether we win or not, we did our best,” Trevor said.
The only other SouthCoast boy to place Saturday was Siuslaw’s Kody Reavis, who took fourth in the javelin.
The South Coast teams finished out of the running for trophies in the girls meet. North Bend was 11th, four points in front of Siuslaw.
Individually, Siuslaw’s Raelyn Robinson completed an outstanding freshman season by running to fourth place in the 1,500 meters.
“That was good,” said Robinson, after finishing the race in 4:53.98. “It’s pretty good for a freshman.”
North Bend’s girls, meanwhile, got nine points from a trio of sixth-place finishes Saturday.
North Bend’s Jessianne Heley got her second medal of the meet in the event, dipping under 5 minutes for the first time to finish in 4:59.66.
“I’m happy with it,” Heley said. “It’s kind of weird thinking it’s my last high school race, though.”
Heley will compete next for Eastern Oregon University. She will be a heptathlete in the spring, but first will run cross country for the Mountaineers in the fall.
“I’m going to like that,” she said.
Henley’s sensational junior Taylor Wallace won the 1,500 with a time of 4:33.79, the best of any of the girls in all three classifications Saturday.
North Bend’s Kayla Yokbay received her medal before many of the fans got to Hayward Field.
Throwing in the bright morning sunshine, Yokbay finished sixth in the javelin with a mark of 117 feet, 9 inches.
“I’m very happy I got sixth,” said Yokbay, who did not get a medal in her first trip to state last year.
Like many athletes Saturday, she also was pleased to see blue skies after two days of overcast or rainy conditions.
“I’m so thankful it’s sunny,” she said.
Gladstone’s Nikki Ramsey won the event with a big throw of 133-1 on her final attempt.
North Bend’s third medal came from Kristina Hossley, who was sixth in the 300-meter hurdles, running her second straight strong race in the event.
“I’m really happy with that,” said Hossley, a sophomore who had never run the event before April.
“In the beginning, I didn’t think I could run the 300 hurdles,” said Hossley, adding that she first tried it at North Bend’s Frosh-Soph Invitational “to do something new.”
Henley won the girls team title by a half-point over Astoria when Wallace anchored the Hornets to victory in the final relay.
The Class 6A titles went to Jesuit’s girls and Barlow’s boys.
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