EUGENE — Marshfield’s boys track and field team put its title hopes on Kruse control Friday at the state meet in Eugene.

Caleb Kruse finished second in the triple jump before winning both his preliminary heats in the hurdles, and Blake Kemp also placed in the triple jump and easily qualified for today’s hurdles finals.

Kruse popped a lifetime-best jump of 47 feet, 1⁄2 inch on his second attempt of the triple jump. He then improved to 47-31⁄2 on his final attempt of the preliminaries.

Summit’s Matson Hardie passed him on the final attempt with a leap of 47-71⁄2.

Kruse’s final jump of 47-11⁄4 was just short.

“It’s a rerun from last year,” said Kruse, who also was second in the event in 2008.

He said his frustration from the triple jump was somewhat offset by having the hurdles events and relay.

“Just because I have other events, I feel a little bit better,” Kruse said.

Hardie, meanwhile, had entered the event as the favorite, and came away relieved by his final effort.

“I was nervous as hell,” he said. “I felt like I needed to bring the energy and I did.”

Hardie said his concern stemmed from what is expected to be a tight team race.

“I felt the pressure,” he said. “I was more thinking of myself and helping the team.”

Summit gained one point on Marshfield in the triple jump.

First place was worth 10 points for Hardie, while Kruse got eight points for his second-place finish and Blake Kemp added one point by finishing eighth.

“It wasn’t my best,” Kemp said of his mark of 42-93⁄4. “At least I made it to the finals.”

The event also helped loosen Kemp up for the later hurdles preliminaries.

“It was a good warm-up,” he said.

In the high hurdles, Kruse won his heat in 14.62, while Kemp was second in his heat in 15.32.

In the longer race, both Kruse and Kemp easily won their heats to take the top two seeds into today’s final.

Early in the day, Kruse and Kemp helped Marshfield advance to the final in the 4x100-meter relay. They combined with teammates Levi Meline and Shane Daly for a time of 44.38, which was second to Crater in the heat and fifth-best overall.

The Pirates caught a break in that event when Summit was disqualified.

Marshfield also had two placers in the field events.

Chris Krajcir had a one-foot improvement in the pole vault, clearing 12-6 to place sixth and continue a Marshfield tradition of excellence in the event. The Pirates have had seven different state champions in the event in the past decade and Moriah Roberge is favored to repeat as girls champion today.

“I’ve got another year,” Krajcir said. “Hopefully, I’ll get better. I’ll come back more committed.”

Krajcir easily cleared his first several heights, but said he might have made a mistake in his choice for where to enter the competition.

“I came in a little too early,” he said. “I was a little tired at the end.”

Meanwhile, Chris Cordova placed eighth in the shot put, though he wasn’t happy with his performance.

“I had no good throws,” said Cordova, whose best effort of the day was 45-6, a quarter-inch better than the ninth-place finisher.

“It’s too bad,” Cordova said. “All last week, I was throwing 49 in practice.”

On Friday, 49 feet would have been good for fourth place.

Hermiston took the first-day lead with 23 points, while Summit was third with 18 after getting a second-place finish from Owen Quon in the pole vault, and the Pirates sixth with 13. Klamath Union and Crater, two of the other teams expected to contend for the title, had 10 and eight, respectively.

Marshfield had two girls in competition Friday, though neither placed.

Brenna Vickrey failed to clear a height in the high jump and Tori Scott finished 11th in the 3,000.

In addition to Roberge in the pole vault, the Pirates have MaKenzie Scott in the triple jump and Hannah Francis in the discus.

Klamath Union led Sherwood by one point after the first day of the girls competition after Katey Choukalos won the long jump and finished fourth in the high jump.

Class 6A

Many of the loudest cheers Friday came for a pair of Class 6A athletes in the field events.

Barlow’s Ryan Crouser broke the meet record in the shot put with a heave of 66-11⁄4, and also won the discus with a toss of 183-2.

Meanwhile, Jared Hippler of Oregon City won the pole vault by clearing 16-3.

Barlow led the boys competition with 23 points, while Jesuit was in front for the girls with 25.5, including 21 in the 3,000 meters, where Annamarie Magg won with a time of 9:59.28 and two of her teammates finished third and fourth.