Thurston's Raven, Churchill's Fields take top honors in 5A long jump Friday

Thurston junior Breanna Raven had the best view in the stadium Friday morning as she stood atop the podium at newly renovated Hayward Field with a championship medal around her neck.

“It’s amazing. There’s no other track like it,” she said. “It feels good. I’m very excited about it.”

Raven kicked off the Class 6A/5A/4A 5A Track & Field State Championships by winning the Class 5A girls long jump with a mark of 18 feet, which was 2½ inches short of her personal best but still enough to top the field, with Zoe Dunn of The Dalles finishing second at 17-4. In reality, Raven would have won the state title with four of her six jumps, going 17-4½ on her second attempt, 17-9¼ on her third and 17-7½ on her final try.

“I was ready for anything,” Raven said. “I wanted to PR. My biggest competition is me. I wanted to beat me and I got real close. I just wanted to get in the 18s and I did that, so I’m really happy.”

Raven’s busy weekend continued with a qualifying heat in the 200 meters, which she won in 25.51 seconds. She will return Saturday for finals in the 200, triple jump and 4x100 relay.

“It’s busy but it’s a lot of fun,” she said.

Churchill's Nathan Fields captures 5A long jump title

Churchill senior Nathan Fields added another piece of hardware to his trophy case Friday. The reigning 5A triple jump champion, Fields took home this year’s long jump title with a winning leap of 22-5½. Crescent Valley’s Mason Martin finished second at 21-7¼.

“I was just trying to see what I could do, see if I could (make an adjustment) at the start of the jump and it worked,” said Fields, who will defend his triple jump title Saturday and also compete in the 110- and 300-meter hurdles finals.

“It’s actually really nice. I’m glad they have (long jump and triple jump) on two separate days because both jumps on the same day would be kind of overwhelming,” he said. “I’m just hoping to do what I’ve been doing all season and hopefully pop a 46 or 47 (foot jump).”

Marshfield's vaulting crew impresses with top honors

Marshfield continued its legacy of producing top vaulters, with Jonathon Parks leading the Pirates to a 1-3-4 finish in the 4A boys pole vault.

With the Hayward Field crowd cheering him on, Parks cleared 14-9 to win the competition and then took three cracks at 15-1 before heading to the podium to accept his state championship medal. Teammate Danner Wilson finished third with a personal-best clearance of 14-3 and fellow Pirate Trent Summers was fourth at 14-0.

“I was like, ‘I know I can make this.’ I was thinking, it’s going to be so awesome when I clear it with the (Hayward) claps,” Parks said. “As I’m going over I could just feel the whole arena around me. It definitely helped to get me over it because I was running out of adrenaline, and it was starting to hurt.”

Summers, a junior, has a PR of 15-5 in the pole vault, and Parks, a sophomore, has come tantalizingly close to clearing 15 feet with a top mark of 14-11¼. Wilson is also a sophomore, giving the Pirates a stacked vaulting crew for the next few years.

“They push me so much, especially (Danner) because I’m always scared that he’s just going to catch me one day, so I have to keep working hard. And I’m constantly chasing (Trent) so that makes it even harder,” Parks said of his two friends and training partners.

As for his three failed attempts at 15-1, Parks said that he was at least partially going for style points.

“They were actually pretty solid for what I was trying to go for. I’m trying to clear it on a foot-smaller pole than the bar because I think it would look better for the records,” said Parks, who grips his pole that's around 13-6. “I don’t want some kids coming in a couple of years and trying to break (the record) on like a 16-foot pole – going over it just doesn’t look as good. I just want to show people that you don’t have to use a big pole for that height.”

'I just wanted to go out there and lead and see what happens'

Marshfield junior Alexander Garcia-Silver won a state cross country title back in the fall and he turned in a gutsy effort in the 4A boys 3,000 meters on Friday, going out hard at the start and leading the entire race before being overtaken at the line by Elwood Hosking of Phoenix.

Hosking won in 8:34.56 and Garcia-Silver took second in 8:35.45. Siuslaw teammates Samuel Ulrich (8:53.12) and Chad Hughes (9:05.21) finished third and fifth, respectively.

“I expected that Elwood would try to go with me, but you never know what’s going to happen,” said Garcia-Silver, who collapsed in an exhausted heap after crossing the finish line.

“I just wanted to go out there and try to win and just run as hard as I can. Being from Marshfield I’ve got to represent. Pre went out there balls to the wall, and I just wanted to go out there and lead and see what happens," he said about running legend Steve Prefontaine, who went to Marshfield. "It’s sad coming up with second place, but you can’t get mad. I’m the only one who gets to finish second. I’m sure there are a lot of other guys who would have wanted to run as well as I have.”

The momentum from his cross country victory in the fall was largely wiped out this winter when Garcia-Silver struggled through a string of illnesses. That curtailed much of his early training during this track season, and it was clear that his stamina was fading as Hosking reeled him in on the home stretch.

“He’s an 800 guy so he’s got a lot of speed,” Garcia-Silver said. “Honestly the speed work (for me) hasn’t really been there. I had long COVID in January and February, then I got bronchitis after that, so I’m only into my sixth week of training. In six weeks, running 8:35 solo and leading the whole thing, it just shows what I can do.”

New state records made in 100 meters, 100 hurdles, long jump

Several state meet records fell during Friday’s preliminary track events.

• Lake Oswego sophomore Mia Brahe-Pedersen ran 11.66 in the 6A girls 100 meters to smash the 15-year-old record of 11.90. Lake Oswego teammate Kate Peters, who won the Eugene half marathon last month, obliterated the state meet record in the 3,000 with a time of 9:25.15. That was seven seconds faster than the previous mark and just half a second off the all-time state record of 9:24.86.

• Two Oregon City athletes broke state meet records Friday. Senior Harley Daniel ran 14.05 in the 100 hurdles to break the previous record of 14.14, which had stood since 2007. Junior Sophia Beckmon did her one better, posting a mark of 20-1½ to win the long jump and break the previous record of 19-8½. In the process, she become the first Oregon female high schooler to ever jump beyond 20 feet in competition.

Saturday’s final day of competition begins with field finals at 9:30 a.m., and the 4x100 relay will be the first track event at 12:30 p.m., followed by finals in all other track events.

Follow Zack Palmer on Twitter @zpalmer_11 or email at zpalmer@registerguard.com.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Jumpers, vaulters shine in Class 6A/5A/4A state track and field meet