The Adrian’s girls track and field team won the state 1A championship in competition in Eugene.
Reagan Shira, Adrian’s third-year head track coach, said the season “came together” for the team after it finished as a runner-up at state last year.
Shira said this year’s squad, talented and hardworking, had been fighting injuries all season.
“We knew we had a shot,” he said. “It was just about getting the kids to the line healthy.”
But when it mattered, each athlete contributed, allowing the Antelopes to win with the title Friday, May 17, with 68 points, four points ahead of Imbler.
Junior Addy Martin, whose season was shortened by an ankle injury from basketball, won state titles in the 100-, 200- and 400-meter races, while her teammate Presley Speelmon, a senior, won the 1500-meter run.
Martin said heading to state this year felt much more exciting because the team had just four girls. Not only that, Martin said, but they’ve all grown up together.
Speelmon said she was “in the zone” heading into her race. She said with Friday’s competition being the last of her high school career, there were” a lot of emotions.”
“This was my last time putting on a green jersey and this was my last time at Hayward Field and my last time having the support in the community that I’ve grown up in and raised me,” she said. “There were a lot of emotions overall, but it’s worth it when you think of all the hard work that you put into it.”
She also took home a second-place medal in the 800-meter run.
Speelmon’s six-day-a-week training regimen includes an occasional eight-mile roundtrip run to school and jogs around her family’s feed lots.
Speelmon said she plans to attend Utah State University, study physical therapy and try out for the college’s track and field team.
Kiara Rios, an Adrian sophomore, took second in the 400-meter race, which, according to Shira, put up team points that helped lift the team to the title.
The 4×400 relay team of Rios, Speelmon, Martin and Rylee Ready also placed second.
For Adrian’s boys, Colten Bayes, a junior, won the triple jump. Meanwhile, his teammate Silvestre Rico took second in the triple jump.
In other competition, Lindsay Talbot, a freshman from Harper Charter, took the state 1A championships in the triple jump and the 100- and 300-meter hurdle races.
The Vale boys track team finished second at state, scoring 69 points behind champion Valley Catholic’s 74.
Viking Brooks Haueter won the 3A discus championship.
Other top finishers at state for Vale: Spur Jacobs: 800-meter run (2nd), Trevor Stewart: 3000-meter run (2nd), Haylee Cleaver: 100-meter dash (3rd), Diesel Johnson: (3rd), high jump, Colten Stepleton, Jacobs, Kase Schaffeld and Sklyer Cade: 4×400 relay (2nd)
From Nyssa: Julianna Bowns: triple jump (2nd), Ambrie Draper: pole vault (3rd)
From Ontario: Isabella Chiara: 200-meter dash (3rd)
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