For Summit's girls track team, 5A team titles are a rite of passage.
Each of the last 14 seasons the Storm has competed in 5A has ended with a blue trophy, interrupted only by its four-year move to 6A from 2019 to 2022.
Keeping that streak alive this season, though, is going to be complicated, according to coach Dave Turnbull.
“We've got enough talent returning, but we have massive holes,” Turnbull said. “To think we're not going to score a point in the jumps, that's a lot. It certainly opens the door for other programs to take that streak away from us. That's motivation for us.”
Summit's girls team is fighting a numbers battle. Of the 203 athletes out for track at Summit, about 30 percent are girls.
“This is the lightest amount of girls we've ever had on the team,” Turnbull said. “Flag football took a bunch of them. We have 11 spring sports at Summit, and we're going to be declining on the girls side for sure over the years.”
The Storm's girls team has the foundation to contend, led by an experienced distance crew.
Juniors Sophia Capozzi and Skye Knox – who placed fifth and 16th, respectively, in the 5A cross country meet – must show the way. Last year, Knox finished third in the 800 meters and fifth in the 3,000. Capozzi took fourth in the 3,000 and eighth in the 1,500.
Senior sprinter Abigail Fagan placed fourth in the 200 and sixth in the 100. She also was part of a state champion 4x100 relay that included senior Kalia Durfee, who should help bolster a depleted sprint corps.
Junior Anna Millikan was the state runner-up in the javelin last season. Turnbull said that Millikan, who threw 152 feet, 2 inches in July, should be in the 160s this season, which would put her in the state's all-time top 10.
The Storm needs newcomers such as freshman Ruth Gobershock, who triple-jumped 34-4 ½ in her first meet, to rise up.
“If we continue winning, we're just getting really creative, because we don't have the ability to stay at that competitive level with limited kids,” Turnbull said. “We're not a very big school anyways. We're going to be scraping and scrapping.”
Summit's boys team, which joined the girls in winning back-to-back state titles the last two seasons, was hit hard by graduation. The four jumpers who racked up big points at state last year have all moved on, including champions Collin Moore (high jump) and Noah Goodrich (triple jump).
“We're definitely not the favorite this year,” Turnbull said. “We're going to do the best we can to get on the podium. But we might be a few horses short when it comes down to it.”
Senior Hayden Boaz, the 5A cross country runner-up, took fourth in the 1,500 and 3,000 at state last year. The other returning state placers are senior Nicholas Leary (sixth-200) and junior Matthew Hazelwood (seventh-discus).
A large, talented freshman class holds great promise. It includes 6-foot-3, 250-pound thrower Peter Stanley.
“I guarantee he'll break our discus and shot records, it's just a matter of time,” Turnbull said. “I can't remember a freshman class this strong ever on the boys side. That 2005 group that won state, that's what this freshman class is like.”
Turnbull, who is nearing retirement, said he told the freshmen that he will go out with them.
“I love this freshman class. I'm going to mark my territory with my freshman class,” he said. “In my last year, if I could, I'd sure like to go out with a couple of state championships. Or at least one.”
Kingsmen Icebreaker
Sandy swept the team titles in the Kingsmen Icebreaker on March 19 at Putnam.
The Pioneers scored 108 points to edge Centennial (106.5) and McNary (106) in the 10-team boys meet. Sandy put up 91 points to hold off Barlow (88.5) and St. Mary's Academy (87.5) in the 11-team girls field.
Sandy's boys got wins from junior Jasiah Cochran (long jump, triple jump), sophomore Topher Gabel (high jump) and the 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams.
Barlow junior Giovanni Bogarin posted wins in the 100, 200 and 400. McNary sophomore Derek Olivo took the shot and discus.
Sandy senior Lilley Wedell won the 800 and ran a leg on the first-place 4x400 relay. Junior Anna Orlowski (shot) also claimed a victory for the Pioneers.
Catlin Gabel junior Ella Bulkley won the 100 and 200.
Crater Classic
Crater senior Ivar Hokanson and junior Preston Schmidt recorded two of the state's best times in the 3,000 to help the Comets win the seven-team Crater Classic on March 20.
Hokanson (8:46.45) finished three seconds ahead of Schmidt (8:49.58) to win the event. Their times rank second and third in the state this season.
The Comets outscored Eagle Point 146-109 in the boys meet. Crater's girls scored 143 points to pull away from second-place South Medford (89).
Comets junior Reese Garnica won the 800 in 2:17.69, the top girls time in the state this season. Sophomore Brynn Davenport and junior Claire Davenport won the 3,000 and high jump, respectively, with performances that rank No. 4 in the state.
Shot breakthrough
Estacada senior Abby Behrman, the 4A runner-up in the shot last season, posted a breakthrough PR in her first meet of the season.
Behrman threw the shot 41-6 in the Molalla Invitational on Saturday. It is the best mark in the state this season and improved on her previous best of 39-2 ½, set at last year's state meet.
jerryu@osaa.org
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