The season finale for Oregon high school track athletes will be at the amazing Hayward Field.
OSAA State Meet - May 19 - 21
Hayward Field - Eugene, OR
Thursday
Not only is this the first OSAA State Meet in three years, but the first State Meet at Hayward Field in four years. The event starts with 1A, 2A, 3A events on Thursday. The 3000 meter final will be contested on this day. Kallyn Wilkins of Condon has the top seed time in the 1A 3000 with Makena Houston having the top seed time in the 2A 3000. Makena won the 1A/2A/3A cross country state championship in November. Megan Cover Catlin Gabel has the top seed in the 3A 3000 meter meet. Colin Friend of St. Stephen's Academy looks to be the class of the 1A boy's field. Colin also won the cross country 1A/2A state champion last fall. Zac Knapp of Enterprise is the favorite in the 2A championship with an impressive qualifying time of 8:47. He won the 3A state cross country title last November. Zander Moha of Warrenton enters the 3A meet with the top seed time.
Friday
Rylee Colton of Siuslaw is the top seed in the 4A 3000 and Avery Hedden of Marist and Aiya Larsen of Newport can give Rylee a challenge. Emily Wisniewski of Crescent Valley is the top seed with 10:12 qualifying time and is also the cross country 5A champion. Kaiya Robertson of Franklin enters with the top time and will be pushed by the Oregon Relays 3000 champion Charlotte Richman of Ida B Wells and the 2021 Oregon 6A cross country champion Kate Peters of Lake Oswego. The 4A boys 3000 looks to be a battle between Alexander Garcia-Silver of Marshfield, who won the 4A state cross country championship last fall, Samuel Ulrich of Siuslaw and Chad Hughes of Siuslaw. Tyrone Gorze of Crater is the class of the 5A field in the 3000 as he has raced in big high school races and with college and professional athletes during the indoor and outdoor season. The 6A boy's 3000 is sort of a repeat of the Oregon Relays with Caleb Lakeman of Tualatin winning the race in 8:10. Charlie North of Franklin and Benjamin Balazs of Sunset were not in that race and can add some drama to the race.
Later on Friday evening, the 1A/2A/3A meet continues with the 1500 and 800 finals. Olyvia Oeverman of St. Stephen's Academy and Kallyn Wilkins of Condon are the two favorites in the 1A girls 1500. Makena Houston of Columbia Christian ran a quality qualifying time of 4:48 and is the favorite in the 2A 1500. Riley Morris of Burns is the top seed in the girl's 1500. The 1500 favorites in the boy's are the same as the 3000 in the boy's 1A/2A/3A. Look for Colin Friend of St. Stephen's Academy, Zach Knapp of Enterprise and Zander Moha of Warrenton to lead the 1A/2A/3A 1500.
The 800 races go right into finals on Friday with Olyvia Oeverman of St. Stephen's Academy and Emily Powers of Damascus Christian with the same seed time of 2:31 in the 1A 800 meters. Hannah Finch of Heppner is the favorite in the 2A 800 with a qualifying time of 2:25. Mikenzy Rosen of Horizon Christian and Elizabeth Hetzler of Yamhill-Carlton share the qualifying time of 2:29. Caleb Brown of Pine Eagle could be challenged by Gabriel Morrow of St. Stephen's Academy in the boy's 1A 800 meter race. Trevor Nichols of Heppner and Alex McIntyre of Weston-McEwen enter the meet with the similar seed times. Warisso Wotcha of De La Salle North Catholic enters the 3A 800 meter race with the top qualifying time.
Saturday
The 1500 starts the 4A/5A/6A distance portion of the state meet. Teammates Jennifer Tsai and Avery Hedden of Marist enters the meet with the top qualifying time in the girl's 4A 1500 meter race. Haleh Blaine of West Albany is the top qualifier in the girl's 5A 1500 and will be pushed by Emily Wisniewski of Crescent Valley and Isabel Swain of North Salem. The top qualifying time for the 6A 1500 was achieved by Kate Peters and Chloe Foerster of Jesuit and Kaiya Robertson ran a close mile at the Jesuit Twilight Relays and will make for a greats 1500. Henry Tierney of Valley Catholic is the big time favorite in the 4A 1500 with a qualifying time of 3:54. Tyrone Gorze of Crater will have company in the 5A 1500 with Logan Law of Milwaukie and teammate Josiah Tostenson of Crater. Caleb Lakeman of Tualatin won the Jesuit Twilight Relays and makes him the favorite, but the 6A 1500 is deep with challengers.
The 800 meter races have prelims and the favorites based on qualifying times will need to make it through for Saturday. Haley Butenschoen of Stayton has the top qualifying time in the 4A 800. Ava McKee of Crescent Valley and Haley Blaine have similar qualifying times in the girl's 5A 800. Back in April, Chloe Foerster of Jesuit finished ahead of Maggie Williams of Summit at the Oregon Relays. They get a possible rematch on Saturday in the 6A 800 meter race. Henry Tierney of Valley Catholic will attempt the 1500/800 double win in the 4A division. The 5A 800 meter boy's race is up for grabs as there are four boys within a second of each other. Kanoa Blake of Crescent Valley has the fastest qualifying time. Parker Waugh of Barlow and Tommy O'Neil of Canby have 1:53 qualifying times in the 6A 800 meter race.
We will be there for Friday and Saturday's distance races and look for photos!