Clatskanie track excels as icebreaker hosts

Getting the season's "first marks," the Clatskanie track and field team hosted its Twilight Icebreaker on March 21. "This season, we have around 40 athletes participating and we are excited to have such a large team," said Coach Tim Van Voorst. "We have quite a few new athletes that we are looking forward to seeing how they progress throughout the season." Returning 20 athletes from last year, including four who competed at state in 2024, the team saw plenty of personal records set last Friday.

Lacey Willis had first-place finishes and personal records in the Women's 100M and 200M with times of 13.58 and 28.81 respectively. Natalie Baker came away with a first-place finish and personal record as well with her time of 2:47.01 in the Women's 800M. Baker also took third in the Women's 100M with a personal record time of 13.92. Mya Jensen finished second in the Women's 200M with a time of 29.88 and fourth in the Women's 100M with a time of 14.23. Mai Lowe took fourth place in both the Women's 800M and 1500M with times of 3:20.38 and 6:48.49 respectively. Rainey Palm had a fourth-place finish in the Women's 400M with a time of 1:15.46, and Caselyn Thompson took fourth in the Women's 100M Hurdles with a personal-record time of 21.25. Paytan Ward took sixth in the Women's 200M with a personal-record time of 31.27, while Josephine Byrne took sixth in the Women's 400M with a time of 1:24.73 and Angelica Todd finished sixth in the Women's 800M with a time of 3:29.74. Rounding out the top-10 finishes for the girls in individual competition was Maria Altafina, whose personal-record time of 32.64 was good enough for 10th in the Women's 200M.

Switching over to the boys, Ayden Blackshire had a personal best in his second-place finish in the Men's 100M with a time of 12.12. Finishing right behind Blackshire was Daylon Gutierrez, whose personal-record time of 12.13 earned him third place in the Men's 100M. Aidan Bailey also managed a third-place finish with his personal-record time of 24.79 in the Men's 200M. Bailey also had a fifth-place finish with his personal-record time of 12.23 in the Men's 100M. Ryder Gorley was the last of the top-three finishers for the boys on the individual side with a time of 46.30 in the Men's 300M Hurdles. Gorley also finished ninth in the Men's 100M with a personal-record time of 12.52. Spain Bocanegra finished fifth in the Men's 3000M with a time of 11:29.76 and ninth in the Men's 1500M with a time of 5:20.40. Zach Swinford's personal-record time of 1:02.94 was good enough for seventh place in the Men's 400M. Rounding out the top-10 finishes in boys competition were Jason Miller and Zion Ausmus, who finished eighth and 10th respectively in the Men's 800M with times of 2:43.13 and 2:53.10.

For the girls in team competition, the quartet of Baker, Jensen, Willis and Palm finished second in the Women's 4X100 Relay with a time of 54.99 while Baker, Kiera Caceres, Byrne, and Lowe had a fourth-place finish in the Women's 4X400 Relay with a time of 5:09.11. The team of Grace Hadley, Maria Altafina, Caceres, and Ward had a sixth-place finish in the Women's 4X100 Relay with a time of 59.98. In their respective team competition, the quartet of Bailey, Gutierrez, Blackshire, and Gorley had a first-place finish in the Men's 4X100 Relay with a time of 47.05, while Mickey Simpson, Swinford, Miller, and Bailey took fourth in the Men's 4X400 Relay with a time of 4:07.64.

Switching over to the "field" portion of the Icebreaker, Willis took first in the Women's High Jump with a leap of 4 feet, 10 inches. Elle Tompkins took fourth in the 4 Kg Shot Put with her 26 foot, 2 inch effort, followed closely behind by Sami Stebbins' distance of 25 feet, 5 inches and Thompson's distance of 23 feet, 6 inches. Jensen managed a fourth-place finish in the 1Kg Discus with a distance of 75 feet, 4 inches, and Julianna Erickson and Tomkins managed sixth and seventh respectively in the same event with distances of 69 feet, 9 inches and 69 feet, 5 inches. Erickson had a fifth-place finish in the Javelin with a distance of 83 feet, 11 inches, followed by Tomkins' eighth-place finish with a distance of 72 feet, 3 inches. Ward rounded out the girls' top-10 finishes with a leap of 11 feet, 9 inches in the Women's Long Jump.

The boys had their fair share of top-10 finishes in the field as well, beginning with Blackshire, whose distance of 37 feet, 6 inches was good enough for first in the Men's 12 lb. Shot Put. Blackshire also came in fifth in the Men's 800 g Javelin with a distance of 116 feet, 1 inch. Gutierrez also finished first for the boys with a leap of 36 feet, 4 inches in the Men's Triple Jump. Gutierrez also took sixth in the Men's High Jump with a leap of 5 feet. Tristan Bocanegra finished second in the Men's 1.6 Kg Discus with a distance of 100 feet, 4 inches; sixth in the Men's 12 lb. Shot Put with a distance of 33 feet, 11.5 inches; and seventh in the Men's 800 g Javelin with a distance of 112 feet, 7 inches. Quin May managed to take away a third-place finish in the Men's Pole Vault with a personal-record height of 9 feet and finished seventh in the Men's High Jump with a leap of 5 feet. Braydon took third in the Men's High Jump with a height of 5 feet, 4 inches and took fourth in the Men's Long Jump with a personal-record height of 17 feet, 3 inches. Gorley finished fourth in the Men's High Jump with a height of 5 feet, 2 inches. Gavin Larson took third in the Men's Triple Jump with a distance of 34 feet, 1 inch and took ninth in the Men's Long Jump with a distance of 15 feet, 9 inches. Rounding out the boys' top-10 finishes was Eli House, whose personal-record distance of 32 feet, 7 inches was good enough for 10th in the Men's 12lb. Shot Put. "Our team goal this meet was for everyone to go home with a mark or time in each of their events," said Van Voorst. "We are happy that almost everyone finished with a mark."

The team's next meet will be Thursday, April 3, at Dick Manick Field in Clatskanie.