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Sports update: PIL athletes win state titles in track & field, golf
5/21/2018Athletes from the Portland Interscholastic League won Class 6A state championships in track and field and golf last week, led by a Benson High School sophomore who took two titles with record performances.
Boys track and field: Benson’s Micah Williams showed why he is considered one of the state’s rising stars as he not only won championships the 100- and 200-meter dash, but broke the meet record in both races Saturday at Hayward Field in Eugene.
Williams won the 100 in 10.42 seconds to beat the runner-up by 0.24 seconds. Williams broke the meet record of 10.48, set by Aloha’s Thomas Tyner in 2011. Williams then took the 200 in 21.19 seconds, winning by 0.38 and breaking the meet record of 21.20, set by Crater’s Jack Galpin in 2011.
Two PIL distance runners exchanged wins in the meet’s longest races. On Friday, Franklin senior Will Eaton won his first state title as he prevailed in the 3,000 meters in 8 minutes, 31.83 seconds. Wilson senior Alex Slenning, the state champion in cross country, finished second in 8:32.42.
Slenning turned the tables Saturday, winning the 1,500 in 3:55.96, just ahead of Eaton, who finished second in 3:56.27.
Lincoln senior Sawyer Christopher won his second consecutive title in the javelin. His mark on his first attempt, 199-8, held up as the winning throw. Last year, Christopher’s winning throw was 189-11.
Williams’ effort helped Benson finish as the high PIL entrant in the team scores. The Techmen finished sixth with 27 points; West Salem won the team title with 60 points.
Girls track and field: Grant senior Judith Baxter Game won a state title for the second year in a row, this time with a personal best in the triple jump.
On Saturday, Baxter Game won the triple jump for the first time as four of her attempts produced what would have been the winning mark. With her second attempt, Baxter Game went 38 feet, 5½ inches, to win the title (the runner-up’s best mark was 37-3). On her final attempt, Baxter Game set a state-wide season best, going 39-7¾.
Lincoln was the top PIL team finisher. The Cardinals, behind third-place finishes in both the 1,500 and 3,000 by junior Kyla Becker, finished fifth with 34.6 points. Jesuit won the title with 92 points.
Boys golf: Lincoln junior Nate Stember, a junior, became the 10th boys golf champion from the PIL, and third from Lincoln, as he won the Class 6A tournament by four shots at Emerald Valley Golf Club in Creswell. Stember joined Peter Jacobsen (1972) and Adam Bean (2011) as Lincoln state winners. Bean was the last PIL golfer to win the state boys title.
Stember shot a 1-under-par 71 in the first round to share the lead with Jesuit sophomore Andrew Reinhardt. Stember mixed three birdies with two bogeys in the round.
He started the second round with a double bogey on his first hole, the par-4 10th, before rallying with five birdies to go with four bogeys in a 73 that tied for the low round of a wind-swept day. His two-day total of 144 left him as the only golfer who did not finish over par.
-Mike Tokito
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