Class 6A track and field — Boys finish first, girls third in effort to earn a Pacific Conference crown

Within the familiar confines of the Stoffer Family Stadium on the campus of George Fox University, the Newberg Tigers shined at the Pacific Conference district meet May 21-23 and, in the process, qualified 19 individuals and two teams to compete in the Class 6A state championships May 30-31 at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon.

“We had a good first day placing in multiple events and setting ourselves up well for finals on Friday,” NHS coach Brandon Ramey said in an email. “We won the boys long jump, pole vault  and went 1-3 in the boys javelin. Our girls got second in the high jump and third in the javelin and shot put. We won the girls 3,000 (meter race), which was the only running final on Wednesday.”

The girls team amassed 129 points, good for third place at the meet, and will send nine individuals and two relay squads to state.

The Tigers were anchored by strong efforts from junior Sophia Castaneda, who finished first in her signature events, the 200-meter and 400-meter sprints, with times of 24.63 seconds and 54.49 seconds, respectively. Castaneda also anchored the girls 4×100 relay team, which finished first with a time of 49.26 seconds, and the 4×400 relay team’s time of 3:56.67, good for another first-place finish.

Junior Abigail Wheatley took first place in the girls 3,000-meter run with a time of 10:24.66, junior Sophia Carpenter earned a second-place finish in the high jump with a leap of 5 feet, 1.75 inches and senior Gracie Hess notched a second-place mark in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.85 seconds.

Freshman McKinley Howard earned a second-place finish in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 47.15 seconds, while junior Greta Breninger leaped 34 feet, 5 inches to take second in the triple jump competition.

Boys finish in first place in conference championship

The Tiger boys finished in first place with 141 points, outdistancing conference foe Sherwood by 10 points for the title. Newberg will send 10 individuals to the state championships this weekend.

Newberg was paced by taking the top spots in the javelin with seniors Gracen Sandoz and Colin Wujcik launching the spear 86 feet and 173 feet, respectively. Senior Alex Kubin nabbed a first-place finish in the long jump with a leap of 20.9 inches, while junior Caleb Lofdahl earned the top place in the pole vault competition with a mark of 13 feet, 5 inches.

The ever fleet senior Dax Duggan earned first-place finishes in the 110-meter and 300-meter hurdles at 15.04 seconds and 39.12 seconds, respectively. He was joined on the podium after the 300-meter finals by junior Benjamin Bondurant, who earned a second-place finish at 40.96 seconds.

Bondurant added to his legend by clearing 6 feet, 2.25 inches in the high jump, good for first place and a trip to Eugene.