2B Wednesday, March 29, 2017 Appeal Tribune
Rogers
Continued from Page 1B
“Athletics are very much
Boys track and field previews
part of his personality and
Greater Valley Conference: West Salem is the defending district champion and returns a lot
of components from its team that placed fifth in the state last year. The Titans return state pole
vault champion Micah Masei, two-time state cross country champion Ahmed Muhumed, state
placing relay runners in Jacob Miller and Brennen LeBel, and have a good group of athletes
including Cole Rumrill, Keonte McMurrin and Brenden Cassanova who make the Titans the
team to beat in the league again.
his life. If he’s not on the
Rogers is planning on attending
George Fox in the fall with a goal of get-
ting a bachelor’s degree in nursing, and
he plans on running in track and field.
“Athletics are very much part of his
personality and his life,” Hayden said.
“If he’s not on the track, he’s definitely
doing some strength training and work-
ing on that. He will be a very successful
student athlete in college.”
While Rogers has spent a lot of the
past few years outside of town, his track
and field exploits – and his involvement
in church – have helped connect him to
the Silverton community.
“He’s positive, and gosh, I don’t think
I’ve ever heard him say anything nega-
tive,” Silverton coach Erik Cross said.
“He’s just a great guy. I think that’s real-
ly helpful.”
Though Rogers has never had any
problems running in four events in near-
ly every meet in which he has competed,
he elected to take a weight training class
for the first time in his life this year.
He’s always responded well when
new physical challenges have been
thrown at him.
His weight training has already paid
off as he has set a personal record in the
open 100 of 11.37 seconds.
“We’ve been careful with him as far as
training to keep him healthy at the end of
the season even if we’re sacrificing some
speed,” Cross said. “He’s kind of just
been up for whenever.”
Rogers got his start in the hurdles as a
freshman because an assistant coach
who was coaching the event was also
coaching him in JV soccer.
He found out quickly that he was good
at the hurdles.
Well, it was a combination of that and
the first event he chose, the high jump,
wasn’t working well for him physically.
“I just kind of stopped because it was
my first year and I started getting shin
splints really bad,” Rogers said. “They
track, he’s definitely doing
some strength training and
working on that.”
MARY HAYDEN
SILVERTON SPRINT COACH
were just super jarring along with the
hurdles. I liked it, and I did long jump,
too, but I just slowly started transition-
ing to like hurdle events and sprints.”
The truth is that Rogers has the ath-
letic ability to do any event he wants.
Though he’s known as a hurdler, he’s
also the fastest sprinter Silverton has.
“He’s a hurdler. He has definitely fast
legs,” said senior sprinter Lance Cline.
“Honestly him and (Austin) Haskett both
if they wanted to could pick any event
and do well at it.”
There’s a reason Rogers has earned a
reputation in the hurdles.
He won the Mid-Willamette champi-
onship in the 110 hurdles the past two sea-
sons, and placed sixth in the state in the
110 hurdles as a sophomore.
But it was his performance at the 5A
state meet as a junior that really stood
out.
He placed second in the 110 hurdles
with a personal record of 14.85 seconds
and followed that with a seventh place
finish in the 300 hurdles with another
personal record of 40.23 seconds.
“It just makes me excited for this
year because I know that this year, I have
worked a lot more in the offseason this
year,” Rogers said.
“I knew I wanted to do stuff in the off-
season more than previous years be-
cause this is my last year and I just had
fun with it.”
bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com or
Twitter.com/bpoehler
McKay has some impressive athletes in district champion sprinter Israel Garza, Avori Miranda,
Leo Silva, Zach Hammack and Shaton Daniels and will challenge for a top three spot in the
district. McNary sprinter Brendan Van Voorhis was a state placer in the 400 last year and has the
potential to win a state championship.
Sprague senior Austin Kleinman was a state placer in the shot put and discus last year and will
contend at the state level, as will South Salem junior Alex Sanchez, the district champion in the
shot put last season. North Salem has some upperclassmen who will contend for district
champions in Adam Foreman, Quille Bonner, Michael Bolen and Jason Backer and will contend
to finish in the top half of the league.
Mid-Willamette Conference: Lebanon will be tough to beat this year, but Silverton has the
best shot at it. The Foxes return a solid senior class including state champion high jumper
Coleton Myers and state runner-up hurdler Brock Rogers. Dallas returns district pole vault
champion Jacob Deming.
Oregon West Conference: Cascade has a deep team that should challenge Newport for the
district championship. The Cougars return district champion hurdler Brandon Martin. Stayton
returns district champion distance runner Casey Pugh.
PacWest Conference: Jefferson, last year’s district champion, is a force in the distance events
behind brothers Hassan, Suleiman, Abdi and Ahmed Ibrahim. But Blanchet is the favorite in the
conference with a strong group of seniors in Kevin McCarthy, Jared Myers, Patrick Tuttle, Zion
Steiner and Drew Spear. Scio has some strong athletes in state placing thrower Wyatt Means
and Colby Borresen, who was on the team’s state championship 400 relay team.
West Valley League: Amity has the athletes to knock Taft off its perch as district champion
including Jaycen Nelson, Curtis Turnidge, Will Keen, Jonathan Mather, Tyler Parr, Robbie
Morrison and Benjamin Hayes.
Tri-River Conference: Regis is the defending state champion, returns three legs of its state
championship winning 1,600 relay in Brendon Woodcock, Eric Gustin and Ethan Lulay along
with state runner-up high jumper Josh Mumey and will contend for a state championship again.
Kennedy has three event state runner up senior Bishop Mitchell along with experienced athletes
in Noe Jines, Brandon Rendon, Christian Reyes, Jeremy Kliewer, Lewis Butsch and Nick Perez and
will be a contender at the district and state levels.
Casco League: Crosshill Christian has a good group of athletes and should be competitive.
Girls track and field previews
Greater Valley Conference: West Salem continued its domination of the conference last
season and has the athletes to improve on its eighth place state meet finish. The Titans return
state meet athletes in Keira McCarrell, Ella McCrae, Taylor McCarrell, Lucy Jolivette, Ayle
Armstrong, Elisabeth Goodrich and Cari McCrae and have an impressive group of freshmen who
have the potential to take the team to new heights.
North Salem returns defending 200 meter dash state champion Rebekah Miller, a sophomore,
along with district championship contenders in Madison Willhoft, Aaiyah Fitzke, Manya
Mendrin and Ashley Clark and will contend for a top three finish in the league again. Sprague
will be strong in the distance races with a healthy Ginger Murnieks, the district cross country
champion in the fall, and Kaylee Mitchell, a state champion in the 400 relay and state runner up
in the 800 and 1,500 at Astoria last season.
McKay has a small team including Cecilia Munoz, Raquel Williams, Steffani Rodriguez, Kaitlyn
Green and Marquita Ignacio Ritchey, but should improve on its fifth place finish in the
conference of last season.
Mid-Willamette Conference: Silverton has a strong team that will challenge for the district
championship with state qualifiers in Madi Arrington, Desiree Sinn and Jori Paradis.
Oregon West Conference: Cascade is the favorite to defend its district team champion with a
group including state champion pole vaulter Amanda Wiebenga and district champions Elisa
Kanoff and Kalulu Ngaida.
PacWest Conference: Blanchet, which has won the past seven district championships, has the
athletes to continue its dominance of the conference with athletes like state medalist Leilani
Salang, Sophia Heyman, Emily Collier, Trinity Phipps, Bailey Hittner and freshman Shelby Gwyn.
Scio returns state placers in Olivia Bennett and Katelyn Gray.
West Valley League: Amity is the defending district champions and has a big group of
athletes, including a huge point scorer in junior Amy Kraemer, the defending state champion in
the 100 hurdles and triple jump. Santiam Christian returns two-time state champion sprinter
Rebeka Preston.
Tri-River Conference: Kennedy has a solid group of state placers in Kaylin Cantu, Alejandra
Lopez, Abby Frey, Sarah Therkelsen and Alyssa Eklund, but with state favorite East Linn in the
league has a challenge.
ANNA REED / STATESMAN JOURNAL
Silverton senior Brock Rogers is planning on attending George Fox in the fall.
Class
Continued from Page 1B
are those at the current 4A level like
Stayton and Cascade.
In the five classification draft re-
leased by the committee, Cascade (with
an adjusted 683 students) and Stayton
(608) would be in the same league as cur-
rent 5A powers Silverton (1,149) and Wil-
sonville (1,077) and schools approved to
play down a class in North Salem (1,404)
and Woodburn (1,256).
That large of a discrepancy in sizes of
schools could be catastrophic for rural
schools like Cascade and Stayton.
“It doesn’t sit well, that’s for sure,”
said Shryock, Stayton’s girls basketball
coach who previously coached boys bas-
ketball at Silverton and McKay. “And I
was at Silverton for many years and Sil-
verton and Stayton are not the same
schools. They’re both great schools, but
they’re not alike schools.
“It will be very detrimental. There’s
Casco League: Willamette Valley Christian returns the first state champion in the school’s
history in senior Sarah Falardeau.
20, maybe 25 schools at the 4A level that
this is devastating for.”
Oregon’s high schools expanded to six
classifications from its long-time stan-
dard of four classes starting with the
2006-07 school year.
There are still two models for the 5A
classification in the latest draft.
One has Salem-Keizer schools Mc-
Kay, McNary, South Salem, Sprague and
West Salem in a nine-team league with
Bend, Mountain View, Summit and West
Albany.
The other has McKay, McNary, South
Salem, Sprague and West Salem in a sev-
en-team league with McMinnville and
West Albany.
The next meeting of the committee is
at 1 p.m. April 10 at the Wilsonville Holi-
day Inn.
It will make its final recommendation
for classification for the 2018-2022 time
block to the OSAA Executive Board at
the Oct. 16 Special Classification and
Districting meeting.
bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com or
Twitter.com/bpoehler
Oregon unemployment rate hits record low
LAUREN E HERNANDEZ
STATESMAN JOURNAL
Oregon has reached its lowest unem-
ployment rate in four decades.
Job growth in a number of Oregon’s
industries has driven the state’s unem-
ployment rate down to 4.0 percent, the
lowest unemployment rate since compa-
rable records began in 1976.
“Oregon’s unemployment rate is typi-
cally higher than the United States’ rate,
but Oregon has been adding jobs faster
than the United States since 2013,” said
Nick Beleiciks, a state employment
economist with the Oregon Employment
Department. “There is not any one rea-
son for the growth, but one thing that
may be especially relevant now is that
Oregon is a very attractive state.”
The state records the second-highest
percentage of inbound moves in the
country, with one of the primary reasons
for moving being employment.
Since 1995, the Oregon labor force has
grown from 1.7 million to 2.0 million to-
day, according to the Oregon Employ-
ment Department. In the past year, pay-
roll employment grew by 39,000 jobs, or
2 percent. That number is just below the
growth rate which has hovered near or
below 3 percent through the past four
years. The department recorded 82,000
unemployed Oregonians as of February
this year — the lowest number since Au-
gust 1995.
Oregon’s unemployment rate was 5.3
percent in February of 2016 and dropped
to 4.3 percent in January of 2017 before
decreasing to 4.0 percent in February.
Beleiciks said Oregon’s 9.2 percent
underutilization rate, which refers to
those who are working part-time but
would like to work full-time, dropped
from 10.4 percent since February of last
year. The United States underutilization
rate, called U-6, also records 9.2 percent
nationally.
Job growth following Great
Recession
“Oregon’s historic jobs gains over the
last few months mean Oregonians in ev-
ery corner of the state are closer to gain-
ing the opportunities they need to
thrive,” Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said.
“We must continue this progress by cre-
ating good jobs in the places that need
them most.”
Oregon’s 2.2 percent job growth rate
over the past 12 months is faster than the
national growth rate of 1.6 percent, Be-
leiciks said.
He credits that growth to two sectors
that surged following a slow recovery
process after the Great Recession — the
construction industry and broader fi-
nancial activities, specifically the real
estate market.
Construction companies added 900
jobs in February following a surge of
2,500 jobs in January. The state’s con-
struction industry has grown 10 percent
since February 2016, which accounted
for 8,900 jobs more jobs. The real estate
market followed that trend and grew by
3.8 percent since last year.
Another industry that performed off
trend compared with last year’s num-
bers is the broader manufacturing in-
dustry, which recorded a boost of 1,300
jobs last month.
The manufacturing industry is recov-
ering following last year’s cut of 1,500
jobs, which were mostly in the computer
and semiconductor sectors.
“There really isn’t a way to pinpoint
where the growth was in manufacturing,
but it had been doing pretty well up until
last year with those job losses,” Belei-
ciks said.
Republicans want budget passed, education prioritized
NATALIE PATE
STATESMAN JOURNAL
Is school funding being prioritized in
the Oregon State Legislature?
Senate Republicans argue it isn’t be-
ing prioritized enough — and they have a
plan to fix that.
A Senate Republican-sponsored
“Education First” package had its first
public hearing in the Senate Education
Committee last week.
Senate Joint Resolutions 18 and 20
seek to prioritize education funding in
the state budget and hold elected offi-
cials accountable for the expediency of
the budget.
“We must pass these resolutions to
put an end to the legislature holding Ore-
gon classrooms hostage during budget
negotiations,” Senate Republican Lead-
er Ted Ferrioli (R-John Day) said while
presenting the resolutions to the com-
mittee March 21.
Senate Joint Resolution 20 proposes
an amendment to the Oregon
Constitution that would require the leg-
islature to appropriate funds for Ore-
gon’s K-12 system by the 65th day of the
regular session in odd-numbered years.
The resolution would also prohibit
legislators from being compensated
starting on the 66th day if the appropria-
tion is not passed. Ferrioli said the com-
pensation cut-off “certainly gets the at-
tention of the legislature.”
This cut-off would apply to compensa-
tion of any value, he said, referring not
just to salary, but benefits as well.
The other proposal, Senate Joint Res-
olution 18, proposes another amendment
to the Oregon Constitution that would re-
quire the legislature to fund K-12 educa-
tion before passing any other appropria-
tions for any other state agency.
Ferrioli said K-12 funding is a top pri-
ority for Oregon voters and he believes
these resolutions reflect the public’s de-
sires. The idea behind the resolutions
has been in the works and presented for
nearly 10 years, started, he said, by Sena-
tor Jason Atkins.
Ferrioli added school boards cannot
accurately pass their budgets until the
state finalizes its budget.
Senator Mark Hass (D-Beaverton)
said he could argue both sides of the res-
olution. However, he brought up the con-
cern that the May economic forecast
could negatively impact education if the
legislature has to pass a budget without
that information.
The legislature has been able to com-
plete its budget before the proposed
deadline in most recent sessions, includ-
ing in 2015 when the legislature passed
the K-12 education budget in the shortest
time in more than 20 years.