Sports
7A
Tuesday, May 25, 2021
Th e Observer
Powder Valley boys earn state crown
Elgin girls take
third in 1A
championships
By DAVIS CARBAUGH
The Observer
LA GRANDE — It
came down to the last
events, but the Powder
Valley Badgers boys on Sat-
urday, May 22, took home a
track and fi eld state cham-
pionship at this weekend’s
meet.
Powder Valley came
from behind to score 64.50
points to claim the Oregon
1A State Champion-
ship (although the Oregon
School Activities Associa-
tion is not sanctioning any
state championship events
this spring). Even more
impressive, the Badgers
won their title with only six
athletes competing on the
boys side.
The state event took
place at Banner Bank Track
at Eastern Oregon Uni-
versity, La Grande, and
included athletes from 34
schools on the boys side
and 30 for the girls.
The Badgers accumu-
lated points early in the day
through fi eld events, with
Case Olson pacing third
in the javelin throw and
Kaiden Krieger taking third
in the high jump. Reece
Dixon added 4.5 points in
the triple jump with a tie
for fourth place.
Distance runner Justin
Ash was all over the track
Davis Carbaugh/The Observer
Davis Carbaugh/The Observer
Elgin’s Aaliyah Burton and Powder Valley’s Belle Blair compete head-to-head in the 300-meter hurdles
Saturday, May 22, 2021, at the Oregon 1A track and fi eld championship at Eastern Oregon University, La
Grande. Blair secured a narrow victory over Burton in the event by two tenths of a second.
for the Badgers, starting
the day with a third-place
fi nish in the boys 1,500
meter run with a time of
4 minutes, 15.66 seconds.
Ash later took second place
in the boys 3,000 meter
run with a time of 9:09.00
and helped Powder Valley’s
4x400 meter relay team
fi nish in second place.
“He was a key piece,”
said Powder Valley head
coach Nick Maszk said of
Ash.
After a podium fi nish
in javelin, Olson headed to
the track and ran a 54.02 in
the boys 400-meter dash to
fi nish fourth.
Krieger also had a busy
day, starting off his track
events with a second-place
fi nish in the boys 200-
meter dash. He ran a 23.69
in the 200 and then scored
a 42.01 second-place fi nish
in the boys 300 meter hur-
dles in back-to-back events.
Harper’s Corbin Palmer
edged out Krieger by a
mere four thousandths of a
second.
“He’s just a hard
worker,” Maszk said of
Krieger. “He was probably
a second off of winning all
three of his events.”
Krieger was able to rest
during the 3,000 meter
event before taking the
track once more in the
4x400. After Ash scored a
crucial eight points in the
3,000, the pressure was on
the relay team to hold on to
the Badgers’ lead.
Powder Valley’s 4x400
meter team of Dixon, Ash,
Olson and Krieger fi nished
with a time of 3:41.01 and
took home second place in
the event. The eight points
they earned in the event
solidifi ed the Badgers’ fi rst-
place fi nish over Damascus
Christian in second.
“We were ecstatic about
it,” Maszk said. “It was just
a really low athlete count to
Powder Valley’s Justin Ash takes the baton for the second leg of the
4x400 meter relay, the fi nal event Saturday, May 22, 2021, at the
Oregon 1A track and fi eld championship at Eastern Oregon Universi-
ty, La Grande. The Badgers fi nished second in the event en route to
securing a fi rst-place overall team fi nish.
get the points that they did,
that was one of the biggest
things to me.”
On the girls side,
Aaliyah Burton of Elgin
fi nished her day as a state
champion in the girls 100-
meter dash (12.89) and the
girls 100-meter hurdles
(15.51). Burton fi nished as
runner-up in the girls 300-
meter hurdles to Powder
Valley’s Belle Blair.
Blair also won indi-
vidual state championship
honors in the long jump
(15-10.00) and the 400-
meter dash (1:01.13).
The Elgin girls scored
47 points to fi nish on the
podium in third place. The
Powder Valley girls took
sixth overall with 41 points.
Union High athletes compete at state
Imbler’s Erin Coston
won a state champion-
ship in the girls pole vault,
clearing a height of 8-06.00.
The Panthers scored 28
points and fi nished eighth
in the team standings.
For Powder Valley,
the boys’ team won state
without any individual
event winners and relied on
a solid group eff ort to take
fi rst overall.
Full results from the
Oregon 1A State Cham-
pionship are online at
www.swtiming.com/
results/1astate/index.htm.
“I just told them that
your job today is to get
every single guy in front of
you that you can,” Maszk
said. “Every point matters.”
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Above, Union’s Carter Blackburn
took sixth in the boys pole vault
Saturday, May 22, 2021, at the
2A state track meet in Union.
Blackburn cleared a mark of 10
feet, 6 inches.
At left, Union’s Audrey Wells,
right, passes the baton to
Ashlee Burtch during the girls
4x400-meter relay Saturday,
May 22, 2021, at the 2A state
track meet in Union.
The Union girls relay team took
fourth in the event.
Photos by Ronald Bond/
Wallowa County Chieftain
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