Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current, March 14, 2018, Page 13, Image 37

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    13
Elkton and North Douglas/Yoncalla Track
Hannah Maxwell sprints down a wet street during track practice.
Justice Cox (left) and Rilie-Jo Olds (right) practice starting out of blocks.
Elkton Rundown:
Yoncalla/North Douglas Rundown:
With no track within 30 miles of
their school, the Elkton track and
field team makes the most of what it
has.
“Everything is measured out believe
it or not,” said coach Ken Maxwell.
“Two laps around the school equals
460 meters.”
Warming up in the parking lot, run-
ning around the school and finding
hills nearby to run on, the six-person
team does a little of everything. While
the number of team members is the
same as it was last season, this year
provides more opportunities as there
are now four girls on the team.
“I’m really excited we’re going to
have a relay team this year for the
4x100. We haven’t done that since my
sophomore year,” said senior Hannah
Maxwell. In addition to a relay team,
Hannah, Ken’s daughter, is looking to
get back to state in the triple jump.
Just two years ago there were
only four people on the Yon-
calla/North Douglas track and
field team. Last season there
were 15 and this season the
number has ballooned up to 26.
“Now I don’t have enough
assistants, that’s the problem,”
said second year coach Eric
Sprinkle. “I’m spread pretty
thin.”
Sprinkle, with the help of his
fiancé, are happy with this prob-
lem. The pair started coaching
at the middle school three years
ago and are now bringing the
two rival schools together to
compete in the sport they love
at the high school level.
“We are here together, we
are one team. It doesn’t matter
where you spend your eight-
hour school day because after
Play with class
Win with class
Lose with class
Youth, community, conservation
& safety ... it’s what we do!
that you’re here and we’re all to-
gether,” said Sprinkle.
On this year’s team, there are
number of state-caliber com-
petitors. While Laaron Lopez
was the only returning athlete
to make it to state last season,
he is looking to be joined by
teammate Brody Best (800) and
on the girls’ side by Justice Cox
(100, 200) and Rilie-Jo Olds
(200, discus, shot put) who fin-
ished in the top 10 in all her
events last season.
“I just need to not worry
about my peers as much,” said
Olds on what it will take for her
to get to state this year. “I’m al-
ways bad about trying to look
good for someone else, I need
to look good for myself and
just work good for myself and
that’s what will get me there.”
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Team Perspective with Justice Cox
On last season
I finished in third last year and had a really
bad hip problem and tore my hip-flexor total-
ly in half, I was in a wheel-chair actually. Yeah,
after a season. And then I went onto crutches
and then I built myself back up. So I still have
a hard time which, it made my time go down
a bit which stressed me out, but hopefully I
can build up the strength in it to be where I
was at least.
On a teammate she is excited for
Rilie-Jo. She’s really good at the 200, she’s
not as fast as I am, but she’ll get there. She’s
definitely working really hard to get there so
I hope she does.
On combining with North Douglas
I like it because we get to be surrounded by
kids that aren’t in our school and it’s – we get
to make more friends because the new peo-
ple come and we’re like, well this is how it
is at our track and we invite you. We love to
have them here.