WEDNESDAY
May 22, 2019
Grant Union girls half-point
shy of state track championship
Athlete of the Meet Wright
breaks her previous state
javelin record, places ﬁ rst
in high jump
By Angel Carpenter
Blue Mountain Eagle
One-thousandth of a second determined
the 2A girls track and ﬁ eld champions.
A photo ﬁ nish in the 100-meter dash
gave 2 more points to the Enterprise Out-
laws, who topped Grant Union by half a
point to win the girls title at the May 17-18
2A Track and Field State
Championships at West-
ern Oregon University in
Monmouth.
Grant Union senior
Kaylee Wright and Enter-
prise senior Shelby Mon-
crief had dueled previously
in the 100-meter dash, Kaylee Wright
but the pressure intensi-
ﬁ ed between the two sprinters at the
championships.
In the 100 preliminaries, Wright won
by a .006-second photo ﬁ nish, but tables
turned in the ﬁ nals with Moncrief winning
Contributed photo
The Grant Union Prospector girls track and ﬁ eld team, led by head coach Sonna Smith, take
the podium at the state championships with their second-place trophy. The team was one-
half point behind the Enterprise Outlaws.
by a hair-splitting .001 second.
Moncrief’s time in the ﬁ nals, a personal
best, was determined to be 12.749, and
Wright, setting a season record, ﬁ nished in
12.750.
“Last year, I won with a hundreth of a
second, but losing by one-thousandth of a
second, there is always something that can
be changed with that,” Wright said. “You
can always just lean a little bit further.”
Still, Wright has plenty of good news.
She was named 2A Athlete of the Meet,
shattered her previous state javelin record
with a throw of 139-05 for her fourth con-
secutive championship title and became
high jump champion for the second year in a
row, clearing the bar at 5-03.
Wright also raced with junior Sierra
Cates, senior Trinity Hutchison and fresh-
man Carson Weaver on the girls 4x100-re-
lay team to place second, just .18 seconds
behind Enterprise.
The Prospectors, led by head coach
Sonna Smith, had 11 athletes competing on
the girls team and seven on the boys team.
Grant Union hasn’t had that many
girls and boys taking the bus ride to state
in 12 years, when the boys became state
champions.
This year, the Prospector girls placed sec-
ond as a team with 64 points, just .5 behind
Enterprise. Monroe was in third with 62, fol-
lowed by Kennedy with 54.
Wright, Sydney Brockway and Hutchi-
son competed in track and ﬁ eld as fresh-
men in 2016, when their team became state
champions. Each year since, the girls have
placed second at state.
It was as a freshman that Wright set a state
record in javelin, which she broke again her
junior year and again this year.
She outthrew sophomore Izzy Steerman
of Faith Bible by 10 feet at state this year.
See State, Page B10
Eagle ﬁ le photo
Monument Tiger Mark Thomas sets his pace in the 1,500-meter
run at a track meet earlier in the season in John Day.
Eagle ﬁ le photo
Grant Union Prospector catcher Jacob Vaughan tags a Rainier runner out at home plate earlier in the season at Malone
Field in John Day. Grant Union pitcher Peyton Neault is at back right with ﬁ rst baseman Roen Langum. The team will host
a second-round game May 22.
Prospector baseball team
hosts playoff game Wednesday
Blue Mountain Eagle
The Grant Union/Prairie City
Prospector baseball team is sched-
uled to host the Lakeview Honkers
in an OSAA state championship sec-
ond-round playoff game at 2:30 p.m.
Wednesday, May 22, at the Seventh
Street Complex in John Day.
Led by head coach Doug Sharp, the
Prospectors are No. 6 among OSAA’s
2A/1A teams.
Grant Union ﬁ nished the regu-
lar season with a 17-6 overall record,
14-0 in Special District 7, topping the
league.
No. 11 Lakeview (14-6, 10-2) ﬁ n-
ished second in Special District 6 and
beat the Dufur/South Wasco Rangers
to advance to the second round.
The winner of Wednesday’s game
at Malone Field, will advance to the
quarterﬁ nal round set for Friday, May
24, the time and place to be determined.
The semiﬁ nal round is scheduled
for Tuesday, May 28. The ﬁ nals are
set for Friday, May 31, at the Salem/
Keizer Volcanoes Stadium in Keizer.
OSAA State Championship Event
ticket prices, ﬁ rst round through
ﬁ nals, are $8 for adults and $5 for stu-
dents. A student is considered age 5
up through a senior in high school.
No. 1 Prospector softball team
hosts Lost River Raiders
Blue Mountain Eagle
Ranked No. 1 in state,
the Grant Union/Prairie
City Prospector softball
team is scheduled to host
the Lost River Raiders in an
OSAA State Championship
second-round playoff game
at 4 p.m. Wednesday, May
22, at Seventh Street Com-
plex in John Day.
The Prospectors, Spe-
cial District 6 champions,
are led by head coach Zach
Williams.
Grant Union (21-2,
11-1) beat Lost River 9-1
earlier in the season at the
March 22 Rocket Invite
held in Pilot Rock.
The winner of the
Wednesday, May 22, game
will play in the quarterﬁ nal
round set for Friday, May
24, the time and place to be
Eagle ﬁ le photo
Grant Union Prospector Marissa Smith hits the ball in a game against Heppner/Ione in
John Day earlier in the season. The team will host the Lost River Raiders in a second-round
playoﬀ game May 22.
determined.
The semiﬁ nal round
is scheduled for Tuesday,
May 28. The champion-
ship ﬁ nal is set for Friday,
May 31, in Eugene at the
Jane Sanders Stadium at the
University of Oregon.
OSAA State Champi-
onship event ticket prices,
ﬁ rst round through ﬁ nals,
are $8 for adults and $5 for
students. A student is con-
sidered age 5 up through a
senior in high school.
Levi Burke wins
1A high jump
Prairie City and
Monument athletes
compete at state
championships
By Angel Carpenter
Blue Mountain Eagle
Prairie City Panther Levi
Burke is the new 1A high
jump champion.
Four Grant County 1A
track and ﬁ eld athletes from
Prairie City and Monument
competed at the May 17-18
OSAA State Championships
at Western Oregon Univer-
sity in Monmouth.
Burke, a senior, and fel-
low team members sopho-
more Tristan McMahan and
senior Syd Holman qualiﬁ ed
along with Monument Tiger
sophomore Mark Thomas.
Prairie City Panthers
Burke set his sights high
this year after his third-place
ﬁ nish at state last season.
“Last year was motivation
to keep going,” Burke said.
This time, Burke jumped
6-05 — 5 inches higher than
the next closest competitor,
Luke Martin of Sherman.
Five other jumpers reached
a height of 5-10.00 for third
through seventh place.
Besides the title of cham-
pion, Burke also went unde-
feated in high jump this sea-
son at nine events.
“Levi came to state ready
to go,” said Prairie City head
coach Nate Barber. “Levi
decided that he wanted to
stake his claim on the high
jump, and he stepped up and
did what we knew he could
do.”
Burke also placed seventh
in javelin.
“He performed well the
ﬁ rst day in javelin,” Barber
said. “Two of the athletes that
placed above him had great
ﬁ nal throws that were their
PRs for the season.”
This is Burke’s second
year competing in track and
ﬁ eld.
When asked how he did
so well with just two years
training in high jump, he said
he has a love for sports.
“Emma Carniglia of John
Day — she helped me a lot
— and a lot of it was self
motivation, trying to push
myself to go farther,” he said.
He said placing in javelin
also felt good
“It was all around a good
weekend and good season,”
he said.
This was Holman’s ﬁ rst
year competing in track and
ﬁ eld, and Barber was pleased
with the “elite speed” he
brought to the team.
Holman was ready to
show that speed on the WOU
track for the 100-meter dash,
but unfortunately, a false start
was called.
“I thought that the ath-
lete in the next lane actually
moved ﬁ rst, but the ofﬁ cials
decided to place the false
start on Syd and disqualiﬁ ed
him,” Barber said, noting the
experience was frustrating.
Holman set a personal
record in the 100 at the May
3 Grant Union Invitational,
placing ﬁ rst and clocking in
at 11.65.
The top three times at state
ranged from 11.07 to 11.34.
McMahan, in his ﬁ rst
year competing at state,
placed third in the 110-meter
hurdles.
He’s competed since
eighth grade in mainly hori-
zontal jumping and sprints.
Just two weeks before
state, he combined elements
See Track, Page B10