A10 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, 2018
SPORTS
Dawgs win districts, on to state meet
11 athletes, four relay
teams will compete at
historic Hayward Field
for last time
By ALEXIS MANSANAREZ
STAFF WRITER
HERMISTON — When Herm-
iston senior AJ Fernandez walked
toward his parents in the bleach-
ers along the shot put pit at Herm-
iston High on Wednesday, he was
very clear on how he wanted to fin-
ish his heat at the Columbia River
Conference Track and Field Dis-
trict Championships.
“I want 50,” he said.
In his first attempt in the finals
Fernandez nearly hit the mark,
recording 49 feet even. After
throwing everywhere from 45 feet
7 inches to 48 feet 10 inches on his
next three attempts, the fifth time
was the charm.
Fernandez secured first place
with a throw of 50 feet 7 inches
and a sweep of the shot put and
discus throw. CRC’s newest cham-
pion knew he secured the title
before the shot hit the dirt.
“As soon as I threw it — I
watched that line every day at
practice so I try and hit it every
day, but finally hitting it was not as
good as a state championship but
still pretty good,” Fernandez said.
Earlier in the discus throw, Fer-
nandez threw 140 feet 6 inches on
his second attempt, and matched
it on his sixth and final attempt,
to claim the top spot to defend his
district title.
“Considering it’s my senior
year and that I have improved a lot
since last year, I’m really happy
with it (my season),” he added.
Joining Fernandez at state after
the first of the two-day meet will
be Jackson Morgan and Jazlyn
Romero. Morgan won the boys
high jump district title after clear-
ing 6 feet 2 inches to edge out
some tough competition from The
Dalles and Pendleton. Romero was
also challenged in the girls jave-
lin throw as she battled a Bucka-
roo, Emanuela Casadei, to see who
could come away with the title.
“Well, coming in I knew she
was the one I needed to beat,”
Romero said, “and my PR was like
nine feet below hers and I was like,
‘I got to throw big today.’”
Casadei and Romero went
throw-for-throw but it was Romero
who first distanced herself from
the competition by recording 135
feet 5 inches on her first attempt.
Casadei answered with the jave-
lin landing just a few feet in front
of Romero’s mark. The Buck fol-
lowed that up with a huge throw
of 143 feet 3 inches, which meant
Romero had to come up with a big
number to try to move into first
place.
“Honestly, I wasn’t sure if I was
going to throw big like this today,”
Romero said. “I knew I was already
throwing big for where I’m at and I
threw 140 and I was like, ‘Okay, I
have another one coming I can feel
it,’ and then I threw the 142 and I
saw where it landed and thought,
that’s pretty far.”
Romero’s best of 142 feet 10
inches wasn’t enough to claim
a district title, but it earned her a
state berth.
On the second and final day of
the Columbia River Conference
Track and Field District Cham-
pionships, a brief spout of rain
drenched Kennison Field.
The short storm came around 5
p.m. when the track events were
starting and several field events
were taking place.
First up was the girls 4x100-me-
ter relay. Members of Hermiston’s
team each settled into their spots
and with Scout Reagan at anchor,
the cold weather drew some
concern.
“Cold weather has always been
a terrible thing for me,” she said.
So, Reagan turned toward
the fence and saw head coach
Emilee Strot, who had an import-
ant message for the Bulldogs’ top
sprinter.
“As soon as I looked at coach
Strot she goes, ‘We train for this,
Scout, you just remember, you
know what you’re doing,’ and I
looked at her and I was like, ‘Oh
yeah, okay. Who cares about the
rain, let’s get after it,’” Reagan
added.
She went on to lead the relay
team to a first place finish (50.63)
and also pitched in to the girl’s
team title with two more top fin-
ishes in the 100-meter dash (12.55)
and the 200 meters (25.61).
It’s the third consecutive year
the Hermiston girls have won the
district championship.
STAFF PHOTOS BY KATHY ANEY
Hermiston’s Elsa Torres punches her ticket to state in the 400-yard dash during the CRC Track and Field Championships at Kennison Field with a time of
1:01.46 minutes.
Hermiston’s Tyler Rohrman races in the 110-meter high hurdles at the CRC
Track and Field Championships at Kennison Field. Rohrman posted the
winning time of 14.28 seconds.
Hermiston’s Isaac Sanchez leads the 800 during the CRC Track and Field
Championships at Kennison Field. Sanchez won the race with a time of
1:58.36 minutes.
AJ Fernandez of Hermiston won both the discus and shot put Wednesday at the CRC District Track and Field
Championships in Hermiston.
“They deserved that, we’ve had
some huge performances,” Strot
said. “Our girls just put in the work
continually and stepped up.”
On the track, Elsa Torres earned
the district title in the 400-meter
dash after clocking 1:01.46. The
4x400-meter relay team handily
took first place (4:14.68) with Rea-
gan, Torres, Amanda Nygard and
Madi Wilson all contributing.
Wilson, who was named Female
Track Athlete of the Year, swept the
field in the hurdle events. First, in
the 100-meter hurdles her time of
14.73 was a new meet record and
just an hour later she turned around
to finish the 300-meter hurdles in
48.17 — over a second faster than
the rest of the field.
“It was hard coming back from
that 100,” Wilson said. “It was
good. Out of the blocks I felt good,
the wind was very hard against my
head, so it was a hard head wind
but it was all God’s strength — it
was just him. That turn was great
and that last stretch was just giving
it 100 percent.”
There was another Bulldog
sweep in the field events after
Stephanie Miears won both the
shot put (41-5) and discus throw
(116-11) to round out the top per-
formances on the girls squad.
For the Hermiston boys, who
took second overall with 69 points,
their top finishers were the usual
suspects.
Tyler Rohrman swept the 110-
meter and 300-meter hurdles and
Isaac Sanchez won the 800-meter
race. The 4x100-meter relay team
was close to a top finish but when
Jonathan Hinkle pulled up with
an injury at the end of his leg, the
Bulldogs weren’t able to make up
the time.
They finished in second place
(44.44) to still qualify for state,
and had to quickly make adjust-
ments for the 4x400-meter relay
that closed out the meet.
“We called a kid up, had him
step up and we knew it was going
to be tight against us and The
Dalles and Hood River,” Strot
said. “(Guiomer) Garay stepped
up huge for us today and to go out
on something like that for the boys
to qualify for state is such a high
note.”
For the members of the team,
there were no nerves with Garay
stepping in for Hinkle.
“We had talked about this,”
Rohrman said. “I wasn’t too wor-
ried. I felt confident that we would
get second. I didn’t think it would
be as close as it was but we still
go it done. I see Garay, he puts in
work every day.”
Garay wasn’t the only Bulldog
to come out of the woodwork. The
lone Hermiston title in field events
went to Carson Wrathall in the pole
vault. Wrathall cleared a new per-
sonal best, 13 feet 2 inches, to dis-
tance himself from the field.
A number of Pendleton athletes
also earned state berths Thurs-
day. For the boys, Lane Maher fin-
ished second in the 300-meter hur-
dles (40.98) for the final qualifying
spot and Edwin Linares will now
be competing in multiple events at
state after leaping to second in the
triple jump (42-3.50).
On the girls team, the 4x100-me-
ter relay team placed behind Herm-
iston in 52.23 seconds to punch
their ticket to state. Hunter Kiele
finished second in the discus throw
recording a whopping 155 feet and
again Emanuela Casadei added to
her state schedule by recording a
jump of 33 feet 7.50 inches in the
triple jump. Casadei finished sec-
ond after narrowly beating Herm-
iston’s Mckayla Pacheco by half
an inch.
The athletes will be one of the
last Bulldog teams to close out the
final year in the OSAA, and it will
be the last time Hermiston will
compete at the historic Hayward
Field at the University of Oregon.
Competition will begin Friday for
Hermiston, with finals in various
field events including the girls jav-
elin throw — which will feature
Romero — and the boys discus
and shot put, which Fernandez will
be competing in.
On Saturday, all track athletes
will compete in the finals if they
are able to qualify after Day 1
and Miears, Morgan and Wrathall
will wrap up competition in their
respective field events.