EUGENE — Before last year, Coquille had never won a state title in a girls team sport. Now the Red Devils have two in a row in track and field.
Perhaps it would be more appropriately called field and track as the Red Devils rode success in five field events to beat the field in the Class 3A state meet.
After the Red Devils got wins by Callie Millet in the javelin and Holli Vigue in the discus on Thursday, they added a state title in the pole vault by Reagan Krantz. They added four other placers while amassing 66 points to hold off runner-up Cascade Christian in the team race. The Challengers had 59 points.
The title wasn’t a certainty after Krantz missed the first two attempts at her opening height. But she got over that height and six more, finally winning by clearing 10 feet, 9 inches, a new best. Until she got over that height on her first try, she trailed Nyssa’s Ambrie Draper on misses.
“I think I just kind of freaked out going into 8-6,” Krantz said of her opening height. “I was super nervous.”
After that, she also had a scare at 9-6 ¼, missing her first two attempts. Millet went out at that height and at the time, Coquille’s vaulters were in fourth and fifth place. A little concern for the team race helped encourage her.
“I was thinking, oh no, what if we only score nine points from it,” she said. “I felt a little pressure.”
Ultimately, she pulled through, giving Coquille its third champion of the meet.
Millet finished fifth and Coquille got a boost from three other teammates to put the team race away.
Emelia Wirebaugh had big leaps on her final two attempts in the triple jump, moving up to third place with her better mark of 33-10.
Trinidy Blanton, meanwhile, followed up her second-place effort in the javelin and fifth-place finish in the long jump Thursday to place fifth in the 200 meters in a time of 26.85.
Ada Millet added a point by finishing eighth in the 800 for the Red Devils in 2:37.99.
Throw in Melanie Lambson’s third-place effort in the long jump and Callie Millet’s sixth-place finish in the discus on Thursday and the total team efforts added up to the state title.
For Blanton, the team’s lone senior, winning another crown was the perfect way to cap her stellar career.
“I’m so proud of everybody,” she said. “We’re all such a good team together. We push each other and want each other to do good.
“The key to our team title is we’re so supportive of each other.”
And the future remains bright.
“We’ve got a really good group of kids and we’re young and we have good kids coming up, too,” said Coquille coach Jake Cochran, referring to the team’s middle school program and all the underclassmen who return next season. “It’s exciting times.”
The Red Devils thought they had a shot at the title after last week’s district meet, but knew it wouldn’t be easy.
“There were a lot of events that we knew we had to do better in, and we did,” Cochran said.
“It was a great weekend. I’m so proud of the kids. Everybody performed how they were projected to, if not better.”
Coquille’s lone boy in the meet, Jericho Jones, placed eighth in the discus with a mark of 123-3.
While Coquille moved up from Class 2A and still won a title, Siuslaw moved down from Class 4A and easily claimed the boys crown.
The Vikings scored in 11 of the 17 events, including a quartet of state titles to win the team title.
Kyle Hughes won the pole vault for the Vikings by clearing 15 feet and teammates Will Johnson (12-6) and Justin Allen (12-0) were sixth and seventh.
Siuslaw also had the champion and three placers in the 800, Sam Ulrich winning in a time of 1:55.20. Dylan Jensen was fourth (2:01.59) and Jacob Blankenship seventh (2:02.68).
Jonathan Rose won the discus with a throw of 141-9 and also was sixth in the shot put (43-1) and eighth in the javelin (149-9).
Ulrich was second (4:07.33) and Hughes seventh (4:12.63) in the 1,500 and Hughes also was seventh in the 3,000 (9:29.75). In the 110-meter hurdles, Noel Hernandez was third (15.43) and Lucian Murphy eighth (16.61). Hunter Petterson was fourth in the 200 (23.02).
Siuslaw capped the meet by winning the 4x400 relay with the squad of Raymundo Brito Xilot, Ulrich, Blankenship and Petterson crossing the line in 3:26.00. The Vikings also finished fifth in the 4x100 relay (44.87).
Siuslaw finished with 90 points. Santiam Christian was second with 73.5 points.
It was Chris Johnson’s 19th state title as a head coach for cross country and track and field, to go with another as an assistant coach his first year in Florence. He gave credit to his kids, especially his senior group including Hughes, Ulrich, Rose, Hernandez and Murphy.
“We brought a lot of kids with a lot of chances for scoring, which helps,” he said. “We knew there would be ups and downs and yesterday we had some downs. They just kept fighting.”
