Hood River News

News staff writer

April 12, 2006

Dufur, Klickitat, Lyle, Portland Lutheran, The Dalles-Wahtonka and Hood River Valley high schools gathered in The Dalles Saturday morning for the Cherry Blossom Invitational track meet. With clouds looming overhead, athletes from the six schools competed in a non-scoring meet (meaning no team scoring) that would act as an individual test for the athletes in attendance.

And Hood River’s Eagles came through with a solid showing, posting 12 first-place finishes and 16 seconds between the boys’ and girls’ teams.

Meet highlights include Justine Campbell winning both the 100 and 300 hurdles, Lindsey Halliday winning the triple jump for the second meet in a row, McKenna Hering once again dominating the pole vault — this time with a 10’6” finish for first — Kayla Lloyd winning the 800 meters, Kari Hidle winning the 100 meter sprint, and Melissa Kauffman dominating the distance events with first place finishes in the 1,500 and 3,000 meter runs.

For the boys, Stefan Zosa took the 110 high hurdles event, Jacob Thornton won the javelin and the long jump, Jessie Paige jumped 6’0” for second in the high jump and Leo Castillo finished second in both the 1,500 and 3,000 meter events.

Despite finishing second at the meet, Castillo’s marks in the above events ranks him at second in the Intermountain Conference in both. In addition to Castillo, other Eagles to hold top IMC rankings include Hering, who is now ranked first in the IMC for the pole vault, Joel Miller, who is tied for number on in the league in the pole vault, the girls 4x400 relay team, which is ranked second in the league and Kaufmann, who is now ranked second in the 3,000 and 5th in the 1,500.

The Eagles have two track meets this week, one on Thursday at Barlow and the big one on Friday — the East County Classic — at Mt. Hood Community College. The team will then return home on April 18 to take on The Dalles-Wahtonka for the Eagles’ second and final home meet of the season.

Girls’ highlights:

100 meters —

Kari Hidle 1st

Amy Hay 2nd

200 meters —

Markee Cox 2nd

Laura Yates 3rd

400 meters —

Laura Yates 2nd

800 meters —

Kayla Lloyd 1st

Melissa Princehouse 4th

1,500 meters —

Melissa Kauffman 1st

Kayla Lloyd 2nd

3,000 meters —

Melissa Kauffman 1st

Ashley Braniff 2nd

Elisabeth Reyes 3rd

100 high hurdles —

Justine Campbell 1st

300 low hurdles —

Justine Campbell 1st

4x100 relay —

Amy Hay 1st

Laura Yates

Kari Hidle

Markee Cox

4x400 relay —

Kayla Lloyd 2nd

Melissa Kauffman

Markee Cox

Laura Yates

High jump —

Jacquie Mattson 2nd

McKenna Hering 3rd

Pole vault —

McKenna Hering 1st

Long jump —

Amy Hay 2nd

Kari Hidle 3rd

Triple jump —

Lindsey Halliday 1st

Kari Hidle 2nd

Boys’ highlights:

800 meters —

Fernando Morales 2nd

Carlos Quintana 3rd

1,500 meters —

Leo Castillo 2nd

Fernando Moralez 3rd

3,000 meters —

Leo Castillo 2nd

110 high hurdles —

Stefan Zosa 1st

300 int. hurdles —

Stefan Zosa 3rd

4x100 relay —

Don Valentine 2nd

Antonio Garcia

Carlos Quintana

Fernando Morales

Discus —

Travis Moore 4th

Javelin —

Jacob Thornton 1st

High jump —

Jessie Paige 2nd

Pole vault —

Joel Miller 2nd

Long jump —

Jacob Thornton 1st

Triple jump —

Joel Miller 2nd