Hood River News

By ADAM LAPIERRE

News staff writer

May 17, 2006

As the sun set Thursday evening behind the cloudless Eastern Oregon skyline, the air cooled to near-perfect track and field temperatures. The annual Hermiston Twilight Meet starts in the evening sunshine and lasts until the football field lights kick on across the Hermiston’s Kennison Field. With lights casting shapes across the track, athletes from Hermiston, Pendleton, The Dalles/Wahtonka, Riverside and Hood River raced their own shadows, and each other, in the last meet of the season before districts.

“This is year’s team has been great to work with,” Coach Shawn Meyle said. “They’re a hard-working group and they seem to be farther along in their training than in years past. We’ve also had good leadership from some of our senior athletes, which has really helped the team. It has definitely been fun working with this year’s group.”

The Intermountain Conference district meet is on Friday and Saturday this week in Redmond. Numerous Eagles have excellent shots at making state, and some are sure to rise to the occasion and surprise even themselves. The Hood River News will feature coverage of districts in the May 24 sport section.

Hermiston Twilight highlights:

Girls:

100 meters —

Kari Hidle 3rd

200 meters —

Markee Cox 3rd

400 meters —

Laura Yates 2nd

800 meters —

Melissa Kauffman 4th

1,500 meters —

Kayla Lloyd 1st

Ashley Braniff 3rd

3,000 meters —

Melissa Kauffman 2nd

100 high hurdles —

Justine Campbell 2nd

4x100 relay —

Justine Campbell 2nd

Lindsey Halliday

Laura Yates

Kari Hidle

4x400 relay —

Megan Clark 4th

Lindsey Halliday

Laura Yates

Kylee Staughton

High jump —

Jacquie Mattson 1st

McKenna Hering 4th

Pole vault —

McKenna Hering 1st

Alisandra Denton 2nd

Long jump —

Kari Hidle 3rd

Lindsey Halliday 4th

Triple Jump —

Kari Hidle 2nd

Boys:

100 meters —

Chris Barber 1st

400 meters —

Juan Zuniga 4th

800 meters —

Fernando Morales 1st

3,000 meters —

Leo Castillo 1st

300 int. hurdles —

Stefan Zosa 1st

300 int. hurdles —

Stefan Zosa 1st

4x400 relay —

Omar Santillan 3rd

Levi Vance

Stefan Zosa

Nick Maslen

Javelin —

Jacob Thornton 1st

High jump —

Jessie Page 2nd

Pole vault —

Joel Miller 1st

Triple jump —

Antonio Garcia 3rd