By Jeremy McDonald
jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
GRESHAM, Ore.– Doing the relays in the rain can be a risky proposition with the risk of dropping the baton and risking disqualification if it slips out your hands somewhere along the way.
West Salem girls 4×100 meter relay won the State Meet minutes prior to the Titan boys, beating out Lake Oswego by about sixth-tenths of a second for the State Title. For the boys, the first handoff took a little bit longer as Simon Thompson had to regrip the baton in the zone before taking off for the second 100-meters of the race.
“Obviously the water is a big role, the baton was slick, my hands were a little wet. I did grab more than once to make sure I had, which is better than dropping it and making sure we got it,” said Thompson. “But then I handed off on this side was pretty good, I just had to stretch it a little bit but yeah it’s unfortunate.”
West Salem found themselves towards the back-of-the-pack after the first exchange, but by the final 50 meters the Titans were creeping up on Jesuit and Tualatin for first-place sitting in third with Jamal McMurrin nipping on the heels of the Crusaders coming to the finish line.
“I didn’t do enough because the Jesuit guy still got away from me and Tualatin guys did a great job, they won but (we) should’ve got second. I didn’t do what I had to do, so I had to use this and move on until the next time,” said McMurrin of the finish.
Jesuit, who were sitting second, just held onto the second position as they crossed the finish line with McMurrin 0.04 behind them to finish third.
McMurrin went on to finish fifth in both the 100 and 200 meter dashes Saturday as the rainy weather continued.
“Top eight is a solid accomplishment, but I didn’t get to do what I wanted to do but I’m excited for the opportunity that I got to run against some great guys. It’s fun,” said McMurrin after the 100 meter dash.
In Thompson’s 100 meter hurdle race, the senior hurdler took a hard fall two hurdles left in the race and had to pull out of the finals heat of the hurdles race Saturday afternoon. Thompson was 11th in the Javelin.
Lucy Jolivette finished third in the 200 meter dash and was fourth in the 100 meter dash. Evan Henkel was second in the 800 with a 1:55.16 PR. West Salem’s 4×400 boys relay was fifth, the girls 4×4 team was sxith Sydney McCarrell was sixth in the Discus.
Abbey Knoll was eighth in the shot put.
