By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

MOUNT ANGEL, Ore.–  “It’s amazing, but it’s a great group of girls that we have that continue to fight and continue to be competitors,” Regis Head Coach Erica Wiltsey said.

For the second-year in a row, the Rams have brought home the 2A Special District 2 Girls District Title.  Taking the team gold with a team score of 130, 27 points higher than Salem Academy and Kennedy who were tied for second with a team score of 103. Wiltsey also won Coach of the Year honors as well.

Whitley Stepp ran away with the show.  Going four-for-four in her events, helping the Rams win the 4×100 meter relay, High Jump, Long Jump (with a PR jump of 16-feet-one-inch) and Triple Jump (also a PR with a jump of 34-feet-11-inches) as she won District Field Athlete of the Year,and was named the Highest Scorer of the Meet.at the conclusion of Friday and Saturday’s District Meet.

“First place in all four.  First-place in four events, that’s pretty impressive, it’s difficult to do,” Wiltsey said.  “She worked really hard for that and as the saying goes, we’re going to miss her next year.”

“It just feels great.  I’m really happy.  I did better than I thought I was going to do, so I’m really happy,” adds Stepp.

Regis saw six Top 3 finishes in the District meet with Amaia Rodriguez (Long Jump), Adelle Otter (Javelin), Daisy Hernandez (300-meter Hurdles) and Mac Parrish (200-meter dash) finish third with Parrish finishing second in Long Jump.  Lauren Crowell finished third in the 100-meter dash as well as winning the Pole Vaulting District Title with a jump of 7-feet-10-inches.  Crowell was also named Track and Field Athlete of the year as a senior.

“I didn’t think I was going to do good, but I did and I’m happy, I’m excited,” smiled Crowell.  “I keep dropping my arms, which isn’t good in Pole Vault.  So I need to focus on vaulting mostly and work on some other events.”

Crowell was also part of the District winning 4×100 meter relay team along with Stepp, Parrish and Rodriguez.

On the guys side, despite an interesting day in the discus where he finished with a throw of 115-feet 2.5-inches, Regis’ Cameron Diacetis was named Male Field Athlete of the Year as the senior thrower will be heading to the State Meet in both the Shot Put and Discus.

“It drives me a lot because I don’t like second-place,” laughed Diacetis.  “I wish I could’ve done better, but that’s ok.  Next week is the week that counts.  I think I get nervous quickly and I get in my own head, but that happens to a lot of us.  I had a few (good) throws that were scratches, which sucks.  I’ll definitely have to focus harder this week.  I’ll just have to dial-in my last week of training, last week ever so I got to make it count.”

Laughlin Vetter joins Diacetis at State following his second-place finish at javelin as well as Tim Crowell and Aidan Klascius from Pole Vault.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald