By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

SPRINGFIELD, Ore.–  Consistency was crucial for Amity senior Hailee Stewart Saturday morning at the Harvey Lewellen Throws Invitational at Thurston High School in the discus.  Despite the cold weather, the snow and rain mixture, the Warrior senior stayed consistent with her near 100-foot throws in the event, topping out at 97-feet-6-inches, third-best in the Discus.  Finishing only behind Sprignfield’s Kylie Rankins (107-feet-3-inches) and the Colts Stella Hall (105-feet-10-inches) from Thurston.

Coming off of last year, finishing eighth at 3A at 104-feet-8-inches, she felt inspired by former teammate Haley Vanderzanden after the then-senior suffered a tough shoulder injury last year with Stewart wanting to carry the torch for her at the State Meet last year.

“She inspired me about how much passion that she had for this sport and trying to beat our records and beat each other’s records,” starts Stewart.  “Haley, who hurt her shoulder, it was good for me to get out there and help be the person out there for her since she couldn’t go.”

As nice as the result might have been Saturday, Stewart knows that it’s frustrating now that she hit 100-feet at 3A State last Spring as a junior and not being able to do it again early in her senior season.  Her goals are high and she’s already holding herself to that high-standard that Stewart has set this Spring.

“It’s been really hard for me to get past a hundred again from state (last year), I’ve been struggling getting up to 100 (feet),”  Stewart said.  “I’m just trying to push out and maybe muscle it more out there than I have been and more form basically.  My goal is to hit 120-feet, but it’s the best that I can do right now.”

Stewart finished tenth at the Shot Put (26-feet-5-inches).  Kylie Wilson finished fourth at the Javelin with a 83-feet-10-inch throw while PR-ing in the Shot Put (24-feet-5-inches) and discus (69-feet-4-inches), finishing tenth in each of the two latter events.

On the Boys Side, Kiyan Vrell made the most of his javelin throws Saturday.  With his first throw, the Amity sophomore threw an amazing 152-feet-3-inch PR and started his second high school season with a bang knowing he was a mere inch away from qualifying for the 3A State Meet in the event last year as a freshman.

And now that he got one milestone goal out of the way, he can focus on the next one coming out of the third meet of the season.

“It was good to finally see it happen in a meet since we’ve been practicing it in practice.  I’ve been hitting it right there, it was good to finally get it all connected in a meet,” Vrell starts.  “It was really motivating to get that 150, that’s been my goal for the first half of the season and then transitioning into the 160’s.  To do it in the third meet of the year is really big for me to finally get that mark down.

“Now it’s just getting my tip-down, going through the tip and not pulling at the shaft.  That’s what I’ve been working on in practice and in the first one, that’s what made it flew.”

Vrell finished second in the javelin, finishing six feet behind Springfield’s Lucas Paugh.  Vrell also finished third in the Discus (109-feet-3-inch PR) and seventh in the Shot Put (33-feet-9-inch PR).  The Warriors Bo Sims was sixth (99-feet-3-inches PR) and Nick Hermens was eighth (96-feet-8-inches PR) in the Discus as Amity will host the 3A/2A Special District 2 Meet on April 6 before heading back to McMinnville on April 14 for the Vic Down Mac Invite.

As a team, the Warriors were third in the Boy’ s Team Standings while the Amity Girls team finished foueth.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald