Valley Catholic High School senior Jaya Simmons won the Girls 3,000m 3A title in 9:54.73. Photo by Rian Yamasaki.

By Owen Murray, TrackTown USA

Results

The finish line at Hayward Field is already world-renowned. On Thursday, though, it became a different type of destination.

High school athletes at the OSAA Track and Field State Championships wrapped up their seasons — and for some of them, their careers — under the tower in Eugene on Thursday. The 1A, 2A and 3A competitors took the stage on day one of the meet — and set new state records, ran several personal-best times and closed out their high school track seasons with a bang.

Top-ranked Oregon pole vaulter Sawyer Dean needed just one clearance to secure the boys’ 1A title: with his first attempt set at 4.31m (14-1.75), he entered the competition after every other competitor exited. It didn’t matter for the Trout Lake High School senior, who stood alone as he cleared for the title.

“You’ve just got to trust your training, and trust everything you’ve done the day before,” Dean said. “I hit the jump like it was my last (high school) track meet — and it was.”

Dean, who jumped a personal-best height at the Oregon Relays at Hayward Field earlier this season, is the Oregon 1A all-time leading pole vaulter. He didn’t set a new lifetime best after three misses at 4.90m (16-0.75) on Thursday, but did break his own 2024 meet record with a 4.73m (15-06.25) clearance by the time he took the podium. Dean’s track & field career is far from over, though. The Trout Lake senior is committed to pole vault for Eastern Oregon University starting this fall.

Yoncalla High School junior Jayden Churchwell won the Boys High Jump 1A title with a jump of 1.97m (6-05.50 ft). Photo by Rian Yamasaki.

Jayden Churchwell had a familiar experience to Dean: after he won his own 1A title, he was the only athlete still jumping. Churchwell, a junior from Yoncalla High School, officially took the win when he cleared 1.97m (6-05.50) in the boys’ high jump — his ninth-straight first attempt clearance.

“I think I can focus less on the competition aspect and more on self-improvement (when it’s less crowded),” Churchwell said. “I love practice — practice is fun.”

He’s been working at his next mark (2.04m / 6-08) in practice for a while, he said. Once he was the only athlete left, he had three shots. It just felt like practice, he said. He didn’t get a clearance — not this year — but that’s what’s coming soon.

“The goal’s always seven feet,” Churchwell said. “I think that, with a lot of practice, and a lot of training I could hit it.”

Bandon High School junior Caitlyn Michalek won the Girls Javelin Throw 2A title with a throw of 43.02m (141-01 ft). Photo by Rian Yamasaki.

Bandon High School junior Caitlyn Michalek was the 5th-ranked javelin thrower in Oregon pre-meet. On day one, she threw a personal-best and OR #3 43.02m (141-01) to become the 2A state champion. Her mark, which was more than nine feet farther than the runner-up, was one she’d been chasing.

“I looked back at it last week, and I was like, ‘I think I can hit 140 feet,’” Michalek said. “I was throwing 130 feet pretty consistently, and just kept bumping it up.”

She didn’t hit her 150-foot goal at Hayward Field this year, but she says that’s top of her list for a potential return in her senior year.

Meanwhile, Caroline Mauro, a senior from the Catlin Gabel School in Portland, jumped a new OR #1 3A girls’ high jump mark: 1.71m (5-08). She’s set to compete at Princeton University next year — but this was how she wanted to cap her Oregon high school career. She recovered from what she called an “overuse injury” in her right foot that held her out from competition for six months to appear at Hayward Field.

“The season has been a little all over the place, definitely,” she said. “I didn’t know if I could compete — I didn’t know how much I would be able to.”

When she cleared 5-7, she said, it was the first time she’d cleared a height over 5-5 since 2024. She was able to take a breath.

“It was very relieving — very exciting,” she said. “It was pure joy.”

The long distance finals took over the rest of the afternoon: Girls 1A 3000m winner Lilly Weer, from Joseph High School, was one of 11 athletes in her race to run a personal-best time. Her final mark, 10:19.80, is a new OR #30 time.

“It’s amazing how this is one of the biggest tracks in the country, and so cool to be able to run on that. Not a lot of high school students get to do that.”

**– Joseph High School freshman Lilly Weer**

“It’s crazy,” Weer said of the field. “I think four of us are from my district…it’s crazy to have so many fast people, especially in the 1A competition. I never imagined that we’d all run this fast.”

Thursday was Weer’s first time running at Hayward Field — she’d watched state championship races there before, but got to take the track for the first time in her win. She tried not to watch herself on the looming video board, she said — she focused on the kick that “comes when she needs it to”.

She needed it in the final…and it came. She won by less than three seconds.

“Everything is so big,” Weer said of the stadium. “It’s amazing how this is one of the biggest tracks in the country, and so cool to be able to run on that. Not a lot of high school students get to do that.”

Weer’s teammate, boys’ 3000m winner Jett Leavitt, didn’t need a kick. He won his race by more than 51 seconds, in 8:30.37 — a new personal-best and OR #16 time. In second place, too, was his training partner, Jonah Lyman.

“I think it’s really cool,” Leavitt said. “It happened last year, too, but seeing him finish at the end not too far behind me is so cool. We train every day together. Seeing my friend and my teammate finish with me is really cool.”

3A girls’ 3000m winner Jaya Simmons’ win was her second-consecutive state title in the race; a 9:54.73 time secured the win in what could be the Valley Catholic High School senior’s final race in that uniform.

“There was definitely a lot of pain on the final lap,” Simmons said. “I really went out hard, but just knowing as a senior that this is my last 3000m here meant that I had to push through that last lap.”

Friday at Hayward Field welcomes the 4A, 5A and 6A competitors to the stadium. Competition begins with the 4A girls’ 3000m at 9:00 a.m. Pacific time.