South Eugene track’s best results of the season so far
On Apr. 4-5, Eugene’s Hayward Field hosted its signature high school invitational track meet, Oregon Relays. In both this major event and various other track meets before and since, there have been tons of outstanding performances by South Eugene track and field athletes.
Starting off with South’s solo distance runners, freshman Eva Johnson Hess and senior Madi Zemper-Prill won their events. Eva won the girls’ open mile in a blazing 4:55.09 (U.S. No. 21) and Madi won the girls’ championship 2000m steeplechase in dominant fashion and got a time of 7:15.33 (U.S. No. 6). Sophomore Khalil Sabzalian, senior Frances Blake and sophomore Julianne Bawden had great success in the boys’ and girls’ two-mile races, each achieving times that were ranked top 100 in the U.S. Finally, junior Yosuke Shibata got fourth in the championship mile with a blistering time of 4:09.97 (U.S. No. 6).
South’s relay teams also got great results. The boys’ 4000m distance medley relay team got third in a staggering 10:09.85 (U.S. No. 3) and the girls’ team got seventh in an incredible 12:05.72 (U.S. No. 13). The girls’ 1600m sprint medley relay placed sixth in 4:18.24, a top-40 mark in the U.S. this year. Overall, Oregon Relays was an amazing meet for South, as the team scored 31 points and placed 22nd out of 127 schools from across the west coast and beyond.
At The Opener, a meet hosted by Willamette on Mar. 18, South’s Yosuke Shibata, Dakota Jett and Hauke Kiley swept the varsity 800m, while sophomores Jacob Loveless and Khalil Sabzalian got first and third in the 1500m respectively. Oregon Relays standout performers Eva Johnson Hess and Madi Zemper-Prill also got first and third in the girls’ varsity 1500m. There were plenty of other wins for the team in junior varsity events, and South Eugene even won the girls varsity division.
At a Grant’s Pass dual meet on Apr. 8, there unfortunately weren’t as many highlights, as the meet had to be cut short due to a storm causing lightning strikes in the area and a “shelter in place” warning. South freshman Grayson Biglan described the experience in an interview the day after.
“It was pretty bad,” Biglan said. “There was a thunderstorm, and we all had to go inside [the Grant’s Pass gym] for, like, an hour and then we didn’t get to do all of our events.”
Fortunately, South’s track team made their own fun indoors while they waited to be let out. Biglan explained that he played basketball during the wait, and athletes jokingly raced indoors, as seen in an Instagram post by SEHS Distance Running.
The most recent meet as of writing was the T Smith Need for Speed Invitational, hosted by Sherwood on Apr. 11. Junior Yosuke Shibata and sophomore Khalil Sabzalian once again put out great performances in the 3000m, with Shibata in second place and Sabzalian in sixth. Both athletes achieved times in the top 20 in the U.S. Sophomore Jacob Loveless and senior Madi Zemper-Prill tore up the track in the 1500m once again, with both of them getting second and achieving top 50 U.S. times for this season. Finally, in the 4x800m relay, both the boys and girls team were victorious. The boys team really shone, as they broke the meet record in a time of 7:58.59 (U.S. No. 74).
South Eugene’s track team is looking outstanding this season, and hopefully many athletes can go to districts and even qualify for the OSAA state championship in May.
Article by Elliott Gardner