Lady Panthers win District 4 championship in runaway fashion

BAKER CITY — Imbler rolled to an easy win in Saturday’s 1A District 4 girls track championships, scoring more than twice as many points as it closest pursuer.

By the end of the meet at Baker High School, the Panthers had finished with 161 points.

Cove settled for a distant second with 75 points, three points ahead of Harper (72 points) and nine points ahead of Crane (66 points).

Prairie City took fifth with 57 points, edging Monument (sixth, 56 points). Powder Valley took eighth with 30 points, while Joseph finished with 12 points. Huntington had eight points to take 10th, followed by Dayville (seven) and Ukiah (three).

Imbler’s victory was built on the track, with Kelcie Wiley winning two sprints (200 meters and 400 meters) and finishing second in the 100 meters. 

She emerged as a victor in two out of the three races where she faced Cove’s Morgan Reddington.

Imbler won half of the 10 track events, with the Lady Panthers getting 50 points from just its first-place finishes in the track events.

Mikayla Martin placed first in the 800 meters and adding a leg in the winning 4x400-meter relay.

Martin, along with Jessica Snider, Cecily Magee and Kristen Allstott, ran a relay of 4:27.97, nearly eight seconds faster than second-place Adrian.

Emma Bowers won the 100-meter hurdles, then added a victory in the triple jump. 

She also placed second in the long jump and fourth in the 100 meters.

Cove’s Hannah Brazil gave the Leopards’ two wins in the distance events — the 1,500 (5:36.26) meters and the 3,000 meters (12:38.57).

Molly DeCurto won the pole vault with an 8-6 clearance that tied the school record, while Imbler’s Angela Stafford placed second by clearing 6-6. 

Stafford also placed second in both the 1,500 and 3,000 meter races and helped the 4x100-meter relay place third.

Amanda Stafford gave Imbler a pair of thirds in the two hurdle races.

According to Cove coach Kevin Buse, the Cove girls struggled early in the meet. 

“We had a rough day early, but they rallied and finished the day strong.”

Powder Valley picked up one victory in the high jump by junior Ali Abrego clearing 5-0.

Amy Eubanks nabbed two second-place finishes for the Badgers.

Eubanks finished second in the 300-meter hurdles (54.52) and another second in the 100-meter hurles (17.62).

Joseph’s Jade DeLury finished second in the 800 meters with a time of 2:36.12.

The OSAA 1A state track meet will be held Friday and Saturday in Monmouth on the campus of Western Oregon University.