Joseph track and field athletes win four titles at state meet

Published 3:47 pm Sunday, May 28, 2023

EUGENE — Joseph’s Jett Leavitt will not soon forget his state title in the recent 1A 3,000-meter boys’ race.

Fans of track and field will not forget the finish and Condon’s Grady Greenwood will have the memory for some time. In a timing difference usually reserved for 100-meter races, Leavitt used a final kick on the final meters of the eight-lap race to take a state title by 1/100th of a second on Thursday, May 25.

Leavitt crossed the line in 9 minutes, 2.40 seconds, beating out Greenwood’s 9:02.41 in the closest race of the entire meet.

Leavitt’s victory was only part of the Eagle boys taking fifth in the team scoring with 44 points.

Joining Leavitt with a state title was senior Kale Ferguson, who won first place in the javelin event on Friday, May 26, with a throw of 189 feet, 3.75 inches, 6 feet beyond his best throw of his career.

Ferguson also picked up third in the discus event while Leavitt was sixth in the 1,500 meters. Freshman Jonah Lyman placed fifth in the 3,000 meters.

The Joseph girls finished sixth in the team standings after putting up 34 points. Leading the push and using the final race on Friday, May 26, was the championship 4-by-400 relay team comprised of senior Molly Curry, joined by freshmen Emmerson Hook, Annie Rose Miller and Caleigh Johnson, with a time of 4 minutes, 15.15 seconds.

In addition to her title on the relay team, Curry picked up second place in the triple jump to close out her high school career.

Sophomore Basey Dawson brought home an individual medal, winning the high jump after clearing 4 feet, 8 inches on Thursday, May 25. It was the same height she cleared in the recent 1A Special District 4 meet.