Enterprise’s Dickenson wins three first-place medals at state track

Published 4:00 am Friday, May 17, 2024

EUGENE — Daisy Dickenson wanted to try out for track when she was a sophomore, but chickened out.

This year, though, the senior at Enterprise High School had a change of heart: “I thought, ‘why not? It’s my last year,’ and I decided to go for it.”

On Friday, May 17 at Eugene’s Hayward Field — at the state championship track meet — Dickenson’s decision paid off with a first-place medal in the para-athlete 100 meter dash. She finished with a time of 17.19 seconds.

Dickenson, who was born without a left foot, won the ambulatory division of the event.

Her strategy for the race on a sunny Friday morning dotted with clouds was straightforward: “Go hard, go fast and just look forward.”

She said friends and the Outlaw coaching staff, led by Dan Moody, were keys in helping her prepare for the race, held under sunny skies dotted with clouds.

Dickenson said she gets many of her prosthetics from the Shriners Children’s Hospital in Spokane, and had been fitted at the start of the track season for a special running leg. But that leg didn’t work out, she said, and she fell back to using another prosthetic: “This leg has been my buddy since the beginning of the season and it’s been amazing to be able to use it.”

Dickenson went on to win two other state titles on Friday.

Competing in the para-athlete mixed shot put event, Dickenson won the girls’ ambulatory division with a toss of 27 feet, 8.75 inches. And Friday evening, she won the girls’ ambulatory division of the 400-meter race with a time of 1 minute, 23.17 seconds.