Harguess, James propel Outlaw girls; Ferguson, Leavitt shine for Joseph

Published 11:01 am Monday, May 29, 2023

EUGENE — While injuries late in the season forced adjustments to the events athletes on the Enterprise girls track-and-field team competed in and may have hindered its chances to claim a state title, they couldn’t keep the Outlaws from claiming a trophy.

A win and second-place finish by Owyhee Harguess, a victory by the 4×400-meter relay team and a second-place showing by Nevaeh James helped propel Enterprise to a third-place finish at the 2A state championships Thursday and Friday, May 25-26, in Eugene.

“It was about as well as could be expected for the changes we made for the girls,” head coach Dan Moody said.

Mid- and late-season injuries to Harguess and James led to them being moved from the events they were either at or near the top of the state in.

Despite that, the Outlaws still finished within 10 points of eventual state champion Bandon, which had 61 points. Heppner was second at 58 and Enterprise scored 51.

“As a team, they really came together to try to pick up the slack we were missing,” Moody said.

Harguess maintained her stranglehold on the 400, easily winning it in 57.79 seconds, and also placed second in the 800 in 2:23.87.

James placed second in the 300 hurdles — the event she was the defending state champion in — in 47.95, and added a fourth in the 200 and eighth in the long jump.

Individual scoring for the Outlaws also came from Maddie Nordtvedt, who was sixth in the 800, and McKenzie Harguess, who was eighth in the 200.

“Through the year, the kids stepped up. The girls short relay kept improving all year,” Moody said. “That was a team without the two top sprinters on our team. They just continued to keep improving. McKenzie just kept improving in the 200, and made it into the finals of the state 200.”

The 4×100 team of Althea Komiskey, Nordtvedt, Mercy Peters and McKenzie Harguess placed fourth, and the team wrapped the state meet with the 4×400 team of the Harguess sisters, Nordtvedt and James winning in 4:13.02, kicking off an Enterprise sweep in the mile relay. The Enterprise High School boys won their run in the relay later Friday night.

“I told the kids, what would be more fitting for us to end this meet, no matter how it goes, both champions. I’ve never had two teams win it the same year,” Moody said of the Outlaws’ sweep in what he has long declared his favorite race. “They were pumped for it.”

The boys’ title-winning team in the event consisted of Lute Ramsden, Ransom Peters, Weston Wolfe and Andrew Nordtvedt, and won in a time of 3:31.43. The win capped a seventh-place finish for the Enterprise boys, who scored 37 points.

Ramsden won a state title in the 400 in 51.07, and Wolfe — fifth in the district meet in the 300 hurdles — earned second at state in 42.05.

“He had never broken 44 (seconds) before. He skipped 43 and went right to 42.04 (in the preliminaries),” Moody said. “The next day he ran an identical race, 42.05.”

Tanner Kesecker placed fourth in the discus at 127 feet, 7 inches, and the 4×100 relay team — Peters, Ramsden, Nordtvedt and Cory Walker — placed fifth.

Joseph resultsThe Joseph girls were propelled to a fifth-place finish in the 1A state meet by state titles by Annie Rose Miller and the 4×400 relay team, along with a runner-up effort by Molly Curry in the triple jump.

Miller, a freshman, won the championship in the pole vault, clearing 9 feet, 3 inches. She also placed fifth in the 300 hurdles and was part of both relay teams — the winning mile relay team which posted a time of 4:15.15, and the seventh-place 4×100 team.

Miller, Curry, Caleigh Johnson and Emmerson Hook made up the 4×400 team, with Miller, Curry, Johnson and Camdyn Weer running the 4×100 relay.

Head coach John Roberts said the Eagles had to put in a major effort to hold off Adrian and Powder Valley in the 4×400 relay. All of the top three teams crossed within 1.59 seconds of each other.

“We had to run like mad to beat Adrian and North Powder,” he said. “We didn’t settle for what we did at district. We took another two seconds off. We needed it to beat both those teams. Our girls were consistent with their times.”

Curry’s second-place finish in the triple jump at 32-feet, 10.5 inches, and her effort in the relays came in what Roberts said was the senior’s first season of track since eighth grade.

Johnson added a fifth-place finish in the 400, and Mary Hellinger took sixth in both the 1,500 and 3,000.

“It was all a great day for the girls,” she said.

On the boys side, Kale Ferguson wrapped up his high school career with a state title in the javelin, and Jett Leavitt also won state in the 3,000 to lead the Eagles to a tie for sixth place.

Ferguson turned in a dominant performance where all six of his throws bested the second-place finisher. He finished things off with a final heave and program record of 189 feet, 4 inches — a mark that would have won a state title at 2A, 3A or 5A, and would have been second in 4A or 6A. Ferguson also was third in the discus with a throw of 139 feet, 5 inches.

“Last year he was down in the dumps (because of how state went), but he came on pretty good this year,” Roberts said.

Leavitt’s title came in a photo finish, as his time of 9:02.40 edged Condon’s Grady Greenwood by 0.01 seconds. He was also sixth in the 1,500.

Roberts said Leavitt had to recover after bumping into a runner late in the race, but “he caught back up against the kid from Condon and got him at the finish line.”

Jonah Lyman added a fifth-place finish in the 3,000, and Gavin Russell placed eighth in the javelin.