Local athletes return for Astorian Invitational
Local track and field athletes returned to Astoria Middle School for The Astorian Invitational. Saturday’s meet was filled with a number of highlights.
Astoria girls 4x100 meter relay team consisting of Harlie Wiedmaier, Maia Long, Ashley Sisley and Sophie Saarheim started the track events off with a bang. The foursome ran a flawless relay, blazing the course in a personal best time of 51.01 seconds.
They were followed closely by the Warrenton team of Frances Taggart, Grace Duncan, Jamie Annat and Brenna Qualm, who ran a personal best time of 53.66.
Another hot event on the track was the boys 1500-meter event, which featured Warrenton’s Jayden Warner, Knappa’s Wyatt Jacobson and Oskar Peitsch and Astoria’s William Laman.
Three out of the four runners clocked personal records in this race, and saw Warner and Jacobson duke it out to the finish.
Warner brilliantly followed Jacobson for 1200 meters, and made his move with 300 meters to go on the backstretch. Warner won the event in 4:18.06.
This time smashed his previous best time of 4:29.50 that was set April 6 in Estacada. Laman and Peitsch also had personal best times, and Peitsch broke 4:30 for the first time in his high school career.
Kyler McCleary
Seaside’s Kyler McCleary during his personal best 6-6 high jump on Saturday.
For those keeping an eye on jumpers, the events were ruled by Seaside. The trio of Kyler McCleary, Maddie Menke and Tyler Feeney dominated their respective events.
Menke was the winner in both long jump and triple jump. Menke flew through the air in the long jump to a personal best of 16-5 1/4. This was more than one foot better than her teammate Ella Clyde, who finished second with a personal best jump of 15-5.
Menke followed up the long jump with a personal best in the triple jump of 33-10. She flew past her Cowapa League rival, Maevri Bergerson, of Astoria, in the triple jump.
In the pole vault, Feeney improved upon his previous personal best with a new highest jump of 11-6.
The athlete who stole the show was McCleary in the high jump. McCleary seemingly defied gravity as he hung in the air to clear the elusive 6-6 barrier and received cheers from the Seaside fans watching him.
This jump topped his previous best of 6-3, and catapulted him into a tie for first place in the 4A division with Brayden Decker, of Phoenix.
“Six feet, four inches has been a stepping stone I’ve been trying to beat this season,” McCleary said. “It feels good to finally get over it. I was practicing over the weekend, even when there’s not practices, and the work’s paying off.”
