The News

Greer Places 4th at USA Track& Field Junior Championships

Lake Oswego graduate and future Oregon Duck Elijah Greer placed fourth in the 800-meter final of the National Junior (19 & under) Championships in Eugene, OR at Historic Hayward Field. Greer, who won his qualifying prelim heat in 1:52.16 on Saturday improved that time in Sunday's finals to 1:52.12 on a sunny and warm, but windy afternoon. He moved into position after the first lap and accelerated into the lead with approximately 300 meter remaining. However, he was not able to hold the lead over the final 200 meters. Washington State freshman Joe Abbot won the event in 1:51.54, with Minnesota prep Zack Mellon second at 1:51.70 and Stanford frosh Dylan Ferris third (1:51.89). 

Greer Places 4th in Portland Distance Festival Mile on Saturday evening.

Recent Laker graduate Elijah Greer ran a new school record of 4:08.08 in placing 4th  the featured high school mile event at Lewis & Clark's track complex (6.13.09). The event will brought together some of the nation's top prep middle distance stars including the heralded future University of Virginia runner Robbie Andrews of New Jersey, San Diego's (and future U of O duck) Mac Fleet, Alaska's Trevor Dunbar (headed to University of Portland), future Duck Elliot Jantzer of Phoenix High School in Oregon, and others.

Running at the rear of the pack Greer passed the first quarter mile in a slow for (this caliber of competition) 64.0 seconds. The pace picked up and he covered the second lap in 1:02 as he moved up into a better position. The leaders, Fleet and Andrews,  quickened the pace and Greer followed them and Dunbar through 1320 yards at 3:06--running a 60.4 lap. After catching Dunbar on the backstretch, Greer couldn't get around the Footlocker National Cross Country runnerup and remained in fourth to the finish. He covered the final 440 in approximately 1:01.5. 

Fleet, who will be a teammate of both Greer and Jantzer next year in Eugene, held off Andrews to win in 4:02.9. Andrews ran 4:03.49 and Dunbar 4:06.65. Fleet's time in currently the second fastest nationally this year for a high school runner.

Reis Places 4th at BorderDuel

The Lakers Cali Reis competed in the second annual BorderDuel Track Classic at Lewis & Clark College on Saturday, 6.6.09. She placed fourth in the 300 Intermediate Hurdles with a time of 47.27a after advancing through the prelims with a time of 48.52a.  

LO To Host Summer All Comers Track & Field Meets

The Lake Oswego Track & Field Booster Club will host their annual summer all comers Track & Field Meets on three Wednesday evening during July (8, 15 & 22). For more information and details, please select the All Comers Meets page from the menu at at the left of this page.

Greer Runs 1:49.15 in Prefontaine Classic

http://www.kptv.com/video/19558612/index.html

http://www.kptv.com/video/19491301/index.html

Hatfield 3rd at Oregon Elite Meet

Laker senior Micah Hatfield placed third in the first annual Oregon Elite Meet at Summit High School in Bend, OR on Saturday, 5.30.09. Hatfield,  who won the 6A state championship the week before, ran his slowest time of the season with a clocking of 15.26a behind 5A state champion Mark Flegel (14.96a) of Crook Country and 6A runnerup Lucas Noling (15.03a) of Central Catholic.

Laker Boys Take 3rd at State

Lake Oswego seniors Elijah Greer and Micah Hatfield scored 36 individual points and teamed with seniors Paul Hoard and Thomas Belesiu for four more with a fifth place in the 4 x 400 relay to pace the Lakers to their highest finish in recent memory.

Greer added two more state titles to his two previous--1500 in 2007 and 800 in 2008--as he won both of those events this year with his patented finishing kick. In the much anticipated 1500 (see photo above), Elijah followed behind the front running of Lincoln's Nathan Mathabane (who had the fastest time in the country going into the meet) for almost 1300 meters before covering the final 200 in a blazing 26.8 seconds to win in a new personal best of 3:50.56. He returned to the track later to win the 800 in a very tactical 1:59.51 after following the pack through a rather pedestrian 1:03 first lap. 

Hatfield (on left in photo above) had his usual good start in the 110 High Hurdles and held off the fast closing Lucas Noling of Central Catholic (not in photo) to win in a time of 14.68a to 14.70a. Micah followed up his victory with a third place finish in the 300 meter Intermediate Hurdles with a time of 39.38a, bettering his seventh place of last year. He had also placed third in the 110s last year.

Tate Murray repeated her second place finish to Jesuit's Annamarie Maag in the 3000 on Friday with a second place in the 1500 with a new personal best and school record of 4:37.73. The 3000 was also a PB and school record. Freshman Christy Wood got her first taste of state meet competition this weekend and placed sixth in the 200 meters with a time of 25.67a, the 4th best recorded time by a Laker. She earlier teamed with Madison Keele, Jacqui Wallis and Cali Reis to place 8th in the 4 x 100 relay with a time of 50.07a.

The final event of the meet featured the favored Lakers 4 x 400 relay which ran 3:24.09 to place fifth. Greer once again produced a sub-49-second effort as he clocked 48.21 on the final leg. Legs by Belesiu (52.29), Hoard (52.29) and Hatfield (51.30) gave Greer the baton with too much ground to make up. The Lakers have placed 4th ('07), 6th ('08) and 5th in the past three years, but graduate all four runners plus injured standout James Ratliff.

For more photos please go to 2009 State Photos.

Murray Takes 2nd in State 6A 3,000 with New School Record

Laker junior Tate Murray ran the best race of her career as she placed second in the 6A 3,000-meter final on Friday evening in front of an announced crowd of over 7,500 spectators. Her time of 10:10.32 was a personal best by approximately eleven seconds and bettered the previous school record by 5 seconds. Ignoring the Oregonian's prediction of a 1-2-3 sweep in the event by the always-strong Jesuit contingent, Murray was able to move into the runnerup position after two kilometers, although she could not make up ground on her Jesuit friend Annamarie Maag, who ran 9:58 for the championship.

  State 6A runnerup Tate Murray and her coach Laura Caldwell celebrate after the 3000.

In the preliminaries Elijah Greer advanced to Saturday's finals in the 800 meters with a time of 1:59.65 easily winning his heat. He also anchored the 4 x 400 relay with a sub-49 clocking to win the first of two heats and advance in 3:24.30 with teammates Thomas Belesiu, Paul Hoard and Micah Hatfield. Hatfield had earlier won his heat of the 110 High Hurdles with a personal best of 14.74a also advanced to the finals of the 300 Intermediate Hurdles with a 39:49 time, which was 7th overall.

The day began with the girls 4 x 100 relay of Christy Wood, Jacqui Wallis, Madison Keele and Cali Reis running the seventh fastest qualifying time (49:55) to advance to Saturday's finals. Wood also qualified for the 200-meter final with a time of 25:70a, while Wallis' 26:76a did not advance as she placed 12th overall. Reis ran 47:42a in the 300-meter Intermediate Hurdles, placing 10th and not qualifying for the final.

Another Good Article on Greer

www.dyestat.com

Micah Hatfield winning the 110 High Hurdles at the TRL Championships.

Three Rivers League District Championships

Elijah Greer completed his TRL district career by winning the 800 (1:54.61), 1500 (4:11.90) and 4 x 400 relay events for the third consecutive year. Mical Hatfield also won three events by hurdling to victory in the 110 High Hurdles (14.86a), 300 Intermediate Hurdles (39.21a) and the 4 x 400 relay. 

Tate Murray won the 1500 (4:52.88) for the second consecutive year, after winning the 3000 on Friday and ran lead-off on the third place 4 x 400 relay. Christy Wood won the 200 meters (26.11a) after running on the winning 4 x 100 relay and placing third in the 100 meters (12.88a).

Unfortunately, defending champion in both hurdles events James Ratliff had to pull up in the 300 hurdles due to a tender hamstring and was then not available to run on the defending 4 x 400 relay. Paul Hoard, fresh off a personal best performance of 1:59.92 for fifth in the 800 meters, filled in for Ratliff in the relay and ran a 52.16-second split after taking the baton from Thomas Belesiu (51.56). Hatfield's 50.46 third leg gave the baton to Greer in second place and the Laker star covered the final 400 meters in 48.28 to catch Putnam's Ricky Garcia. The Lakers time of 3:22.46 is the fastest in the state this year.

Noah Estuesta threw a new personal best of 167'02" to place third in the Javelin and now has the fifth best performance in LO history. Chris Luetjen just missed qualifying for state with his third place in the 100 meters (11:42a) as did Jacqui Wallis with her third place in the 400 (1:00.43). She came back to anchor the third place 4 x 400 relay with a split of 58.84. Gabi d'Amato also placed third, in the Pole Vault with a clearance of 9'0". 

State Qualifiers

Girls:

200 meters--Christy Wood & Jacqui Wallis

1500 & 3000--Tate Murray

300 Hurdles--Cali Reis

4 x 100 Relay--Christy Wood, Jacqui Wallis, Cali Reis, Madison Keele

Boys:

800 & 1500--Elijah Greer

110 and 300 Hurdles--Micah Hatfield

4 x 400 Relay--Thomas Belesiu, Paul Hoard, Micah Hatfield, Elijah Greer 

Photos on Photos 3 page.

Day 1.

Tate Murray won the 3000-meter district championship in the final event of Day 1 at the TRL meet. The Laker junior followed Milwaukie's Erin McLaughlin until just before 2 kilometers and then used a 71 second final circuit to win by nine seconds in a time of 10:29.?

In other finals, senior Taylor Pearce set a new personal best in the Pole Vault, placing fourth with a clearance of 12'0". Melanie Overall placed fifth in the girls Javelin with a throw of 121'6" and Madison Keele was 5th in the Long Jump at 15'07.5". 

One of the top highlights in the preliminary rounds was Christy Wood's winning both the 100 (12.86a) and 200 (26.23a) in personal records. Other top highlights included Micah Hatfield's 14.85a heat victory in the 110 meter High Hurdles, which is the third best in Laker history. He and James Ratliff both won their heats in the 300 meter Intermediate Hurdles to qualify for Friday's finals.

Photos from Day 1 are on 2009 Photos 3 page.