Hayward Field, EUGENE, OR - 4/22/06 –While picking up their awards at this weekend’s XO Elite Sections held during the Oregon Invite at Hayward Field, one of the girl’s from Sandy High School’s victorious 4x400 m relay team jokingly asked one of the meet workers, “Don’t you know who this is?  This is Sheryl Page!”  She need not even have jokingly asked, because after Saturday, everyone at Hayward Field knew who Sheryl Page was. 

Just one week after having run two XO Invite records, two state-bests, and one personal best in a meet marred by gale force winds, pelting rain, and cold temperatures, the Sandy senior came back to Hayward Field for the XO Elite Sections to announce to anyone who cared to pay attention that she was fast no matter what the conditions were.  First she took the track in the girl’s elite mile—a race that sported some other runners with pretty stellar credentials, namely Lauren Zaludek (Jr., Elmira)—where she stayed bunched with the pack for one torturously slow lap during which no one wanted to take the lead, before bursting out with characteristic style in a 68 second lap that carried her to victory by over ten seconds.  Then, undaunted by the quick turn-around, she stepped back on the track not 20 minutes later as the third leg of the Sandy High School 4x400m relay team.  Taking the baton in the lead, Sheryl held her own against the state’s leading 400m runner, Devon Williams (Sr., Churchill), and helped her team to a state best time of 4:00.76, three seconds better than the runner-up Churchill, and over ten seconds better than their time from just a week ago at the XO Invite.   Hayward Field, meet Sheryl Page. Finale

The stars also came out in the boy’s elite mile.  It was supposed to be the clash of two future University of Oregon teammates, Kenny Klotz (Sr., Central Catholic) and Isaac Stoutenburg  (Sr., Crater), but the strong north wind and a Washington state runner, Joe Churchill (Sr., Auburn Riverside, WA), making his Hayward Field debut had something to say about that.  The three runners packed up tightly through the first three laps, as first Isaac, then Kenny took the brunt of the wind, running 64-65 second laps.  Coming through for the bell lap, Klotz again took the lead, this time lengthening his stride and easily pulling away over the course of the last lap for a three second victory, crossing the line in 4:17.84.  That left the race for the second to Joe and Isaac.  Through 1300m it looked like the future Oregon Duck might make it a 1-2 finish for Oregon, but with around 200m to go, Isaac appeared broken and Joe blew around him, using his powerful build to battle through the wind and to the finish line in second place in 4:20.72, a little over a second up on Stoutenburg in 4:22.05.

Friday night under the lights found the boy’s two-mile competitors seemingly unfazed by their famous counterparts in the evening’s other events.  In that race Jake Keyser (Jr., Crater) took an almost insurmountable lead mid-way through the race after leaving the early race pack that had seen all the competitors bunched up, huddled against the howling wind.  However over the final few laps, a hard-charging Eric Lynch (Sr., South Eugene) nearly snuck up on Keyser, before Keyser threw in one final surge to the line, winning by a mere eight hundredths of a second.  Special mention should go to fourth place finisher Zac Ross (Jr., Meadville, PA), who traveled all the way from western Pennsylvania to experience the rarified air of Hayward Field.

Not to be forgotten, rounding out the XO Elite Sections on Saturday afternoon, was the boy’s 4x400m relay.  That race pitted a newcomer to the XO fold, St. Helens, against this year’s XO Invite runner-up McNary.  True to form, St. Helens, the number four ranked relay team in the state, held on for the victory over McNary 3:29.61 to 3:31.59.  Now if only St. Helens would agree to bring their whole team to next year’s XO Invite!

This weekend certainly proved who the real stars are.  We can only hope that they continue to provide track fans in Eugene with displays of their talent in the coming years.  Team XO also hopes that next year’s crop of stars can pick up where this year’s seniors left off—but it’s sure going to be hard to top four victories in little over a week!

by Nathan Senner