Mapleton sends two athletes to McKenzie Icebreaker

March 29, 2022 — Only two Mapleton athletes made the trip to McKenzie on March 26 for the McKenzie Community Track and Field Icebreaker, but as is usually the case with Sailor athletes, they made a big impact.

Senior Joe Shepard and junior Caleb Lewis were the two athletes competing for MHS. Both ran the 400m and competed in the high and long jumps.

The 400m was basically a three-man race between the three runners that finished just ahead of Shepard. Siletz Valley’s Zion Fantroy won the race in 57.17 seconds with Logan Gant (57.53) of North Douglas and Aiden O’Dea (57.58) of Mohawk both less than a half a second behind him. Shepard crossed the finish line in 1:00.13 to earn fourth and a personal record for the 400m. Lewis finished the race in 1:04.40, also a personal record.

The high jump was a battle of inches. Two juniors from Yoncolla, Noah Leary and Ashton Hardy, had identical top jumps of 5’8” to tie for first. Shepard was a mere two inches behind them with his personal record best jump of 5’6” to take third place. Lewis set another personal record in the high jump (4’8”) to finish just behind Shepard for fourth place.

It was three events and three personal records for Lewis, as he achieved yet another in the long jump with a career best jump of 14’8”. Shepard finished third when he launched himself 17’0.5”. Gant (18’5.5”) of North Douglas won the event and Yoncalla’s Leary (17’8.5”) was second.

North Douglas won both the boys and girls team titles. Mapleton earned 24 points and seventh place in the boys standings.

Today (Wednesday), Mapleton hosts Crow, Glendale, McKenzie, Riddle and Triangle Lake for the first 1A Special District 2 meet of the season. Field events begin at 4 p.m. Track events at 4:30 p.m. The Mapleton community track is located above the Sailor’s football field on the hill behind the high school.