Thursday recap: Highlights from the first day of Oregon’s track and field state championship meet

The OSAA track and field state championships kicked off on Thursday morning, with the best athletes in Oregon’s small-school classifications competing at Hayward Field.

• PHOTOS: Sights from the first day of the OSAA Class 3A, 2A and 1A track and field state championship meet

The action on Thursday was all from athletes in Class 3A, 2A and 1A. Friday will see the end of the small-school competition (including the finals for most of the track events) and the start of the 6A, 5A and 4A competition.

The action will conclude on Saturday at Hayward Field.

Here is a look at some of Thursday’s highlights:

Who in the Willamette Valley can point out Adrian on a map? Well, the Antelopes made major waves on Thursday with Jace Martin dominating the competition in the prelims of the boys 100-meter, 200-meter and 400-meter races.

Martin, a senior finished the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.60, the 200-meter with a time of 21.88 and the 400-meter in 49.80. All three of those times put Martin in first place headed into Friday’s finals and are also Class 1A state meet records.

Martin’s time in the 100 places him in second place regardless of classification, as well as fourth in the 200. He will be competing in the finals of all three races on Friday, while some of his big school peers compete in their prelims.

Kyle Hughes made it to 15 feet just once this season. But his 15-foot jump on Thursday afternoon was good for a Class 3A state championship. Hughes finished fifth in the Class 4A competition last season (Siuslaw was 4A last year) and came back to win gold this spring.

The height is also good for fourth in the state, regardless of classification, this spring.

After spending April running the sprints and the relays, Owyhee Harguess decided to focus solely on the 400-meter race. And that decision has seem to pay off.

Harguess finished first in the Class 2A prelims of the 400 on Thursday with a time of 57.28 seconds. She’s the only girl to get a 400 time below one minute this spring. The time is good for sixth among all classifications. And Harguess is only a freshman. If she can repeat that performance on Friday, Harguess might be stamping her name as one of Oregon’s elite 400 runners.

After finishing second in last year’s finals, Jayden Christy is back with gold on his mind. In Thursday’s prelims of the the boys 110-meter hurdles, Christy finished first with a time of 14.69 seconds.

This time is new personal best and fourth in Oregon regardless of classification. Christy did finish first in the prelims last year, so he will have to remain focused on Friday if he wants that state title he’s been chasing.

With a jump of 5-7.25 inches, Caroline Mauro won a Class 3A state championship in the high jump — the sophomore’s second in as many years. That’s good for second in Oregon, regardless of classification, this spring and 75th in the nation as of Thursday afternoon.

Mauro’s jump is 1.25 inches lower than Tualatin’s Kyra Bakke (who set a season-best 5-8.5 in mid-April). If no one in the big classifications can match Mauro’s height then she might finish the week with the best high jump at Hayward.

Willamina senior Hallee Hughes made the most of her final competition at Hayward Field. She ended Thursday with gold medals in the Class 2A discus (139-7) and the javelin (139-3). That brings the total to four state championships for Hughes, who won both events last season as well.

Hughes’ finishes are no joke. Her personal bests in the discus (139-8) and the javelin (141-7) are in the top three this spring, regardless of classification.

Class 3A’s first gold medals of the state championship meet were both handed to athletes from Oregon Episcopal School, as Olin Gilster won the boys 3000-meter race and Morgan Matthews won the girls’ race.

Gilster finished in 8:56.38 while Matthews finished the event in 10:28.71. The Aardvarks are in the top three in the team race on both the boys and girls side — although there are a lot more points to be scored on Friday with the bulk of the track events.

Cascade Christian teammates Autumn Murray and Sierra Samhammer put on a show in the prelims of the Class 3A girls 100-meter hurdles. Murray finished the prelims first in 15.26 with Samhammer coming in second in 15.37. The finishes put both in the top 10 statewide.

Murray and Samhammer came in second and third, respectively, in the 300-meter hurdles. Both were less than a second behind Banks’ Malia Stewart. Friday will see the teammates go to battle one last time.

Finding out a time isn’t wind legal can be a sore spot at the end of a race. Out of Thursday’s 18 events that can be affected by wind, three were not wind legal: the Class 3A girls 100, the 2A boys 110-meter hurdles and 2A girls 200.

A tailwind over two meters per second is considered not wind legal, but only in events where the wind only affects athletes on one end of the field (sprints and short hurdles).

— Nik Streng, nstreng@oregonian.com, @NikStreng