The Newberg Graphic
| Newberg’s Miller earns trip to state meet in long jump | ||||
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| The junior records a lifetime best in the event and finishes second | ||||
McMINNVILLE - Junior Amanda Miller recorded a lifetime best of 16-feet, 10.25-inches in the long jump Thursday to finish second and qualify for state on the opening day of the Pacific Conference district track meet at Linfield College. Miller entered the meet with a season's best of 15-10.25, which was still short of her lifetime best mark of 16-7 she set when she was a freshman. Last year, Miller recorded a season's best of 16-3 at the district meet and qualified for the state meet, but fouled on each of her attempts at Hayward Field in Eugene. Newberg had several other placers on the opening day of the meet. Freshman Haley Webb placed fifth in the javelin (98-2.75), followed by the sixth-place finish of Brittney Hopp (98-1.25) and the seventh-place finish of Kelsey Coleman (95-5.5). NHS senior Sammantha Grafton finished third in the shot put with a throw of 33-3 and teammate Katie Little, a junior, finished fifth with a throw of 29-3.25. In one of the best preliminary races of the day, Newberg's Clint Cardwell and Alessandro Pia both qualified for Friday's finals in the 800. Pia had entered the meet with a time of 2:00.04 - the second-best time in the conference behind the 1:56.90 of Forest Grove's Dusty Klein - and ran a time of 2:05.62. Pia's teammate, senior Clint Cardwell, also qualified for Friday's finals of the 800 with a time of 2:05.48. Cardwell entered the meet with a previous best time of 2:06.10 - a time he set in Newberg's first meet of the season March 19 at Reynolds. Also for the Tigers, junior Tyler Thompson placed fourth in the long jump with a mark of 20-8.75. He entered the meet with the second-best jump in the conference (20-11.5) behind Tigard's Ian McGetrick (21-3.25). Junior Taylor Braun placed third in the high jump (6-0). Braun entered the meet with the conference's second-best mark (6-4). Tigard's Spencer Patterson set a new meet record of 6-8 en route to winning the event. Newberg junior Stephen Merdink placed sixth in the discus with a throw of 130-0. The meet concluded Friday, but results were unavailable as of press time. | ||||
