Hermiston sweeps Kiwanis Invite team titles

Hermiston sweeps Kiwanis Invite team titles

This story was published Sunday, April 23rd, 2006

By Rene Ferran Herald staff writer

HERMISTON -- Anne Barnett has been working on some changes in her technique in the shot put and javelin.

The Hermiston senior just had been waiting for a good day to put them into effect. The past couple of weeks, the weather had been miserable, but at Saturday\'s 21st annual Kiwanis Invitational on her home track at Kennison Field, the conditions were perfect and Barnett came up big.

Barnett won the shot put with a 2 1/2-foot personal-best, throwing an area-leading 41 feet, 0 1/2 inch, then following up with a 10-foot PR in the javelin to win with a meet-record throw of 146-2.

\"We finally got a nice day,\" said Barnett, who recently decided against an Air Force Academy appointment and is considering track scholarship offers from Montana State, Idaho and Northwest Nazarene.

\"The conditions have been pretty ugly the last few weeks. At XO (last week in Eugene), it was pouring down rain. I was ready then, but I just didn\'t have one fly (javelin). This one felt good. Now, I hope to just build off this.\"

Her two victories helped propel the Bulldogs to the team title, and combined with the boys victory, gave Hermiston a championship sweep for the fourth straight year.

\"Even though our numbers are down, we\'re still getting what we need from our kids,\" said Hermiston coach Dave Rohrman. \"I\'ll be able to say to the kids at practice Monday, \'This is why you\'re going home tired and sore. This is the payoff.\' \"

Despite many of the top athletes still bouncing back from grueling meets last week (the XO Invite for the Oregonians, the Pasco Invite for the Washingtonians), the first sun-soaked meets of the season in Hermiston and at the 47th annual Prosser Rotary produced 16 area-bests -- 11 on the girls side.

Those included Barnett in the shot put and teammates Laura Von Arx in winning the triple jump (36-4) and Jennifer Macias in the 1,500 meters (school record 4 minutes, 47.24 seconds) and 3,000 (10:35.80).

Macias, in fact, was more proud of her second-place finish in the 1,500 than her 29-second victory in the 3,000. \"I don\'t like not having someone to push me,\" she said. \"But this was an encouraging day. With my time in the 1,500, I now know I could actually do something (at state).\"

Moses Lake junior Aaron Wafer won Boys High Point honors for winning the 400 in 50.20 and taking second in the 100 (11.33), 200 (area-best 22.34) and long jump (21-7 1/2).

His loss in the long jump was to a familiar rival -- Kamiakin\'s Kyle Schauble -- but Aaron Campbell of Summit (Bend) beat him in the 100 and 200.

\"It\'s nice to see some other competition,\" Wafer said. \"I didn\'t know about the guy from Summit.\"

Schauble also won the 110 hurdles (14.88) and was third in the 100 and 200, and he said his effort at Pasco last week still was taking a toll.

\"My legs are so tired still,\" said Schauble, who signed Thursday with Washington State. \"But I\'ll be fine for next week (Shelton).\"

Southridge senior Stephen Marshall crept ever closer to the elusive 47-foot mark in the triple jump, going an area- and personal-best 46-10 1/4 on his final attempt.

\"I\'ve had a nagging injury in my left hip, and on my fifth jump I really felt it,\" he said. \"Coach (Sheila) Smith and I were trying to decide if I should take that last jump, but I had a good feeling about it and wanted to take it.\"