Tostenson clips Gorze to win 1,500 at 5A meet

Danny Penza, Mail Tribune, Medford, Ore.
·7 min read

May 22—Nobody knows what kind of kick Josiah Tostenson has better than his Crater teammate Tyrone Gorze.

Gorze saw it as the star freshman closed strong in Friday's 3,000-meter run at the Class 5A state track and field championships. And it was on display again a little over 24 hours later.

The Comets' dynamic duo finished 1-2 just as they did in the 3,000 come Saturday's running of the boys 1,500. This time around, though, it was Tostenson out-kicking Gorze to win the boys 1,500 in 3 minutes, 59.74 seconds as the uber-talented freshman earned his first-ever state title.

"He ran strong and he's always had good speed," said Crater coach Justin Loftus. "It looked like it was over probably with about 200 to go, but the little move was made there by (Milwaukie's Logan Law) to give Josiah a push and he went with it."

Tostenson wasn't the only Comet to capture a state title Saturday.

Crater sophomore Jeffrey Hellman won the boys 800 in 1:55.97, improving his 5A-best time that he previously set at the Bob Newland Invitational in mid-April by nearly a second. Another Crater sophomore, Caleb Doddington, finished third in the 800 at 1:56.91, improving his PR by two seconds.

It was quite the return trip to Eugene for Hellman, who was unable to run in the cross-country state meet at Lane Community College back in early November after he was involved in a car accident near the Crater campus right before the Midwestern League district meet.

"He's not shy about talking about coming up and trying to win a state title," said Loftus of Hellman. "There's no dance around that. He wanted to win and he was going to do everything he could to get there. I don't know how you come out of a (neck) brace for three months and then jump right back into running like he did.

"We talk about having no limits and I guess they're starting to kind of live that out."

The Crater boys also got a second-place finish from Scott Price — who's in his first year coming out for the track team — in the boys long jump with a leap of 44 feet, 2 inches.

Ashland's 4x400 boys relay team of Caden Negra, Cole Beneventi, Nathan Stein and Vincent Senn captured the title in 3:25.29, with Crater fourth in 3:28.28.

With their impressive group of runners leading the way, the Comets finished second in the boys team standings with 69 points behind Silverton's 79 in first.

"We're really excited for that," said Cratrer head coach Kierra Huggins. "You're always excited for first, but second place is just as great. You never know what you're going to get when you come to the state meet. You could be placed in one position and either do better or do worse. We like to say to not anticipate too many points because you just don't know."

Gorze and Tostenson entered the day with the top two times in the 1,500, both recorded at the Nike/Jesuit Twilight Relays in Portland on April 29. It was in that race that Tostenson set the national record for a ninth grader with a time of 3:52.30.

Neither Tostenson nor Gorze came close to matching those times or putting the state meet record set by former Ashland standout EJ Holland (3:51.92) based on how compact the race was for the first two-plus laps.

But Gorze, as pretty much everybody expected, opened up a lead come the final 400.

At the same time, that's when Tostenson was also making his move while trying to fend off Law's push from third.

It wasn't until the final 100 that Tostenson truly started to close the gap on his star teammate.

In the same kind of finish that allowed Tostenson to storm forward into a second-place finish in the 3,000, he used his strong kick to overtake Gorze in the final 10 meters and beat his teammate to the title.

Ashland's Stein finished fifth in the 1,500 at 4:04.10.

In 5A girls action, Crater's Lindsay Siebert picked up a pair of state trophies with a third-place finish in the 800 (2:21.65) and a fourth-place showing in the 1,500 (4:48.84), just ahead of Ashland's Grace Yaconelli in fifth (4:49.37).

Crater's Erin Bechtold finished fourth in the girls pole vault with a mark of 10-0.

Eagle Point's 4x400 relay team of Reagan Hussey, Morgan Dole, Emma Stanek and Leslie Barajas placed sixth with a time of 4:15.52.

"It was excited to be back at Hayward Field and it was great to bring a big group of people," said Huggins. "All of our kids did well. They might not have done what they had hoped, but most of our kids exceeded their expectations, so it's great for next year because we don't have too many graduating seniors."

CLASS 5A

BOYS

TEAM SCORES (Top 10): Silverton 79, Crater 69, Wilsonville 65, North Bend 56, Central 39, North Salem 37, Churchill 37, Pendleton 33, Crescent Valley 33, Redmond 32.

Other Local Results

13, Ashland, 18.

100 — 1, DeMari Thompson, North Salem, 10.75.

200 — 1, DeMari Thompson, North Salem, 21.76.

400 — 1, John Efraimson, North Bend, 49.75; 12, Caden Negra, Ashland, 551.78.

800 — 1, Jeffrey Hellman, Crater, 1:55.97; 3, Caleb Doddington, Crater, 1:56.91.

1,500 — 1, Josiah Tostenson, Crater, 3:59.74; 2, Tyrone Gorze, Crater, 4:00.04; 5, Nathan Stein, Ashland, 4:04.10.

110 HURDLES — 1, Logan Robertson, Redmond, 15.58.

300 HURDLES — 1, Nathan Fields, Churchill, 39.16.

4x100 RELAY — 1, North Bend (Nathaniel Folsom, John Efraimson, Brody Justice, Jason Padgett), 42.67; 12, Ashland (Gavin White, Vincent Senn, Cole Beneventi, Caden Negra), 44.62.

4X400 RELAY — 1, Ashland (Caden Negra, Cole Beneventi, Nathan Stein, Vincent Senn), 3:25.29; 4, Crater (Aidan Chenoweth, Josiah Tostenson, Nicholas Kube, Jeffrey Hellman), 3:28.28.

JAVELIN — 1, Pat Vialva, Tigard, 203-7.

JAVELIN — 1, Chase Hix, Wilsonville, 188-4.

HIGH JUMP — 1, Nathan Wachs, Redmond, 6-4; 8, Carson Le Bel, Crater, 6-0.

POLE VAULT — 1, Taylor Morehouse, The Dalles, 15-0; Carson Le Bel, Crater, NH.

TRIPLE JUMP — 1, Nathan Fields, Churchill, 47-1; 2, Scott Price, Crater, 44-2.

GIRLS

TEAM SCORES (Top 10): Crescent Valley 67, North Salem 66, Thurston 57, Corvallis 40, Pendleton 39, Crook County 34, The Dalles 29, Wilsonville 26, Crater 25.5, West Albany 24.

Other Local Results

16, Ashland 17; 29, Eagle Point, 3.

100 — 1, Jordan Koskondy, North Salem, 12.49.

200 — 1, Breanna Raven, Thurston, 25.43.

400 — 1, Ava McKee, Crescent Valley, 58.86.

800 — 1, Ava McKee, Crescent Valley, 2:18.19; 3, Lindsay Siebert,. Crater, 2:21.65.

1,500 — 1, Haley Blaine, West Albany, 4:46.07; 4, Lindsay Siebert, Crater, 4:48.84; 5, Grace Yaconelli, 4:49.37.

100 HURDLES — 1, Jordan Koskondy, North Salem, 14.65.

300 HURDLES — 1, Jordan Koskondy, North Salem, 44.04.

4x100 RELAY — 1, Corvallis (Olivia Bannister, Sydney Soskis, Gwendolyn Irvin, Taylor Brasfield), 50.22.

4X400 RELAY — 1, Crescent Valley (Mariana Lomonaco, Sasha Kelly, Ellie Quintana, Ava McKee), 4:09.86; 6, Eagle Point (Reagan Hussey, Morgan Dole, Emma Stanek, Leslie Barajas), 4:15.52; 11, Crater (Lindsay Siebert, Addison Dippel, Emma West, Emma Heppner), 4:28.14.

SHOT PUT — 1, Jordan Koskondy, North Salem, 43-3.

DISCUS — 1, Grace Brooks, Crook County, 123-4.; 9, Ana Avila, Eagle Point, 94-9.

POLE VAULT — 1, Rhys Allen, Willamette, 11-3; 4, Erin Bechtold, Crater, 10-0.

TRIPLE JUMP — 1, Breanna Raven, Thurston, 37-5.75.

Reach reporter Danny Penza at 541-776-4469 or dpenza@rosebudmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @penzatopaper.