Oak Harbor High School seniors John Rodeheffer and Dejon Devroe set new school records at the District 1 3A track championships Friday, May 22, at Shoreline Stadium.
Track and field records are usually broken by fractions of seconds or inches. Rodeheffer took a sledge hammer to his OHHS 3,200-meter standard while winning the event in 9:06.85, obliterating the school record he set two years ago at the state meet, 9:20.19. That record broke Gary Lineburg’s mark of 9:26 (converted from two miles) that stood since 1966.
In addition to setting a new Oak Harbor record, Rodeheffer also clipped about a second off the meet record.
Devroe finished second in the boys 800 meters in 1:53.53, edged by Shorewood’s Devan Kirk (1:53.21). The pair’s times are the top two among 3A runners in Washington this spring.
Devroe’s mark topped the oldest Oak Harbor High School record set in 1964 by Tom Bailey. Bailey ran a 1:54 (converted from 880 yards).
Rodeheffer, who also won the 1,600 two days earlier at district, and Devroe now head to the state meet, which is Thursday-Saturday, May 28-30, at Mount Tahoma High School in Tacoma.
Wildcat Hayley Lundstrom, the boys 4×400 relay team and the girls 4×100 relay team also placed in the top three at district and qualified for the state meet.
Lundstrom placed third in the girls high jump in 4-10.
Mac Nuanez, Sebastian Ceaser and Jared Gray joined Devroe to place third in the 4×400 in 3:26.73, the state’s seventh-best 3A time.
The Wildcat girls 4×100 team of Janae Payne, Amaya Rittierodt Jenna Cooley and Matti Miesle finished third in 50.56 to qualify for state.
District 1 is loaded with talent this year, and several Oak Harbor athletes, although ranked in the state top 10, did not earn state berths because they didn’t finish among the top three at district.
Gray placed fifth in the 300 hurdles in 42.38, the seventh-best 3A time in Washington. Four of the six runners ranked higher are from District 1.
Tyler Adamson placed fifth in the boys shot put Wednesday and has the state’s ninth-best mark (50-07).
The District 1 girls 3,200 field included seven of the state’s top 10 runners, and since only three could advance to the state meet, four of the fastest in Washington will be left out of the championship race. Among the missing will be Oak Harbor’s Jonalynn Horn.
Horn finished sixth at district in 11:15.94, the state’s 10th-best clocking.
Two Oak Harbor athletes missed qualifying for state by one spot. Alana Austin was fourth in the girls 200 (27.11), and Claire Anderson finished fourth in the triple jump (33-08).
Both the Oak Harbor boys and girls teams placed sixth in the team standings out of 13 schools.
The Wildcat boys had 52 points; Arlington won with 106.
The Arlington girls also finished first, scoring 141 points; Oak Harbor had 47.
Rodeheffer’s 3,200 time is the fifth-best among Washington 3A runners this season. His 1,600 time of 4:15.4 is fourth.
He said his pre-race strategy at district for the 3,200 played out perfectly: hang with the leaders and “try to out-kick them in the final 200-300 meters.”
The pace was different, however, than what he expected.
“I thought that we were going to mess around for the first seven laps and turn it into a 400 sprint like the mile (the 1,600 run Wednesday),” Rodeheffer said, “but Miler (Haller) had different plans.”
Ferndale’s Roberto Aguilera set the early pace, then with three laps to go, Edmonds-Woodway’s Haller quickened the tempo and shot to the lead. Rodeheffer responded and stayed with Haller.
Rodeheffer said he passed Haller with 350 meters remaining, “picked it up on the backstretch and then went into full sprint for the last 200.”
Rodeheffer covered the final 400 meters in 61 seconds. The pace for the first four laps was 4:40; it picked up to 4:26 for the second four, he said.
Devroe also owns the second-best 3A time in the 400 but will not compete in the event at state, concentrating on the 800.
Turner said Devroe tried running the 400 and 800 combination at the league meet, but found with the limited recovery time, it was “a very difficult double to pull off.”
Turner said the staff gave Devroe its opinion “on what he should focus on but left the decision up to Devroe.”
“He really wanted to break the school record in the 800, so he decided to drop the 400,” Turner said.
Here are the results for the other Oak Harbor boys who competed in final events at the district meet: Ceaser, 14th, 1,600, 4:38.7; Joseph Nolan, 12th, discus, 125-02; Michael Corfman, 14th, javelin, 126-07; Blaine Coleman, 16th, javelin, 121-07; Nuanez, 12th, high jump, 5-06; Quinn Karney, 16th, pole vault, 9; Mark Johnston, fifth, long jump, 19-10.75; Diangelo McKinney, sixth, long jump, 19-09; Andrew Miller, 16th, triple jump, 35-01; 4×100 relay (Ty Baker, Mac Carr, Daniel Guerrero, Andrew Miller), sixth, 46.89.
For other Wildcat girls: Horn, ninth, 1,600, 5:21.2; Carolynn Wicker, 13th, 3,200, 12:43.37; Kaitlyn Chelberg, seventh, 100 hurdles, 16.94; seventh, 300 hurdles, 50.11; Taylor Deconzo, eighth, shot put, 33-04; seventh, javelin, 104-02; Kaylee Lamb, 10th, shot put, 32-11; Julie Jansen, eighth, discus, 100-06; Kenna Prosch, 15th, discus, 83-05; Samantha Hines, ninth, javelin, 91-02; Anderson, 11th, high jump, 4-06; Suzanne Kaltenbach, 13th, pole vault, 7; Taliah Black, 20th, pole vault, 6-06; Priya Osborne, sixth, long jump, 16-01.75; Cooley, seventh, long jump, 15-09.75; Lundstrom, seventh, triple jump, 32-07; 4×200 relay (Rittierodt, Cooley, Austin, Alora Caillier), fifth, 1:48.16; 4×400 relay (Deja Bunch, Kaltenbach, Austin, Cooley), sixth, 4:13.44.
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Hayley Lundstrom clears 4-10 t0 finish third and qualify for the state meet. Dejon Devroe shows off his ribbon for placing second in the 800 meters in a school-record time. Photos by John Fisken.
