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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels June 1, 2004 Boehnke sets Grizzlies' pace Staff and Wire Reports After all was said as done, in the end, there was one standing on the winner's podium. The Ashland High track and field team traveled to Eugene for the Class 4A state championships over the weekend with four athletes who each had a slim shot of earning a medal. When the dust settled after two days of competition, Senior Erika Boehnke leaped to a 35-foot, 6-inch, sixth-place finish in the girls' triple jump, a half-inch shy of fifth-place Hillary Shoop of Lakeridge. Just 10 inches separated fourth place from eighth place in the final results. "I think she was pretty pleased with it," Grizz head coach Bob Julian Jr. said. "Going in she was on the bubble of whether she could make the finals or not." Triple jump competitors had to choose between two take-off boards. Boehnke elected to use the long board, where she had to jump at least 34 feet just to clear the runway and land in the pit. "It was actually better than she was seeded," Julian said of Boehnke's finish. "She didn't get a [personal record], but that was definitely her most consistent series of jumps she'd had all year. It was really solid." Boehnke qualified for the state meet in the high jump her freshman year, but hadn't earned a trip back to the season-ending showcase since. "She's worked pretty hard," Julian said. "It's neat for her to find something she's really successful in. She's been a shining light on our team the last four years." The rest of the Grizzlies didn't fare quite so well. On Saturday, sophomore Hannah Clark competed in the girls' high jump. Clark surprised the Southern Oregon Conference at the league championships when she won the event at 5-2, a lifetime best. At the state meet, Clark didn't experience the same successes. She finished in a five-way tie for 10th place at 4-11. The top jump was 5-3, one of the lowest winning heights at the 4A state meet in the past two decades. "Making it to state was a pretty cool thing because Hannah was not seeded in the top two at district," Julian said. "She got some experience and she got a taste of it. That's the thing - so many of the kids who do well at state have been there before." Clark cleared the opening height on her first attempt, which was 4-11. For her second height, she upped the bar to 5-1, but never cleared it successfully. "It's the state meet and that's just kind of the way it is," Julian said. It was kind of that way for the other Grizzly athletes at the state meet as well. On Friday, junior David Morgan finished ninth in the boys' 3,000 meters and sophomore Natalie Hemphill was leaned-out of a spot in the girls' 800-meter finals. "It's interesting," Julian said. "The kids that we brought, its the veteran who's a senior who probably, under the circumstances, she performed the best out of all of our athletes. That's kind of the way it should be." College Track & Field At Louisville, Ky., Southern Oregon University received solid efforts from its underclassmen on the third and final day of the 2004 NAIA Track and Field Championships Saturday. Sophomore Brynn Cogdill came only 1.44 seconds away from All-American honors with a 10th-place finish in the women's 1,500-meter finals, and the Estacada High product's 4-minute, 41.25-second clip surpassed her own school record by three ticks. Senior Sean Peterson placed 12th in the men's 1,500 with a 4:07.25. Junior Nick Hanson's quest for a national triple jump crown came a foot-and-a-half short, but he accounted for one team point based on an eighth-place 48-8 leap. Freshman Travis Wheeler of Grants Pass finished 10th in the discus (157-5) and was only four feet, three inches shy of earning All-American accolades. Junior Brook Jaentsch finished 21st in the women's high jump event. Hanson's effort, coupled with Friday's fifth-place, All-American 4x800 relay performance, allowed the Cascade Conference champion SOU men to place 46th among 65 scoring teams with five points. Despite a spate of new school records or personal-best efforts, the Raider women did not place. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams