It was a day of big performances, and Westside athletes had more than their share of those performances at the 6A and 5A State Track & Field Championships held on May 30-31, at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon.

At or near the top of that list was Jesuit’s Grant Valley who capped his remarkable season with state titles in both the 100 and 200 meters, running personal bests in both.

“I was not expecting this at all,” Valley said. “I hadn’t been able to run since my freshman year. I wasn’t able to walk like a year ago. I’ve just come so far.”

The senior broke his leg in September of his junior year, so wasn’t able to run at all last spring. This year, he’s more than made up for it, scaring the state record in both sprint events and setting a meet record in the 200 prelims on Friday.

“That was honestly my biggest goal coming into state because I ran that at a dual meet, there was no wind gauge, no video, it looked suspect, which, if anyone doubts, I would doubt it, too,” Valley said. “But I had to come out and do what I do and keep training and just have confidence in myself.”

Valley’s performance was the catalyst for the Crusaders’ boys who scored 66 points and won the team championship over Lincoln (62), Sheldon (39) and Tigard (35).

Tigard was led by sophomore Paul Hretcanu who surprised many by winning the 800 meters with a personal best time of 1:51.86, and was aided by Daniel Rotaru’s third in the 100 meters, their 4×400 relay team, and Hudson Boyd’s fourth in the Triple Jump.

In addition to Valley, Jesuit got second place finishes from Kellen Williams in the 1500 and 3000; a fourth from Calvin Hansen in the 200; fifth from Coen Strub in the 800; sixth from Hugh Ruttledge in the 110 hurdles; and got a first and second in the 4×400 and 4×100 relays.

Williams’ seconds came to Sherwood’s Dylan Weniger who won the 3000 on Friday, then came from eighth place with a lap to go to win the 1500 on Saturday.

“I had a lot of work to do at the 400 mark, and quite frankly, I doubted myself at 300,” Weniger said. “But at 200 they just kept coming back to me, and at 150 I was like, okay, I’ve just got to go for it.”

Sherwood also got a third place finish from Andrew Waletich who ran 48.31 in the 400 meter final.

Another guy who went for it was Hillsboro’s Ryan LeClair who won both the 200 (21.64) and 400 (48.75) meter events in the 5A meet, leading throughout in the first of the two, the 400.

“Those last 50 meters were scary, I’m not going to lie,” LeClair said. “But I knew I couldn’t look behind me, I had to just keep going forward, keep my eyes on the finish line and just run through the line.”

And that win freed him up going into the 200.

“It (400 win) definitely relaxed my nerves a little bit because I was really focused on getting that done,” LeClair said. “Once I got that done, it let me just go out and get this 200.”

Jesuit also captured the girls team title with 54.5 points, squeaking by West Linn (52) and Tigard (43.5).

The Crusaders claimed only one individual title, Iman Foster’ victory in the triple jump (12.06m), but got a second in the 4×100 relay; a third and fifth from Kiana Johnson in the 100 and 200; a fourth from Cameron Gatlin in the 300 hurdles; fifth from Marissa Rystadt in the javelin and Anya Mahorowala in the pole vault; sixth from Addie Miller in the long jump; seventh from Molly-Mei Delaney in the pole vault; eighth from Cameron Gatlin in the 100 hurdles; and ninth from Maeve O’Scannlain in the 3000.

Foster said she had one goal this week–show people of this state what she’s made of.

“This whole season, I just really wanted to secure the win,” she said. “Yesterday was not the best that I’ve felt all season, so I just wanted to show the state of Oregon what I could do, and what I had to give.”

Tigard junior Marissa Johnson had been doing that for the past two years, having won two state shot put titles and one in the discus. Nothing changed over the weekend, for the Tiger added two more championships to her resume, winning again in both the shot and discus events.

“It was kind of a crazy weekend,” Johnson said. “I’m definitely happy to come out with two wins.”

Johnson said she didn’t have her best stuff over the weekend and added that the pressure may been a factor. But in the end she overcame both, and had a good time in the process.

“There was definitely a bit of pressure, but at the end, it’s just throwing and I gotta have fun with it,” Johnson said. “I definitely had fun today.”

Another repeat champion was Mountainside’s Catherine Phillips who won the high jump with a mark of 5’ 5.25”.

“I’m definitely happy with how I performed,” Phillips said. “I’m proud of what I did today.”

And over her career.

“It feels amazing,” Phillips said. “Freshman year, I unexpectedly took second and I feel like I learned and grew from that, and luckily, I was able to win again this year.”

Tualatin’s Campbell Brintnall hadn’t won before, but rectified that on Saturday as well.

The senior hurdler had been working towards redemption since a disappointing performance at last year’s meet where she placed seventh and eighth in the 100 and 300 hurdles.

Well, mission accomplished, for Brintnall won the 100 hurdles with a time of 14.18, and the 300 hurdles in 42.30.

“The goal was just to execute,” Brintnall said. “That’s been my goal with my coach all season. State meet record yesterday, so today was just about finishing.”

And finish she did, which despite her confidence even caught her a little by surprise.

“This is crazy to me, like, right now being here with a gold medal,” she said on Saturday afternoon. “So yes, Hayward Magic is real.”