Detzler, Ferren lead Bobcats to trophy

Mason Detzler and Thomas Ferren carried Myrtle Point to second place at the Class 1A boys state track meet Friday night.

Detzler dominated the shot put and discus and Ferren was a surprise sprint champion and scored the most points of any boy in Class 1A, helping Myrtle Point score 50 points, not nearly enough to keep up with champion Imbler (77) but better than third-place Joseph (42).

Detzler was a little disappointed in both the shot put and discus, but only because he just missed stamping his name in the state meet record books in both events.

He had settle for a second straight title in the shot put and the all-time record for Class 1A he set earlier in the season.

Detzler’s winning throw of 54 feet was more than five feet further than the runner-up for the event. But he came up six centimeters short of the meet record for the event.

“I was hoping for the record,” said Detzler, who threw 58-11 ½ earlier in the season and was over 57 feet four meets in a row, all better than the previous record for the classification.

Detzler added the discus title Friday, again just missing his ultimate goal.

He threw 171 feet, 7 inches on his final attempt, a new personal best but a single inch behind the record set last year by Ray Gerrard of North Douglas.

“I’m disappointed with that,” Detzler said. “But if someone else has the record, I’m glad Ray has it.”

Detzler had the five biggest throws of the day and was a little surprised by how well he did, saying he’s been throwing poorly in recent weeks.

The final throw was pure force.

“I was thinking, this is my last throw, just chuck it,” he said.

His winning mark was almost the best of all six classifications. Class 4A champion Hayden Slaughter had a throw of 175-4, but Detzler’s top throw was far better than the other winners.

Teammate Logan Clayburn joined Detzler on the podium for the second straight day, finishing sixth (133-1) after also placing in the shot put (44-9).

Ferren, meanwhile, was a surprise winner in the 100 meters, racing to a new best time of 11.19 seconds. He let out a joyful scream when he realized he had won.

Later in the evening, he also won the 200 meters and placed third in the 110-meter high hurdles. He was awarded athlete of the meet honors for scoring the most points of any Class 2A boy.

It was a sterling effort considering the junior was in his first year of track and field — he joined the team initially to stay in shape for football.

He said he thought his best event would be the hurdles.

“I did the 100 because I knew I’m fast,” he said.

Faster than the rest of the athletes, as it turned out.

“I never thought I would win state,” he said.

His winning times were 11.19 in the 100 and 22.59 in the 200. He ran the hurdles from lane 1 because of a slower qualifying time Thursday, but still finished third in 15.72 seconds.

Myrtle Point’s girls scored in three events. Jayme Padgett was third in the discus (106-3) and Kenzie Robinson fourth in the javelin (114-10) on Thursday. On Friday, Myrtle Point’s quartet of Milena Miller, Jadelin Warner, Taelyn Farmer and Robinson finished fourth in the 4x100 relay in 52.86.

Powers freshman Danika Bushnell finished second in the javelin with a throw of 116-7.

It was a remarkable effort, given that Bushnell focused on softball playing for Myrtle Point’s team this spring as part of a cooperative agreement between the schools and didn’t begin throwing the javelin until a few weeks ago. She was three inches behind the winner, Feirin McConnell of Triangle Lake.

Pacific’s boys scored seven points. Tucker Long finished sixth in the 300 hurdles (42.27) and eighth in the 110 hurdles (16.45) and Dalton Steers was sixth in the 100 (11.77).