Six notable stories from 2026 OSAA State Track and Field Championships

Spring, ever reluctantly, was tugged into summer by the end of the week, as Hayward Field hosted the 2026 OSAA State Track and Field Championships.

Local athletes stacked titles while Friday rain gave way to sunshine Saturday as the students returned to the state’s top stage ahead of the national summer postseason. 

The 2026 senior class, including four-time pole vault champion Addison Kleinke and back-to-back shot put winner Kaleb Moore, closed the book on their prep careers, while the next generation was led by South Eugene freshman Evangeline Johnson Hess’ two second-place medals. 

Ryan Thomas runs meet-record time in 3A 100-meter

When Pleasant Hill’s Ryan Thomas stood on the 100-meter podium Friday, the moment felt “surreal.” It had been two years since she stood there as a state-champion sophomore and flexed her arms.

Her dominance at the top of the 3A sprint scene hasn’t come easily. Following her sophomore state win, she was badly injured in a car accident, which hospitalized her and was fatal for her friend Easton Bounds. In her return this year, she set personal-best times, highlighted by an 11.96-second win at last week’s district championships, before opening OSAAs with a meet-record 12.17 time in the qualifying round Thursday.

“You wouldn’t think — almost a year and a half ago, I was in a hospital bed and now I’m up on top of a leaderboard,” Thomas said. “It’s just a surreal moment.”

In Friday’s final, Thomas paced the field on the way to the win, breaking her own meet record by .02 seconds. As she stood on top of the podium, facing a crowd of supporters, which beat any in the stadium this week for volume, she flexed her arms again.

“Honestly, it just means so much,” Thomas said. “I’m running for Easton, and it’s a joy to just run for him and do what he should have been doing, but as long as you put your mind to something, you can achieve it and that’s behind my motive of coming out and running track this season.”

Aidell Cadet dominates across 3A sprints, jumps with 2 wins

Aidell Cadet is always excited — so much so that her coaches sometimes call the Sisulaw High School junior “annoying.” After a weekend in which she took the 3A girls high jump and triple jump titles along with third and fourth-place finishes in the 300-meter and 100-meter hurdles, respectively, she was vibrating with energy and joy as she walked off her final podium of the meet.

“[The positive attitude] gets me through things,” Cadet said. “I feel like, if I was in a bad mood, it would really reflect on my racing and jumping. Honestly, I had nervous thoughts — I almost threw up over there — but after the race was done, I was like, “Oh my gosh. I did it!’”

At last week’s district meet, Cadet, who also plays goalkeeper and midfielder for her soccer team, set the tone with first or second-place finishes in her four events at 3A district finals. She ran at Hayward Field earlier this year, too, at April’s Oregon Relays. That day brought a 36th-place finish, but the rest of her year was dominant as she secured her return to the big stage.

A high jump win opened her meet Thursday with an untouchable, personal-best clearance of 1.64 meters, after not missing her first attempt at any of the six previous heights. A 15.67-second 100-meter hurdles time later that day secured her place in Friday night’s final as she raced across Hayward Field, whether or not the clock was running.

As a sophomore, Cadet set personal-best marks at the state meet in the 300-meter hurdles and high jump, while adding a sixth-place finish in the 100-meter hurdles and an eighth-place finish in the triple jump.

“I did better than last year,” Cadet said. “I’m improving every day, and honestly, I wanted to win everything, but I feel like I did great. I did what I wanted to do. Making my coach proud and helping my girls team is even better, so I’m just glad I even placed.”

South Eugene freshman-senior duo shines 

University of Oregon commit Ellery Lincoln remained alone at the top with a win by 16.67 seconds in the 6A girls’ 3,000-meter final, but South Eugene High School freshman phenom Evangeline Johnson Hess finished second and stuck with Lincoln, a junior, most of the way. 

Johnson Hess capped a tour de force first high school season with a personal-best 9:47.08 Friday. She trailed Lincoln for the entire race, but didn’t need to put herself in a chase-down mindset to reach the finish.

“I think today was more about being reactive and running my own race,” Johnson Hess said. “I still was focused on my own splits, and I didn’t want someone else to influence how I ran.”

South Eugene senior Madison Zemper-Prill, who Johnson Hess said was “a really big support for me in learning how to love running again,” joined her teammate on the podium with a sixth-place finish in her final race as an Axe. She’ll head to Gonzaga University in the fall, where she’ll run the 3,000-meter steeplechase, but completed her high school career at Hayward Field with a 10:04.37 personal-best time after reaching the state final for the first time since her freshman season.

“This was always the goal coming into this season, knowing that I wanted to get back into the 3000m. It just felt really good to accomplish it,” Zemper-Prill said. “There were definitely some doubts going into districts…But being able to come here, accomplish it and feel really, really good about it and get a massive PR along the way feels really good.

“I think we laugh more than we run, probably.”

Johnson Hess appreciated Zemper-Prill.

“She’s been very supportive of me and of course I’m sad to see her go, but I’m excited to see the things she’s going to do in her college career,” Johnson Hess said.

Lincoln, meanwhile, has one more year of high school before coming to Hayward Field as a Duck, and added another state title to her resume. The pair dueled again in Saturday’s 1,500-meter final, where Lincoln secured her win in a meet-record 4:18.83 ahead of Johnson Hess’ second-place personal-best 4:30.84 and Zemper-Prill’s fifth-place personal-best 4:37.17.

Kaleb Moore wraps up high school career with shot put win

Amid rain at Hayward Field, Kaleb Moore kept his feet in the ring Friday to throw 18.25 meters and defend his state shot put title. He conquered nerves to get there, too.

“I was definitely nervous. It’s always stressful here,” Moore said after the win. “I always get a little nervous before every competition.”

The Junction City senior also finished second in the discus with a 52.13-meter throw earlier in the day. He’s committed to Boise State University in the fall, but that wasn’t what was on his mind as he marched to the state title.

Instead, he tried to shut out the nerves that arrive before every competition. Usually, they start to fade as he warms up and gets used to the ring, but before the state championships, he put extra emphasis on focusing on the week ahead to calm himself.

“I’m just trying to take it one thing at a time right now,” Moore said. “I just try to focus on that thing. That week, I’m like, ‘All I need to think about is state.’ Next week, training, The next week, Nike [Outdoor Nationals].” 

An eighth-place javelin medal completed his prep career Saturday. This time, it came in the sun.

Addison Kleinke cements pole vault legacy with four-peat title

After her second-place finish, Churchill’s Addison Kleinke wasn’t on the long jump podium as the PA announcer read off her name. The reigning champion in the event had already made her peace with a silver medal after her final jump.

Kleinke walked around the pit, paused and nearly took a seat, squatting alongside the sand. Her head lowered.

“I’ve always got a big goal,” Kleinke said. “And even though [long jump winner] Rikaiya [Griffin] has jumped 2.09 meters this season, I really wanted to get a big PR before I leave and take that win for the last time. Knowing that it was so close — only three-quarters of an inch — it hit me pretty hard. That one sucked a little bit, but it was fun. I had a lot of fun.”

But the senior missed that second-place podium. 

She was 50 yards north, prepping for her main event. Kleinke made her name in the pole vault, where she owned three straight state titles heading into Saturday. 

As a junior, Kleinke passed on the first 11 available heights from 2.65 to 3.59 meters, cleared the 12th in two attempts, passed again and won with a first-attempt clearance at 3.81 meters. 

She did the same this year.

But Saturday, the starting height was 3.02 meters, and she’d enter at 3.79 meters — just two centimeters lower than her winning height a year ago. It still wasn’t close to her season-best mark, set at Hayward Field earlier this season, and she’s been consistently about a foot under her personal-best at every state meet, she said.

This battle, though, was just Kleinke against the history books. 

Every other competitor exited the competition by the time she grabbed her pole. She needed just one attempt at 3.79 meters to secure the only pole vault four-peat in Oregon history.

“That feels really nice,” Kleinke said. “It’s a big relief that I was able to pull it together for these past four state meets, but also a little bit of a bummer that I haven’t been able to perform to my best ability.” 

Kleinke, who will head to Texas A&M, cleared the bar once more at 3.97 meters. She missed three attempts at 4.12 meters, then paid her dues. After her last miss, she put down her pole and hugged nearly every official in the area.

“I see them almost every single time that I jump,” Kleinke said. “They’re an amazing crew. They always do the absolute best for us. It makes me happy that they were here for my last state meet — for all of our last state meets — so just wanted to acknowledge their hard work.”

South’s Yosuke Shibata stacks championships in cross country, 1,500-meters

In a stacked 6A 1500-meter final that included both Yosuke Shibata and 3,000-meter winner Malachi Schoenherr, the 6A cross-country winner from earlier this season took over.

Shibata tracked down his friend Schoenherr during the first half of the race, jumped in front after 1,000 meters, then extended his lead to shut out the Jesuit High School trio of Jackson Welsh, Kellen Williams and Liam Donnelly. His final time, 3:48.56, was a meet record.

“I knew that when we decided to go out yesterday and plan for a fast race, I knew that both of us [Shibata and Schoenherr] would get in the 3:45s and really push toward that,” Shibata said. “I did lay off the gas in the last 150 meters, but I saw Jackson coming up on me, so I wanted to save as much as I could for the 800-meter final.”

The South Eugene junior closed his final 400 meters in 1:00.26, his fastest lap of the race, and held off Welsh down the stretch. Schoenherr finished fifth in 3:54.15.

“It’s always great to work together with Malachi,” Shibata said. “He really pushes both of us to our best, and we’re both really fast, so it’s always so much fun to race together.” 

With Schoenherr heading to the NCAA, Shibata, who also placed third in the 800-meters, will enter the 2026-27 picture as the state’s top boys 1500-meter runner, with the record in hand.

“It’s definitely something that I’m not going to take for granted,” Shibata said. “I think I faced a lot of hardship, but also a lot of success this season, and I’m really grateful for everything and everyone who’s helped push me through to this point.”