EUGENE — It took a long and painful journey for Sarah Falardreau to become Willamette Valley Christian School’s first state champion.
But the dedication she showed to do it proved she is worthy.
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Willamette Valley junior Sarah Falardeau in the girls long jump at the OSAA Track and Field State Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene on Thursday, May 19, 2016. Falardeau won the OSAA Class 1A state championship in the long jump.
Falardeau won the OSAA Class 1A state championship in the long jump Thursday afternoon with a mark of 16 feet, 4 inches at the state track and field meet at Hayward Field.
She is the first state champion in an OSAA sanctioned sport for the school in Brooks of 47 students that has existed since 1967.
“It’s pretty exciting to see someone come in with a goal of this is what I want to do and then be willing to learn how do I need to do it,” Willamette Valley Christian coach Becky Keith said.
“And then she came in with amazing amounts of potential and just this inner strength of this is what I want and this is what I’m going to do to get it.”
In her freshman year at Willamette Valley Christian, Falardeau placed fourth in the district meet in the 200 meter dash, but her times and marks were largely unremarkable from that year.
Falardeau wanted to compete in pole vault, but her school didn’t offer the event.
While she and her mother were sitting up a tent at a meet, a coach from Damascus Christian helped them and mentioned that he coached pole vault at Damascus Christian and offered to help coach Falardeau in the pole vault over the summer.
“And his wife (Kelly Holding) was the long jumping coach for a college, and so it kind of worked like that, and so I PR’d that summer by probably by a foot,” Falardeau said.
“She’s kind of just throwing little tidbits at me about if you do this you’ll get further. I’ll listen to what she has to say, and it does really work.”
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Willamette Valley junior Sarah Falardeau in the girls long jump at the OSAA Track and Field State Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene on Thursday, May 19, 2016. Falardeau won the OSAA Class 1A state championship in the long jump.
But during her sophomore year of basketball she tore the ligaments in her left ankle, which required surgery, and the recuperation cost her the entire track and field season.
When Falardeau finally made it back onto the track for the first time in two years to start this season, she did better at every event than her freshman year, but her leap in the long jump was the biggest.
Her personal record before this season was 12-11.5, and she set a personal record of almost three feet at her first meet.
And she kept going, setting a personal record of 16-5 at the district meet a week ago.
Falardeau was the No. 1 seed in the long jump coming into the state meet, but after their first jumps trailed Jessie Flynn.
Her second jump of 16-4 took over the lead and would win her the state championship.
“Of course I wasn’t going to see any progression over night because that’s never how anything works,” she said. “So I just had to be patient and realize it’s not going to happen overnight, it’s going to take a lot of time to build up that strength.”
Also for Willamette Valley Christian, junior Christy Powell placed seventh in the high jump at 4-10.
Crosshill Christian senior Matthew Gille placed second in the 1A high jump at 6-0.
Perrydale senior Sarah Clark placed fourth in the 1A javelin with 114-6.
In the 3A meet, Amity senior Lindsay McShane won her third consecutive state championship in the discus with a throw of 140-8.
Her first throw of the competition of 133-11 was good enough to win, and she led the competition from start to finish, but she popped out her biggest throw on her final of the competition.
“I’m on cloud nine,” McShane said. “I definitely wanted a better mark, but I got the place that I was really looking for so I just got to work over the summer to get the mark that I wanted. I’m happy to come out with the win, though.”
La Pine’s Jordynn Slater placed second with 130-6 and Blanchet’s Leilani Salang was third at 120-8.
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Amity’s Lindsay McShane competes in discus at the OSAA Track and Field State Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene on Thursday, May 19, 2016. McShane won her third consecutive state championship in the discus with a throw of 140-8.
For the fifth time in McShane’s high school at Amity, she climbed to the top of the medal stand as a state champion.
“It’s most fun to walk up there,” said McShane, who has signed to compete in college at Oregon State. “It’s a little weird to have people take pictures of you, but that’s okay.”
McShane also placed third in the javelin at 125-4. Salang placed fifth at 112-0.
And she also is the No. 1 seed and two-time consecutive state champion in Friday’s shot put.
“Real happy for her,” Amity throws coach Randy Hayes said. “It’s been a rough year. It’s been a real rough year. She had injuries. So that really affected her mentally a lot. So she missed volleyball then she missed a little bit of basketball.
“Of course track she missed the first week. Then when she first started throwing in track she was very hesitant on her hand, it was kind of bothering her. Javelin went to heck after the first meet. I’ve never had a meltdown javelin wise like she did this year at any level. She just lost all confidence in herself. It just now came back.”
Willamina senior Kasey Anderson wins the 3A state championship in the high jump at 5 feet, 1 inch. Janni Kristensen of Rainier also cleared 5-1, but Anderson had fewer misses.
Amity senior Lance Nelson placed fourth in the long jump (20-5) and Amity’s Meghan Drader placed fourth in the girls long jump (15-3.5).
In the 2A meet, Kennedy junior Bishop Mitchell placed second in the long jump at 21-6 and fourth in the pole vault at 12-6.
Kennedy’s Abby Frey placed fourth in the javelin at 102-1 and Sarah Therkelsen placed sixth in the 2A high jump in 4-8.
St. Paul senior Emma Coleman placed fifth in the discus with a mark of 105-8.
bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com, 503-399-6701 or Twitter.com/bpoehler