A week removed from setting the state record in the girls 4x400-meter relay race, the Lake Oswego girls were back on the track. But this time with their original lineup.
At the Three Rivers League district championship meet, Laker sophomore Ana Peters subbed in for Riley Ha, who was sick. The team finished the race in three minutes, 49.83 seconds, setting a new state record that has stood since 2003.
With Ha back this week, the Lakers did it again. At the OSAA Class 6A state championship meet at Hayward Field on Saturday night, Lake Oswego’s team of Ha, Mia Brahe-Pedersen, Marina Turpin and Josie Donelson won the relay race in 3:48.78.
While all of the Lakers were happy with the win, Ha was smiling a little wider than the others.
“This week I’m really happy to be able to get it done,” Ha said. “To be on this track with my girls and we PR’d and we beat our own state record.”
The Lakers have been battling all season for the 4x400-meter relay record previously held by Benson. In order to match it two weeks in a row, Brahe-Pedersen said the key has been in gaining more and more team chemistry as the weeks went on this spring.
“I think the big thing is that we try to band together as a team and trusted our training,” Brahe-Pedersen said. “We’re all juniors so we’ve kind of gained a lot of maturity over the season. A lot of experience and confidence. I think having that as a team is the biggest game changer ever.”
Not only was the win big for the Lake Oswego competitors involved, but it was necessary for the team to repeat as state champions. Going into the 4x400-meter relays (the final Class 6A girls event of the day) Lake Oswego trailed Tualatin by just two points. The finish, and Tualatin placing second in 3:57.15, meant that the teams tied for first with 77 team points each.
Lake Oswego won its first team title last spring.
“It came down to the four-by-four, and we had to take it home to get that title and we were able to execute that and win,” junior Mia Brahe-Pedersen said.
For Brahe-Pedersen, the state record is the second of the day. Earlier on Saturday, she set a new state record in the 100-meter dash. Her previous best was 11.08 and on Saturday she ran a wind-legal 11.00.
Brahe-Pedersen also won the 200-meter dash in 22.65. Her state record is 22.61. The Lake Oswego girls 4x100-meter relay team — which has the same lineup of Brahe-Pedersen, Ha, Turpin and Donelson — took first place in 46.90 (the state record is 46.53 set by Benson in 2003).
Donelson also had her fair share of hardware on Saturday. She won the girls 400-meter race with a time of 53.94 (which is a personal best, a new state best this spring and 16th in the country this season) and the 300-meter hurdles in 42.60 (also a personal best, a state best this year and 35th in the country this season).
While she was left out of the 4x400-meter relay lineup this week, Peters was able to finish fourth in the 1,500-meter race.
Tualatin was led by Lauren Ayers, who finished first in the 3,000-meter race. The Timberwolves had 12 total medalists on the weekend to make up for having fewer gold medalists than the Lakers.
-- Nik Streng, nstreng@oregonian.com, @NikStreng
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