Alice Davidson makes history for Scappoose: ‘It was so much better than I thought it would be’

By René Ferrán | Photos by Brynn Kleinke 

EUGENE — A Scappoose girl had never won a state title in the sprints before Saturday afternoon. 

That’s when junior Alice Davidson became the first in school history by sweeping the Class 4A 100 and 200 meters at the OSAA track and field state championships at Hayward Field.

Davidson ran a personal-best 12.33 seconds in the 100, then came back later in the day to defeat Philomath sophomore Janice Hellesto by more than a half-second in 25.53.

For good measure, she anchored the 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams to victory, with those 40 points going a long way to securing a third-place finish in the team race — the program’s best finish ever.

“It was so much better than I thought it would be,” Davidson said. “I came here with a cold, so I was really worried about it, but after the first day, I was feeling good. I woke up this morning, and I was ready to go.”

Her biggest concern was in the 200, going up against Hellesto — last year’s 400 state champion who dropped to the 200 this spring — and wondering whether her stamina would hold.

“But it turned out it was better than I thought it would be,” she said.

Then came the 4x400, when she received the baton from Gabrielle Hanke with a slight lead over The Dalles and Hidden Valley.

“It was awful, but once I grabbed the baton, it was just like everything was through the roof,” she said. “I was like, ‘I need to go. I need to keep this lead.’”

And with a 58.6 final split, she expanded the lead to almost four seconds, winning in 4:04.71.

Davidson credited her ability to bounce back to her time on the soccer pitch, where she was a first-team all-state striker, scoring 23 goals in leading Scappoose to the quarterfinals of the state playoffs.

“I get a lot of endurance in (soccer), because most track workouts I do are short distance,” she said. “Soccer really pulled through for me.”

Hanke, Davidson and relay teammates Peyton Lennox and Adison Stoddard in the 4x400 and Madison Meeuwsen in the 4x100 (replacing Stoddard) all play on the soccer team, and that camaraderie showed in their relay wins.

“They’re honestly like sisters to me,” Davidson said. “We hang out after school, during school, and we’ve known each other for years, even before high school. I love them all.”