In the end, it wasn’t meant to be. But man, was it close.

The Banks girls track & field team placed second at the 3A State Track & Field Championships, finishing one point back from first place Creswell who won the meet’s final event to pass the Braves on Friday evening, May 30, at Hayward Field in Eugene.

Led by junior distance runner Sophie Schoolmeester and hurdler Malia Stewart, Banks held a three point lead heading into the meet’s culminating event, the 4×400 relay. Creswell did what they were supposed to in winning going away, leaving Banks a second place finish away from claiming the team title. But instead, it was Sisters that crossed the finish line second, just more than a second ahead of Banks and spoiling the Braves’ party.

Creswell finished with 56 points, while Banks tallied 55, Vale was third with 44, followed by Valley Catholic (39) and Coquille (38).

Schoolmeester won both the 800 and 1500 meter events, successfully defending her titles from a year prior, running the 800 in 2:14.15, more than three seconds clear of Valley Catholic’s Isabell Wiebe (2:17.94); and the 1500 in 4:41.81, less than a second ahead of Wiebe (4:42.48).

The 800 was Schoolmeester’s final individual event of the day, and as a result, the junior said the time meant little relative to her finish.

“I think the goal was to just win again,” she said. “I feel like that was like feeling a little stressed because I was tired, so I wanted to make sure to just win.”

That she did, with help from her coaches and strategy they mapped out with her.

“My coaches said to have the best last 100 and just trust myself in my racing instincts to know when to make my move and everything,” she said. “I feel pretty happy about it.”

Stewart was nearly equally impressive as her teammate, but had to settle for a second and third place finish in both the 100 and 300 hurdles respectively.

The junior lost to Creswell’s Kylie Leonard at the tape in the 300, and was just .48 seconds behind Taft’s Laney Lee in the 100. Despite not finishing on top, Stewart ran personal bests in both events and was mostly pleased with her result following the 100.

“I feel pretty good,” Stewart said. “I was hoping for better, but I PR’d (Personal Record), so I’m pretty happy with that.”

She added that she stumbled a bit out of the gate, but in the end felt things went very well.

“I hit the first hurdle to start the race, but I felt like I recovered enough,” Stewart said. “Something has clicked this state meet that’s allowed me to do my 100 hurdles faster than I have before, and that’s been really great.”

That “click” also left the junior excited for what could be next year, along with lamenting the end of this year’s competition.

“I’m sad that the season’s over,” Stewart said. “I’m really looking forward to next season.”

Other Banks girls included Rachael Kelly who was eighth in the 800; Marie Jolivet who was 13th in the 1500; Lydia Shellman who was fifth in the 3000; Meaza Wilson who was 14th in the 3000; Nylah Vanthom, Isabel Franke and Bella Lardy who paired with stewart to place 10th in the 4×100 relay; Clarissa Shurts who paired with Lardy, Stewart and Schoolmeester to place third in the 4×400 relay; Jessica Compton and Allie Lagunas who were 11th and 14th in the shot put; Brooklyn Lamb and Kelly who were 10th and 12th in the javelin; Adelaide Wilson who was fifth in the pole vault; Vanthom and Shurts who were 14th and 16th in the long jump, and fifth and seventh in the triple jump.

Valley was paced by Wiebe, along with her distance running mate Jaya Simmons who won the 3000 meters with a time of 9:54.73, just more than eight seconds clear of second place finisher, Coquille’s Ella Henthorn (10:02.93), and more than 10 seconds better than her winning time a year prior.

Despite her relatively easy win, however, Simmons said she took nothing for granted coming in.

“I knew some of the people coming into this were going to be a little bit faster than my competition last year, so I was a little bit more nervous,” Simmons said. “But I felt really confident.”

There’s also nothing easy about the 3000, and even Simmons spoke to that after the fact.

“Definitely a lot of pain,” Simmons said. “I really went out hard. It’s a really tough race, but just knowing, as a senior, this is my last 3k here at the State Championship, I just had to push through that last line.”

Other Valley finishers included junior Isabelle Wiebe who placed second in both the 800 (2:17.94) and 1500 meters (4:42.48); Sierra Simmons who was fourth in the 3000 (10:42.52); Anoosheh Azeem who was 12th in the discus (26.16m); and Gabrielle Taylor who was sixth in the javelin (33.14m).

Also defending a title on the girls side was Westside Christian junior Sam Shepard who last season won the 400 while placing fourth in the 200. This year, Shepard successfully defended her 400 (57.44) crown, while finishing second in the 200 (25.54), running personal bests in both.

“I’m super excited,” Shepard said following her win in the 400. “It was definitely more nerve wracking this year coming back and doing the same things I did the first year, but I was really, really thrilled when I crossed the finish line.”

With one more year to compete, the junior said that while she’s anxious to again put her skills to the test against the state’s best, she’s also fully aware that the competition is equally anxious to unseat her.

“I know these freshmen and sophomores are going to come back stronger and stronger, so I’m going to have to bring it senior year. I want to make it the best race ever.”

Other Westside girls finishers included Simms Todd, Johonna Middlebrooks and Kinley Deewall who teamed with Shepard to place second in the 4×100 relay; Shannon Sweeney and Ava Adams who teamed with Shepard and Deewall to place fifth in the 4×400 relay; Kate Postma who was seventh in the javelin (32.29m); Adams who was sixth in the high jump (1.48m); and Deewall and Miriam Le who were eighth and 21st in the long jump.

The boys competition was won by Siuslaw who finished with 89 points, while Valley Catholic headlined the local contingent with a third place finish (62).

The Valiants were led by senior Andrew Klopcic who followed up last year’s four-golds performance with firsts in the triple jump (13.72m) and 400 meters (48.38), while placing second in the both the 200 (21.91) and 300 hurdles (37.55).

Klopcic – who’ll be competing at Marquette in the fall – said his success at state was a perfect way to end his high school career.

“All season, my coaches were about where are we going to get you for this weekend,” Klopcic said. “How am I going to get to where I want to be for this race? And it all lined up perfectly. It was everything I could’ve asked for.”