Another Collins with a splash.

Byline: Rob Moseley The Register-Guard

OSAA TRACK AND FIELD

It was, Marist co-coach Cathie Twomey Bellamy said, like Scene I, Take II.

Once again - for the second year in a row - the Spartans entered the 4x400-meter relay at the state meet with a chance to claim the team title. Once again, a member of the Collins family took the baton for the anchor leg.

And, once again, the Spartans are OSAA Class 3A track and field champions, as sophomore Elena Collins held off Taylor Wallace of Henley throughout the final lap at Hayward Field on Saturday to clinch the meet for Marist.

The Spartans led the Hornets by two points entering the race, and ultimately won by four with a total of 68 for the meet. Last year, Marist beat North Bend on the final event when Emily Collins, Elena's older sister, anchored the victorious mile relay.

"I just wanted to be able to take her place," Elena Collins said. "And I proved I could."

The Spartans ran, jumped and threw about as expected throughout the two-day meet, but Henley busted the form chart thanks in large part to Wallace. The freshman followed her win in the 3,000 on Friday by doubling in the 1,500 on Saturday, and she broke out an impressive finishing kick yet again in the mile relay to bring Henley in just seven-hundredths of a second behind the Marist foursome's winning time of 3:58.98.

The Hornets led the race until Tahne Apo gave Marist the lead on the third leg, and the transition to Collins was flawless. She remained a few strides in front of Wallace until the final few meters, when the Henley freshman tightened the gap.

It capped a stressful day for Twomey Bellamy, who watched her team win as underdogs last season but sweated out the title defense this year. The tension spiked midway through Saturday's events, when the coach said she tore up her form chart and stopped worrying about the team score.

` `I've got to quit thinking about points,' ' Twomey Bellamy recalled thinking. "As soon as I did that, that's when 'Drea won the 100, and it just came together."

Laundrea da Silva repeated as state 100-meter champion, winning in 12.79 seconds. Like the rest of the Spartans, she felt the pressure of having to repeat, she said.

"It was hard to focus last night," da Silva said. "I was really stressed out about it. I just got a good night's sleep, slept in my bed and tried to relax."

The Spartans also got a win from Emily Gillespie in the high jump, with a winning mark of 5 feet, 2 inches. Like the rest of the high jumpers in the meet, Gillespie was disappointed with her mark but could only shrug at having to compete in cold, rainy conditions.

Gillespie also ran the opening leg on the final relay. Brenn Donnelly kept it close on the second leg, Apo put the Spartans in the lead and Collins held on. It was a positive end to what has been a challenging season for Collins, who had left knee surgery in January to repair injuries suffered playing soccer.

"It's been really hard," Collins said. "It took me awhile to get back, and there were times I didn't think I could do it and wanted to give up."

She never did, just as she persevered during the final lap Saturday, running a 59.3-second split.

"She's had such a rough season," Twomey Bellamy said. "But she handled the pressure well."

Others did as well Saturday, including Sisters senior Jenny Boswell, who won both hurdles races for the second straight year. Katherine Tripp of Douglas added a discus title Saturday to the shot put crown she collected Friday, and Gladstone's Amy Skofstad won the 200 after claiming the long jump a day earlier.

Besides the 4x400, the race of the day came in the 800, in which Linsie Michels of Cascade held off North Bend's Ally Romanko by one-hundredth of a second to win in 2:15.34.

Romanko earlier won the pole vault, exceeding her previous PR by eight inches, and the decision to keep raising the bar after she'd clinched the victory may have cost her in the 800. Romanko took 21 attempts in the pole vault, eventually winning at a height of 11-6. But 12 of those attempts came after the title had been decided, with Romanko repeatedly trying to raise her PR.

"Maybe the pole vault took more out of me than I expected," she said. "I don't know if it's that or the weather, but it wasn't all there."

Romanko also took sixth in the 300 hurdles but felt all those pole vault attempts hurt her more in the 800.

"The last 200 of that race," she said, "I was feeling something that I hadn't felt before."

That was in contrast to the Spartans, who already knew coming into Saturday how it felt to be state champions. Now they've tasted such success twice, and using nearly the exact same script.

CAPTION(S):

bold and this is light text and this is more light text SourceCaptionInfo: Marist's Elena Collins narrowly beats Henley's Taylor Wallace at the finish line in the 4x400 meter relay. Marist's win in the event put them in first place head of Henley to win the OSAA State Track and Field Championships, Saturday, May 27, 2006, at Hayward Field.(THOMAS BOYD/The Register-Guard) Thomas Boyd / The Register-Guard Marist's Elena Collins hits the finish line ahead of Henley's Taylor Wallace to win the 4x400-meter relay O S A A t r a c k a n d f i e l d Thomas Boyd / The Register-Guard North Bend's Ally Romanko wins the pole vault with a clearance of 11-6 during Saturday's OSAA Class 3A girls meet at Hayward Field. She also placed second in the 800 meters. Elena Collins takes the handoff from Marist teammate Tahne Apo in the final leg of the 4x400-meter relay on Saturday.