4A track and field: Leilani Mays of Union breaks plan, runs personal best in the 100 hurdles

May 13-If there is anyone who knows about the unpredictable nature of the track and field postseason, it's Leilani Mays.

The goal at the district meet is to be conservative and focus on advancing to the next round.

And that was the plan for the Union junior heading Wednesday's portion of the 4A District 4 meet at McKenzie Stadium.

But then Mays' competitive nature kicked in.

Mays posted a personal best of 14.26 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles and outkicked Skyview's Paris Ackerman to win the 100 meters in 12.15 seconds.

"So before I was like 'OK, let me just get through the round,' " Mays said. "Because I know that even on a bad day I could probably get through. So I was like I don't want to strain. But then at the end of the race, it was 'You know, I want to PR today.' "

Two years ago as a freshman, Mays suffered an injury in a freak mishap. She fell after tripping over a fallen hurdle during warmups at the district meet.

That injury basically ended her season even before making it to state.

This year, the junior is taking the strategy of focusing on just the 100-meter hurdles and the 100 meters in the postseason.

"Just based off of what I'm ranked in state right now, the hurdles and the 100 are my best events," Mays said. "Hurdles are my main event, and I'm not going to the 200 because that might be a little too much (at state). At state, it's hurdle prelims, 100 prelims and then hurdles finals. But if I added the 200 in there, it just would have been too much."

Wednesday's schedule led to a quick turnaround between the hurdles and the 100 meters, but Mays handled, getting an extra push from Ackerman.

"Woo, yeah, she made me work for it," Mays said. "So that was good."

Ella Koch got the other win for Union on Wednesday, taking the 1,600 meters in 5:02.61.

All other events in the girls 4A meet were swept by Camas athletes - Lila McCarthy in the 400 (1:00.83), Kyleigh Moore in the shot put (31-4.25), Ella Thompson in the javelin (113-4) and high jump (5-0) and Juliette Morrow in the triple jump (35-6.5).

Union got four wins in the boys side of the meet, led by Chase Moore in the 100 (10.99), Henry Reiter in the 400 (50.54), Lucas Fosterman in the 110 hurdles (15.12) and Cameron Roy in the javelin (158-3).

Camas claimed Wednesday's other victories - Cohen Butler in the 1,600 (4:17.86), Carter Anderson in the pole vault (13-6) and Carmello Davis in the triple jump (42-3).

The meet concludes Thursday at McKenzie Stadium.

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