Kate Peters of Lake Oswego just misses record, ‘settles’ for 6A state title and No. 2 girls 3,000 mark in Oregon history
By René Ferrán
Lake Oswego junior Kate Peters knew if she wanted to set a state record in the Class 6A girls 3,000 meters Friday at the OSAA track and field championships, she’d have to do most of the work.
From the opening gun, she shot out to the lead and pushed a furious pace, but she faltered just enough at the end to come up thisshort of breaking the record.
Peters won in 9 minutes, 25.15 seconds, “settling” for a 6A meet record and the second-fastest time in state history, just 29-hundredths of a second off the 9:24.86 mark set by Grant’s Ella Donaghu in 2014.
“I went out at a five-minute pace and then just tried to keep it up,” Peters said. “I blew up at the end, but not too bad, but it was hard because there was no one out there to push me. But still, it was a good effort.”
Peters, who committed to Oklahoma State right before the season began, had not run high school track before this spring. She raced cross country for Lincoln as a freshman before transferring that winter to Lake Oswego, but before that season began, COVID-19 hit, canceling the season.
Last spring, she and her family decided against running either the cross country or the track season due to the pandemic. Finally, last fall, she won her first state title in cross country, and now she added her first title on the track.
“Finally being able to run high school track and run at Hayward Field has been a lot of fun,” she said.
While Peters set a grueling pace, her closest rivals — seniors Kaiya Robertson of Franklin and Charlotte Richman of Ida B. Wells — settled into position about seven seconds behind, waiting for her to falter.
“When she went, I knew I just had to go my pace, run within myself, and I’m really happy with how it turned out,” said Robertson, a Boise State signee who moved to third on the all-time state list with her 9:28.72 second-place finish. (Richman, who placed third in 9:31.43, is now No. 4 all-time.)
“I knew I could close on her the last lap or two. I probably should have tried a little earlier, but that was a tiring pace. But I think there were a lot of people in the race with speed, so that’s probably a good strategy.”
Those three return to the track Saturday afternoon to double in the 1,500, where they’ll face Jesuit senior Chloe Foerster, a University of Washington signee who’s No. 2 on the all-time state list in the event.
Peters, No. 15 all-time for the metric mile, did her best to sandbag her chances of winning the double.
“I’m excited for that,” Peters said. “That’ll be a really fun race, and I’m excited to see what I can do. The odds are against me. She should win, but I’ll give it everything I have.”
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