‘It’s nice to carry on the Fields legacy.’ Churchill’s Nathan Fields stars at 5A boys track championships — just like older brother Elijah before him
By René Ferrán | Photo by Taylor Balkom
The Class 5A boys triple jump state title was handed down Saturday from one Fields brother to another.
Churchill’s Elijah Fields won the previous OSAA title contested in 2019 before the COVID pandemic canceled the past two state track and field championships.
On Saturday at Hayward Field in Eugene, it was younger brother Nathan’s turn, shrugging off a poor preliminary round and a bum ankle to jump a personal-best 47 feet, 1 inch, to keep the title in the family.
“It’s nice to carry on the Fields legacy,” Nathan said. “He did it senior year. I did it senior year.”
Nathan, who will compete at Bushnell University next year, took the lead in the fourth round, moving up from fourth with a 46-5½ jump. He then passed his next attempt, but there was no way he was going to pass on one final jump at Hayward.
“For sure, the final jump of my high school career, I had to do it,” he said. “But with the ankle taped up and everything, I didn’t know what was going to happen. I did the clap, which is very energizing at Hayward, and then I just kind of did what I did.”
Toss in his titles in Friday’s long jump and the 300-meter hurdles later Saturday that helped earn him athlete of the meet honors, and Nathan was already thinking about the phone call he would make later that evening to Elijah in Texas.
“Yes, most definitely, I will be bragging,” he said, laughing.
—
