Oh-so-close to another record, Oregon City's Harley Daniel leaves 6A girls track meet as a double state champion — and with no regrets
By René Ferrán | Photo by Taylor Balkom
Harley Daniel came oh, so close to making history one more time Saturday afternoon at the OSAA track and field championships.
The Oregon City senior took aim at breaking the 14-second barrier in the 100-meter hurdles in the Class 6A girls final and toppling the state record she set two weeks ago in the 300 hurdles.
Instead, she came up six-hundredths shy in the 100s and an agonizing two-hundredths in the 300s, although she did exit Eugene's Hayward Field a double state champion and holding both meet records — the 42.25 she ran in the 300 hurdles final along with the 14.05 she ran in Friday’s 100 hurdles prelims, one-hundredth faster than her winning time Saturday.
Along with her third-place finish in Friday’s long jump, she won 6A girls athlete of the meet honors.
Daniel quickly shrugged off any disappointment she felt about her near-misses in both races.
“I ran clean races, so I’m proud of what I did,” she said. “I ran the best that I could, so I can’t complain about it. I’m just glad I was able to end this with my amazing team.”
Now, the University of Utah signee prepares for the summer season, where she’ll take a few more cracks at getting under 14 seconds in the high hurdles while transitioning from the high school 300-meter hurdles race to the college and international 400-meter standard.
“That’ll be my first time running that,” she said. “I’ll be working on that a lot this summer, and I’m excited to be able to do that.”
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