‘None of us would be here without all of us.’ Tight-knit Crater bunch dominates the distances at 5A boys track championships

By René Ferrán | Photo by Taylor Balkom 

Since the OSAA added a third distance race to the state track and field championships schedule in 1964, only once had a school from the two highest classifications swept the three titles — South Eugene in 1971 — before this weekend at Hayward Field in Eugene. 

Crater snapped the 51-year streak Saturday when freshman Josiah Tostenson won the Class 5A 1,500 meters and sophomore Jeffrey Hellman won the 800, joining junior Tyrone Gorze atop the podium after his win Friday in the 3,000.

“To have our top three guys get all three titles is amazing,” Hellman said. “It’s all I could ever want.” 

The title-winning trio, along with sophomores Caleb Doddington (third in the 800) and Shaun Garnica (10th in the 3,000), form a tight-knit group that might “want to punch each other on the line, but when we all finish, we’re all hugging and loving each other,” Hellman said.

“We push each other every day and love to joke around and pick on each other, but our team is as close as we can get, and none of us would be here without all of us. It’s the healthiest relationship I’ve ever built.”

Tostenson finished second to Gorze in the 3,000, but after breaking the national freshman record for the 1,500 and mile in the Jesuit Twilight Relays Elite Mile last month, he was confident of his chances in Saturday’s final.

“I knew I had a kick and wanted to show it,” Tostenson said.

He was in seventh place at the halfway point of the race but moved up to second behind Gorze with a lap to go, with Milwaukie’s Logan Law and Ridgeview’s Finn Anspach right on his heels.

For a moment, Tostenson’s confidence wavered. 

“I didn’t think I had it,” he acknowledged. “But when I heard Logan on my heels, it gave me a different gear for that last 200.” 

Still, it wasn’t until the final 20 meters that Tostenson thought he had a chance to pass Gorze. 

“I realized, Dang, I’m really gaining on him. Then, I made one more push, and I had it.”

Tostenson’s winning time of 3 minutes, 59.74 seconds, didn’t approach his time at Jesuit, but he credited that race with propelling him to Saturday’s win.

“The confidence that gave me to know I can actually run against these good 5A and 6A guys and have a chance at beating them,” said Tostenson, who joined older brother Jantz (2017) as a 1,500 state champion.

Hellman watched the dramatic finish from the Hayward Field stands and knew the 800 was his chance to make history.

Seven months earlier, he’d been in a car accident just before the Midwestern League district cross country meet that laid him up in a neck brace for three months.

Now, he found himself in a tight pack of five runners within a half-second of each other after the first half of the race, and as he put it, “my brain just clicked in.”

“One lap for the title. Here it goes,” he thought to himself. 

He broke away from Anspach and, using the track announcer’s call along the homestretch as his guide, he knew he’d pulled off the treble, winning in a personal-best 1:55.97.

“It was all I could ask for,” Hellman said. 

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