Micah Perry of Barlow is more than just a record-setting hurdler — he’s a one-of-a-kind teammate, student and person

By Dave Ball 

Barlow track and field coach Scott Jones knew he had someone special in his program at the end of Micah Perry’s freshman year.

It was 2020. COVID had broken out, wreaking havoc on the local sports scene. The OSAA canceled its state track championships.

Instead, Oregon City hosted a year-end showcase meet inviting some of the state’s top competitors. Perry had only a handful of high school races under his belt when he stepped into the starting blocks for the 110-meter hurdles.

“He wasn’t the fastest guy coming into it, but he was still pretty confident,” Jones said. “It was a very messy race, hurdles were flying everywhere, guys were moving around in the lanes, but he kept his focus and won that race — nothing really bothers him.”

Perry discovered the hurdles just a year earlier as an eighth-grader at West Orient Middle School. His coach had a hunch that it would be a good event and entered Perry into it late in the season. He got an official finish that qualified him for the Meet of Champions.

Perry was seeded 40th entering the prestigious meet.

He won his preliminary heat.

He won the finals.

“Something clicked with me that day and the hurdles just worked,” Perry said.

He has made a habit of being first through the finish line ever since.

As a sophomore, Perry had built a reputation locally in the Mt. Hood Conference, but he was still a bit of an unknown when the state championships came up that spring.

“Sophomore year, people didn’t really know me. It was, who is this short kid?” Perry said.

He didn’t look so short while standing on top of the awards podium after winning both his preliminary heat and the finals by wide margins.

“Micah runs faster with pressure, that competitor comes out — he’s that guy,” Barlow hurdles coach Christina Whitney said.

During a February practice his junior year, Perry was doing some routine hurdle repetitions down the straightaway when he felt pain at the front of his hip. He had suffered a torn labrum — the cartilage that lines the hip socket.

Rather than shutting down his season, Perry elected to adjust his routine, battle through the pain and get the injury repaired over the summer. His practice routine shifted to building speed with sprint work — hurdles were only for meet days.

Still, he would find himself hobbling from class to class on the day after a meet, the injury not allowing him to forget that it was still there.

“Last year was all about managing the pain — it’s one of the most mentally challenging things I’ve ever done,” Perry said. “There were moments where I would be laying in bed wondering if this was all worth it. Then I would think back to freshman me, and the goals I set, and I owed it to myself to give it everything I had.”

He did just that and found himself at the starting blocks at the recently renovated Hayward Field in Eugene for the big-school state meet. What came next was the fastest race of his life.

“Hayward is just a great place that sparks a fire in me — when you are there, this is it — it’s time to go after what you came for,” Perry said.

He exploded out of the blocks, flew over the hurdles and leaned through the finish line in 14.08 seconds — not only winning the qualifier by almost a second, but also breaking a school record that had stood for more than a decade.

This was only the start of his weekend.

Unlike the regular season, he didn’t have a week to recover before his next race.

Perry had to return to the track 24 hours later to line up for the championship finals.

“It took everything he had to come back from Friday’s prelims and come back the next day to run the finals,” Jones said. “To be a hurdler, you have to be tough.”

Perry was indeed back at Hayward the next day and again crossed through the finish line first, this time in 14.34 seconds, again several strides ahead of his nearest pursuer.

Still, his day wasn’t over.

He was due back to the track in just a few hours to run the second leg on the Bruins’ 1,600-meter relay. The Barlow tag-team turned in a sixth-place finish.

Perry got his labrum repaired during the offseason and has been racing pain-free his senior year. Whitney, who runs the Resolute Track Club, has focused on fine-tuning Perry’s form coming off the injury.

“The body learns to re-route things, so we had to do some retraining, but he’s back in the low 14s which is where he should be living,” she said. “He has made big gains during the offseason, getting stronger in the weight room, and you see that in his speed on the track.”

Perry came up a wink short of his school record with a win in 14.11 seconds at the Nike Twilight Relays two weeks ago.

The next goal for Perry is to break the 14-second barrier — something he might accomplish while in pursuit of a third consecutive state title in the event.

“When you run super fast in the hurdles, it feels reckless, like you are about to crash,” Whitney said. “The goal is to keep it on the rails and ride it through the finish line.”

In addition to his individual events, Perry is also a part of both Barlow relay teams this spring. He is hopeful that the long relay can improve on last year’s sixth-place finish in Eugene.

“I’ve known these guys since middle school, and I like running with a team where we are all striving for the same thing,” Perry said.

While he produces points in the biggest meets, Jones most appreciates the leadership Perry displays every day.

He had a light day, just two events, during a recent dual against rival Gresham. Rather than hitting the finish line and heading home early, Perry could be seen running back and forth across the infield, cheering and high-fiving his teammates.

Nike awarded backpacks to each event winner at the Twilight meet — Perry’s prize went home with a teammate.

“Selfless is the perfect word to describe Micah. The people around him know he is a big-time athlete, but he doesn’t act big time — he’s always welcoming,” Jones said. “He is running fast and he’s having fun and his body language rubs off on everyone else.”

Perry is heading to Boston University in the fall, where he is excited to enroll in one of the nation’s top-rated business schools. He carries a 3.98 grade-point average — his only B coming in eighth grade while taking a high-school level math class.

Last month, Perry traveled to Orlando, where he and fellow senior Kyle Klinger placed fourth at the Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) international competition. The pair presented a 10-minute proposal on a hypothetical business decision, acting as bank analysts choosing whether to approve a $100,000 loan.

“Boston U is a top-15 business school with a seven-percent acceptance rate, so I’m really excited to be going there,” Perry said. “It’s a beautiful city with a lot of history, and it’s a great team where I know I can keep pushing myself.”