LA GRANDE — The La Grande track and field team needed two buses on Saturday, March 23, with the squad split to attend two track meets in two states.

The varsity squad returned from a trip to College Place High School in Washington with team titles for both the boys and girls. The boys ended the meet with 162.5 points with host College Place in second after putting up 105 points. McLoughlin finished fourth with 65.5 points.

The La Grande girls easily outpaced its competition, ending the day with 222 points. Three teams, McLoughlin, DeSales and host College Place tied for second, far back from the Tigers with 59 points.

For the boys, senior Austin Uhl added to the Tigers total, winning both the 400 and 800, setting personal best times for both contests. Uhl finished the 400 in 54.37 seconds and crossed the line in the 800 with a time of 2:05.55. In the 800 meter race, sophomore Josef Simonis finished second, setting a personal best time of 2:08.37.

The Tigers won both relay races, taking the 4-by-100 relay with a team comprised of Korey Newman, Lee Harris, Mason Wolcott and David Sain. The 4-by-400 winning team saw Simonis, Wolcott, Harris and Uhl take the tape in first.

The winning continued for La Grande in the field events with sophomore Bekham Hibbert winning the shot put with a throw of 41 feet, 10.5 inches. Harris doubled his relay win with a top high jump of 5-10.

The dominating scoring for the girls was marked by dominating individual performances. Junior Kayle Collman ran a season best time of 13.58 seconds in the 100 to win the event.

As expected, the Tigers dominated the distance events with sophomore Brook Perry taking first in both the 1,600 and 3,200. Senior Emily Tubbs placed second behind Perry in both races. Junior Cecilia Villagomez took first place in the 800 meters.

Sophomore Taryn Mcllmoil also brought home two championships, winning the 100 and running a season best time of 50.08 seconds in the 300 hurdles.

Like the boys, the girls swept both the 4-by-100 and 4-by-400 relays. Crossing the finish in 52.66 seconds was the team comprised of Kylie Brown, Lana Emerson, Mattie Wolcott and Collman in the 4-by-100. The winning team for the 4-by-400 relay was made up of Wolcott, Mcllmoil, Collman and Villagomez.

While this meet was taking place, a few La Grande athletes were a little closer to home, taking part in the 15th annual Pepsi Invitational in Union.

The girls finished fifth in the team standings, while the La Grande boys were one spot back in sixth in the team points.

Freshman Lainey Wolfe led the girls with a first place showing in the shot put, hitting a mark of 32 feet, 2.75 inches. Sophomore Renee Hutchison placed second in the high jump with a leap of 4-8 and the freshmen group of Alexace Milner, Taylor Browining, Alyson Glabe and Aubry Hamner picked up third place in the 4-by-100 relay.

The boys also showed strength in the field events with junior Dane Fine picking up second place in both the triple jump and long jump. Senior Pedro Buccini also grabbed second with his finish in the high jump at 5-4 with freshman Henry Naylor placing second four inches behind.

The relay teams for La Grande will take center stage on March 30 with a trip to Zaepfel Stadium at Eisenhower High School in Washington for the Holder Relays.