HILLSBORO — The best season in the history of the Century girls basketball program continues.
Despite a few nervy moments at the end, the Jaguars held off Mountainside 62-55 on Tuesday night in the first round of the OSAA Class 6A state playoffs.
Century (21-4), in the postseason for the first time since 2019, extended its school record for wins in a season and reached the second round for only the second time. The Jaguars will travel to defending champion South Medford, a 67-37 winner over Newberg, on Friday with a spot at the Chiles Center on the line.
“The girls just did a phenomenal job of handling the intensity of a playoff game,” Century coach Eddie Littlefield said. “That was the first time that a lot of these girls have seen that kind of intensity and what it’s like to play in it, and they weren’t scared of it.”
It was a different look from his team than a week ago, when the Jaguars struggled out of the gate against McMinnville with the Pacific Conference title on the line.
“That was the best thing that ever happened to us,” Littlefield said of the 67-50 defeat. “You don’t ever want to take a loss, but if you lose and learn, then that’s what this really is about. And the girls learned a lot.
“They understood what it was to dig a little deeper, to make sure they were executing our plan, and they did. They came out so solid in doing what we wanted to do. We dictated the tempo. We dictated what we wanted to do offensively, and defensively, I think they struggled with our press.”
Junior Kiara Green, who transferred from Hillsboro over the summer and recently scored her 1,000th career point, led the way with 27 points, 11 rebounds, seven blocked shots and three assists.
Littlefield praised junior point guard Mia Brownson, who missed last season with a torn ACL but ran the show like a savvy veteran with nine points, five assists and two steals.
“She had a night tonight,” Littlefield said. “She commanded the floor. And our posts, they had a great night. Kiara, she almost had 30 points, and the blocked shots and deterring them at the rim. They didn’t have an answer.”
The Jaguars led 57-37 with four minutes left after a steal and layup by Kami Carmean before the Mavericks (15-10) put on a furious rally, going on an 18-3 run capped by Kylie Fisher’s three-point play with 41.9 seconds remaining.
Green split two free throws to push the lead back to 61-55, and after Mountainside missed twice, Carmean rebounded the second miss, was fouled and made 1 of 2 from the line with 21.2 seconds left.
Carmean added 11 points and five rebounds, and Alyssa Loza had eight points, five assists and four rebounds.
Fisher led the Mavericks with 19 points, eight rebounds and four steals. Berlynn Carlson, a senior transfer from Liberty and a Mount St. Mary’s signee, added 15 points, 12 rebounds and four steals, and Izzy Shandy had 12 points and five rebounds.
The top-seeded Democrats (25-1) rolled to Round 2.
Emma Burlison had 29 points and eight rebounds, and Brook Tate added 17 points, nine rebounds and four assists as the Saxons (18-8) pulled away to beat the Generals (16-10).
Grant tied the score late in the third quarter before Burlison took over, hitting two 3-pointers to help close the period. She scored 10 points in each of the final two quarters, and Brezlyn Schwalm made four 3-pointers to provide a boost.
Junior Reese Jordan had 18 points, six assists and five steals, and the Lions (19-7) built off the momentum of a regular season-ending win over Tualatin that clinched a share of the Three Rivers League title, leading 43-21 at halftime.
Sophomore Kaylor Buse added 16 points, eight assists and six steals, and classmate Piper Beall chipped in 10 points and five rebounds.
The Astros (21-4) are one win from returning to the Chiles Center, where they finished second to South Medford last year.
Sara Barhoum made seven 3-pointers and scored a game-high 27 points, and USC signee Jazzy Davidson added 25 points as the Cavaliers (24-2) rolled to the first-round victory.
Four Beavers scored in double figures, led by Ruby Foord with 18 points, and Beaverton (14-11) romped to a first-round win. Dara Oluwafemi added 12 points, and Abby Rice and Mila Watson scored 11 apiece.
The Vikings (17-9) advanced to meet Pacific Conference rival McMinnville seeking their first quarterfinal berth and fourth trip to the main tournament site — their last came in 2001.
The Grizzlies (20-5) hope to advance to the Chiles Center for the first time since the COVID-shortened 2020 tournament.
Freshman Love Lei Best led a balanced attack with 11 points, Maaya Lucas and Ries Miadich each scored 10, and Jordyn Smith had eight points and 13 rebounds as the Timberwolves (22-2) cruised to victory.
Maela Tsaknaridis and Kendall Dawkins chipped in nine points apiece for Tualatin. Maddy Miramontes led the Falcons (11-14) with 15 points.
Nylah Webster had 16 points, and the Guardians missed a potential tying 3-pointer at the buzzer as the Hawks (16-7) earned their first playoff win in program history.
Mayen Akpan had a game-high 21 points and eight rebounds, Maddy Warberg added 15 points, and Jordan Barlow had 14 for the defending 6A champion Panthers (21-4), who lost all-state guard Sara Schmerbach — a Santa Clara signee — to an ACL injury in the second quarter.
“We are devastated by her loss,” South Medford coach Tom Cole said.
The Skyhawks (18-7) are one win from back-to-back state tournament appearances.
Eva Lindahl and Millie Lathan each made three 3-pointers and scored 13 points, and Mia Thompson added 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Lady Cavers (17-7). Callie Brandes had six rebounds, five steals and four blocks for Grants Pass.
Amani Lubrano and Audrey Bayless scored 13 points apiece, and the Crusaders (13-11) pulled away in the fourth quarter to get past the Titans (13-12).
Reese Filkins added 10 points and 12 rebounds for Jesuit, and Lubrano had four assists and three steals. Braeli Martin scored a game-high 22 points for West Salem.
The Wolverines (21-5) shrugged off a slow start, trailing 13-12 after one quarter before taking control.
René Ferrán of High School on SI recently made a list of the top 50 girls athletes in Oregon history.
Where do recent Oregon basketball stars Jazzy Davidson, Cameron Brink and Evina Westbrook rank among the state’s all-time great girls athletes?
Counting down from No. 50 to No. 1 …
We start our list with the face of Oregon City during a time when the Pioneers and girls basketball dominance were synonymous — for a 12-year period from 1992-2004, the program won 10 OSAA state titles and three USA Today national championships (1995-97).
Two common threads during that three-year national championship streak? Hall of Fame coach Brad Smith and his daughter, Ashley, who lost only twice in 105 games — including a 68-game win streak to close her career. (Oregon City’s streak extended after her departure to Vanderbilt University, ending at 75 to make it the second-longest in state history.)
Smith was the engine of those high-powered teams, averaging a double-double her senior season, when she won 4A player of the year honors (10.3 points, 10.8 assists and 4.4 steals). She holds the state record for free throw percentage in a season (90% in 1995-96) and has the two highest single-season assist totals — 266 as a junior and 294 as a senior to finish with a state-record 908 for her career.
Jones made two all-state teams for Scappoose’s back-to-back 4A girls soccer state champions and qualified five times for the state track championships, twice finishing ninth in the 100-meter hurdles to narrowly miss qualifying for the finals.
But that isn’t why Jones made our list. Her biggest claim to fame is becoming the first girl to garner first-team all-state recognition in football, doing so her senior year after she helped Scappoose reach the 4A championship game.
She finished the season going 65 for 72 kicking extra points and making her only field goal attempt. She made all four of her extra-point tries in the 4A final, but Scappoose lost to Cascade, 37-28.
Jones kicked for three seasons for Scappoose, finishing her career 127 for 142 on PATs. She holds state records for most PATs in a season and career for a female placekicker.
Carlson entered high school with plenty of expectations, having committed to the University of Oregon as an eighth-grade phenom.
She more than lived up to the hype for the Spartans, leading them to a 5A state championship as a sophomore and winning Gatorade state player of the year honors as a junior and senior.
She finished her career as the state’s all-time home runs leader with 72, smashing the previous mark by 26. She holds three of the top nine single-season home runs marks, including a career-high 20 as a senior to go with 56 RBIs, 56 runs, 11 stolen bases and 35 walks.
She also has the state record with 252 RBIs, and her .619 batting average ranks fourth all-time. She also wasn’t too shabby in the circle for the Spartans, going 33-4 with 327 strikeouts over two seasons.
Her move across town to UO ended last spring with her fourth on the school’s all-time home runs list with 44 and sixth in career RBIs with 159. She made the all-Pac-12 first team as a senior, when she became the first Ducks player to post a 15 home run-15 stolen base season.
There have been nine girls to win four state singles championships in tennis, but only four at Oregon’s highest classification — Corvallis’ Sue Graham (1963-66), Wilson’s Lindsey Berman (1973-76), Crescent Valley’s Cisca Mok (1988-91) and Larner, the most recent to do so, from 2011-14.
Not only did Larner win four state titles, she went her entire career undefeated with the Crusaders. During her dominant state tournament run, she went 192-40 in games and dropped only one set in 16 matches — falling behind in the 2011 final as a freshman before defeating Lincoln’s Ariana Fardanesh 3-6, 6-0, 6-3.
And to think, she nearly left the Crusaders halfway through her high school career to attend the Smith Stearns Tennis Academy in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. She had a last-minute change of heart and decided to stay close to her family — especially older brother Saige, who was dealing with a host of health issues.
Larner played for Northwestern, where she became the seventh player in school history to earn all-Big Ten recognition all four seasons and teamed with Maddie Lipp to earn a No. 1 national ranking her senior year and receive All-America status.
For two seasons in the mid-2000s, there was no girls javelin thrower in the country better than Yurkovich, who broke the state record as a senior and had the nation’s best throw as a junior and senior at Newberg.
She won the first of her two 4A state championships in 2004 before embarking on a senior season for the ages with the Tigers. It wasn’t just her then-record throw of 176 feet, 5 inches, that was a national best or her second state title — the All-American also won the USA Junior Championships and the Pan-American Junior Championships and took fifth at the U.S. Nationals.
She threw for the University of Oregon, where she won two NCAA championships and four Pac-10 titles and was an All-American all four years. She finished third at the U.S. Olympic Trials in 2008 but failed to meet the qualifying standard to throw at the Games. After making the final at the 2009 World Championships, she achieved her dream of throwing at the Olympics in London in 2012.
Competing down in Southern Oregon was one of the state’s best all-around athletes in recent memory — an all-state performer in three sports who won four 4A state championships.
As a goalkeeper, Fisher was an all-state performer three years in a row and backstopped the Mustangs to a state championship as a sophomore, when she posted 11 shutouts in a 17-1 campaign, including back-to-back 1-0 wins over Marist Catholic and Valley Catholic in the final two rounds of the playoffs.
Basketball might have been the third of her three sports, but she was a first-team all-state selection as a junior and averaged a double-double during the COVID-shortened 2021 spring season as a senior, when the Mustangs won the culminating-week state tournament event.
It was in track and field that Fisher truly shined. She won state titles in the shot put and discus as a senior, moving to No. 2 on the all-time state list in the latter with a winning throw of 166 feet, 10 inches, that ranked ninth in the nation that year. She later won the U.S. Junior Olympic National discus title, and at Stanford, she has moved to No. 8 on the school’s all-time list in the event with a throw of 176-9.
When Oregon high school softball was still in its infancy, Moe set a standard of dominance that has yet to be surpassed.
When Moe first entered the circle in the OSAA state championship game as a freshman in 1980, it was only the second year the OSAA sanctioned the sport, and there was only one playoff bracket for all classifications.
As the sport grew over the next four years, one thing remained constant — Moe mowing down batters, over and over. She led the Lancers to four consecutive state titles (the last two in AAA after the OSAA split the tournament into two classifications), a record that no team has matched. Her statistics in those four championship game victories? Four complete games, 27 innings, four hits allowed, one run (unearned), no walks and 39 strikeouts.
She is fourth on the state’s all-time list with 21 no-hitters, and her 46 shutouts rank No. 3. Her career earned run average of 0.17 is tied for second — her ERA was 0.00 during her junior season.
After that final 1-0 victory over Putnam to clinch her fourth title, she pitched for the University of California and coached her daughters Autumn and Emily to follow her as college pitchers.
Nared first made a name for herself at 12 years old, when she appeared on “Good Morning America” after a boys basketball league barred her for being too dominant.
That dominance continued during her high school career with the Wildcats, where she was a three-time Metro League player of the year, earning 6A all-state honors each season and leading her team to the state final as a sophomore and three trophies in all.
She capped her career with one of the best seasons in state history, averaging 28.2 points, 14 rebounds, 4.1 steals and three assists as a senior and winning Gatorade state player of the year, Parade All-America and McDonald’s All-American accolades. In the McDonald’s All-American game, she led the West team to victory, scoring 15 points in 17 minutes.
Her 2,485 career points are a big-school record and rank her No. 2 in state history behind Triangle Lake’s Kiana Brown (2,894).
Nared played for the University of Tennessee, where she was an AP Honorable Mention All-American as a senior, and two seasons with the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces after being picked by the team in the second round of the 2018 draft. She now plays for Nesibe Aydin Ankara in the Turkish national league, where she continues to light up opponents, leading the team in steals (1.7 per game) and ranking second in scoring (16.5), rebounding (7.8) and assists (3.5).
Harmon lettered in three sports with the Pacers — something we emphasized when ranking our all-time greats — but she made a name for herself on the hardwood, holding school records for career points and rebounds.
She was a three-time 4A state player of the year and the Gatorade state player of the year as a senior, when she earned EA Sports/ESPN first-team All-America honors. As a junior, she led the Pacers to the 4A state final, where they lost to Oregon City during the final season of the Pioneers’ four-year run as state champions.
Her 2,157 career points ranked second in the state’s highest classification when she graduated — she’s since been surpassed by Nared and Clackamas’ Jazzy Davidson to drop to fourth.
After Harmon’s stellar high school career, she played for Stanford, helping the Cardinal make two Final Fours and reaching 1,000 career points as a senior, when she averaged a career-best 9.6 points. She played in the 2008 Olympics for New Zealand and internationally in Italy, Australia, France and New Zealand.
Ayotte-Law was born in 1959 in Inglewood, Calif., and moved first to Washington state before arriving in Gresham as an eighth-grader, and she took her first gymnastics classes that year.
Immediately, she knew she’d found her calling, and for three years, she was among the gymnasts who set the standard of excellence in the state. As a junior, she won state titles in the balance beam and floor exercise. The next year, she tied for second in the beam and was third in the floor.
She continued her gymnastics career at Oregon State, where she became a three-time All-American and won a national championship in the floor exercise in 1982. She took third in the all-around that year.
She was a four-time NCAA Western Region champion, was a member of the U.S. team at the 1981 World University Games (she was the top U.S. finisher in the all-around at 15th and made the finals in the floor and beam), and capped her career by receiving the American Award, honoring the nation’s top senior gymnast.
Birdsong might have been tucked away along the central Oregon coast, but her talent couldn’t be denied.
She was a 3A all-state selection all four seasons for the Tigers, and she dominated foes like no one before or since. The two-time Gatorade state player of the year holds Oregon records for single-season (eight) and career (15) perfect games of at least seven innings, and she threw 22 no-hitters and 62 shutouts — twice tossing 19 shutouts in a season.
Birdsong finished her career 77-14 with an 0.17 earned run average (third lowest in state history), striking out 1,306 batters and walking 16. She capped her run with a dominant performance in the state final, allowing two hits (the 63rd time she allowed two or fewer hits in a game), striking out eight and walking none in a 6-0 victory over Cascade.
After graduation, Birdsong pitched for Bradley University, where she was the team’s No. 1 starter all four years, tying the school record for career starts (108) and holding the strikeouts record with 870. She is the most recent 20-game winner in school history, leading Bradley to the 2009 NCAA tournament. She finished her career with 65 victories, six saves and a 2.15 ERA.
During the Crusaders’ three-year unbeaten run atop the 6A girls soccer world, one constant was Harrington up front, finding the back of the net.
In her high school finale, she scored twice in a 3-0 victory over Mountainside that not only secured the program’s third consecutive state title but also put her atop the state’s single-season (55) and career (133) goals lists. She won Gatorade state player of the year honors that year and played in the High School All-American Game.
Wilsonville’s Lindsey Antonson broke her career goals record two years later, but Harrington still holds the all-time points and assists (63) marks.
She played two seasons for the University of Oregon, scoring on her first shot attempt with the Ducks as a redshirt sophomore, but injuries derailed her time in Eugene. She transferred to Loyola Marymount for her final college season, recording three goals and an assist in 13 games.
Benson produced dozens of standout tracksters during an eight-year run during which it bookended six consecutive 4A state titles with second-place finishes.
One of the best was Callier, who started her career as a member of four state champion relays and won the 200-meter state title as a junior.
Then came one of the best all-around seasons in state history, when she swept the state championships in the 100, 200, long jump and triple jump. The previous week at the PIL district meet, Callier broke the state record in the triple jump, going 40 feet, 7.25 inches — a record that stood for 19 years.
Callier ranks among the top 50 in state history in all four of her events, with career bests of 12.05 seconds in the 100 (tied for 32nd), 24.62 in the 200 (26th) and 18-7.5 in the long jump (tied for 41st).
Fisher was the best softball player to come through the Oregon high school scene in a generation. She was the first to win state Gatorade player of the year honors three times and was named national player of the year as a senior, when she led the Lava Bears to their first state championship before heading to UCLA as the nation’s top recruit.
She announced herself during her freshman year, when she won the first of her Gatorade awards after going 9-0 with an 0.25 ERA, allowing 16 hits and zero walks in 56.1 innings. She repeated as the state’s top player the next year, tossing six no-hitters and two perfect games and finishing 20-1 with an 0.46 ERA and 259 strikeouts in 122.1 innings.
She didn’t win the award as a junior despite going 17-2 with an 0.32 ERA in 110 innings, striking out 214 and allowing 37 hits and 16 walks. That set up one of the best seasons in state history — she went 20-2 with two saves, an 0.36 ERA, 10 shutouts, five no-hitters and four perfect games, with 261 strikeouts and 18 walks in 134.2 innings.
She also played in the outfield for the Lava Bears and was one of the state’s most feared hitters. Her 196 hits rank fifth all-time in Oregon, and she tied the state record with 58 doubles. She hit 43 home runs (third in state history), drove in 142 runs and scored 190.
In September, Fisher pitched for Team USA at the U-18 World Cup qualifying event in Dallas, taking the ball for the group stage final and shutting out Canada 7-0, allowing three hits and striking out eight in six innings.
Over the course of Moran’s four years at Sherwood, she was one of the state’s most dominant throwers, winning three 6A state championships and overcoming disappointment her junior season to earn Gatorade athlete of the year honors as a senior.
Moran broke through as a freshman, when she finished second in the discus and sixth in the shot put at the state meet. The following year, she won her first title in the discus and took fifth in the shot.
Then came her junior season, when she arrived for the state championships at Eugene’s Hayward Field having won 21 consecutive discus competitions and having broken the state record with a throw of 170 feet, 6 inches. She shockingly failed to post a legal throw in three tries, bowing out of the competition.
That provided the motivation she needed for her senior year. She once again went undefeated in the discus, breaking her state record at the Three Rivers League district meet with a throw of 179-7, and she followed with a second state title and added her first shot put championship.
After graduation, Moran could turn her attention to the hammer throw, which was her focus during her college career at Arizona State and Oregon. She finished second at the U-20 National Championships as an ASU freshman and twice made the podium at the NCAA championships, placing fifth as a sophomore and fourth as a senior.
Clemens comes from one of Eastern Oregon’s athletic family dynasties — her father, John, was a quarterback at Oregon State and Portland State; her brother, Kellen, was a standout quarterback for the Hilanders who played 11 seasons in the NFL; and sisters Maria (Portland) and Catherine (Boise State) also were college athletes.
But Jessica’s versatility across three sports put her in a class by herself. She was a 3A all-state selection four times in basketball (twice the player of the year) and three times in volleyball (twice the player of the year, including the Gatorade state player of the year as a senior), and she was a state champion in the javelin as a junior (with a career-best throw of 131 feet, 11 inches) and runner-up her senior year.
Clemens finished her basketball career with 1,679 points, helping Burns win state titles her freshman and junior seasons.
On the volleyball court, she played on two state championship teams, including her senior season, when she was an AVCA All-American and won the Gatorade state player of the year award.
Clemens played volleyball and basketball for the University of Portland, appearing in 78 games for the basketball team (4.6 points per game) and 87 volleyball matches (813 kills).
For four years, Schueler dominated the sprint races like few others in state history, accomplishing something only one other girl ever had — winning 16 state championships.
Only Yoncalla’s Maranda Brownson, who did it at the 2A state meets from 1998-2001, was also a perfect 16 for 16 at state meets — but Schueler did so at 5A, closing her career by fighting through a hamstring injury in her final race to erase a 10-meter deficit and anchor the Storm’s 4×400 relay to victory.
Schueler still has her name among the state’s all-time greats in the 100, 200 and 400 meters, ranking fifth all-time in the 100 with a best of 11.74 seconds, fourth in the 200 (23.69) and fifth in the 400 (54.25). After her junior season, she qualified for the U.S. team that competed at the 2009 Pan American Championships, running the third leg on the gold medal-winning 4×400 relay.
She ran three seasons for Summit’s cross country program, making the podium at the state meet all three years, finishing 10th, fifth and fourth.
Schueler ran for two seasons for Stanford before a falling-out with a new coaching staff led her to leave the program and take up ultimate frisbee while pursuing her medical degree.
For a three-year period from 2015-17, South Salem set the standard for 6A girls basketball — a period that coincided with Westbrook’s time with the Saxons.
As a sophomore, she teamed with Katie McWilliams to lead the program to its first state championship since 1976. The next season, Westbrook won the first of her two Gatorade state player of the year awards after leading the Saxons to a repeat 6A title, averaging 20.2 points, 6.1 rebounds and 6.9 assists.
That set the stage for a senior season that ranks among the best in state history. She averaged 24.8 points, 7.5 rebounds, 5.8 assists and 5.1 steals, earning USA Today and Morgan Wooten national player of the year honors and McDonald’s and WBCA All-America recognition. The only disappointment: The Saxons lost to Oregon City in the 6A semifinals to end their bid for a third consecutive state title.
Westbrook started all 115 games of her high school career, finishing with 1,845 points, 521 rebounds, 611 assists, 549 steals and 159 blocked shots. She holds the school’s career scoring record and is among the state’s all-time leaders in assists (sixth) and steals (third).
She played two seasons for Tennessee before transferring to Connecticut, where she helped the Huskies reach back-to-back Final Fours. She finished with 1,345 career points before becoming a second-round pick in the 2022 WNBA draft by the Seattle Storm. She played two seasons in the league with four teams.
From the first time Verloo stepped on a high school pitch as a freshman, scoring two goals against defending 6A state champion Sheldon, she was a dominant figure on the high school soccer scene before forgoing much of her senior season while playing for the United States at the FIFA U-17 World Cup.
Timberwolves assistant coach Aundrey Johnson nicknamed her The Machine after watching Verloo display her trademark speed and dexterity, which helped her win Gatorade state player of the year honors as a sophomore and junior, lead the Timberwolves to two state titles, and notch 92 career goals and 29 assists.
She played one game for Tualatin as a senior between stints with the U.S. national team. She scored six goals in four matches at the CONCACAF World Cup qualifying tournament and four goals in New Zealand to tie for third in the Golden Boot race. She captained the U.S. squad at the inaugural edition of the U-17 World Cup, and her 81st-minute goal lifted the U.S. to a 2-1 win over Germany in the semifinals, although the Americans lost in the final.
Parade Magazine named her to its All-America squad after her senior season, and Verloo went on to star for Stanford University, playing in both central defense and at forward for the Cardinal and finishing with 23 career goals and 25 assists. She played briefly for the Western New York Flash of the NWSL.
Murphy attended Holy Child Academy, an all-girls school in Northeast Portland from 1929-73, and for two years was the state’s premier backstroker.
As a 14-year-old freshman in 1953, she won her first state championship in the 100-yard backstroke, and she finished second at the 1954 national indoor finals in the 200-yard event.
The next year, she repeated as state champion in the 100 back, lowering her time by 3.5 seconds and becoming the first girl in state history to break 1 minute, 10 seconds. She won the 1995 AAU national title in the 200 back, embarking on a two-year stretch in which she prepared for the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia.
She finished second in the 100 backstroke at the Olympic trials to qualify for the Games, where she advanced to the final and finished fifth.
Murphy retired from competitive swimming after the ’56 Games and attended Oregon State and Portland State. She passed away in 2019 at age 79.
At age 11, Kohlmeier was the youngest gymnast to achieve Class 1 status in the state, and she had the opportunity to train with one of the state’s top clubs — the National Academy of Gymnastics in Eugene. She explained to a reporter, however, that “training seven or eight hours a day just wasn’t my thing,” and it wasn’t until the summer before her freshman year that she resumed gymnastics training.
By the time Kohlmeier finished high school, she’d become one of the state’s most decorated gymnasts.
During her tenure with the Broncos, she won a state title in the vault as a freshman and in the vault and floor exercise as a junior en route to the all-around championship. She nearly swept all four event titles as a senior (she finished second on the balance beam) as she won a second all-around state championship and led Parkrose to the team title.
Kohlmeier also was a top hurdler and jumper for the Broncos track and field team. She took second in the 300-meter hurdles and long jump as a sophomore, finished second in the 300s as a junior, and won the 100 hurdles state title as a senior.
In her final high school race, Kohlmeier showed off her gymnastics skills for the capacity crowd at Hayward Field in Eugene. She led the 300 hurdles going to the final hurdle when she clipped the top, tumbling to the track — only to perform a perfect somersault, popping up and crossing the finish line fourth. She performed the same feat in her Friday preliminary race to qualify for the final.
She competed in the heptathlon on the same Hayward Field track, twice posting top-five finishes for the Ducks at the Pac-10 championships. In 1996, she married former UO javelin thrower Art Skipper, who tragically died in a plane crash in October 2001.
Slama first picked up a golf club at age 2 and played in her first tournament at 8. By the time she was 12, she was playing in national tournaments, including the PGA Junior and three U.S. Junior Girls championships — she twice advanced to the match play portion, reaching the Round of 32 once.
So, it was no surprise when she instantly became the Saxons’ No. 1 golfer when she arrived on campus, finishing second in her first high school tournament and seventh at her first 6A state championships.
Slama improved to a fifth-place state finish as a sophomore, the first of three seasons she went undefeated in Greater Valley Conference meets. She won back-to-back state titles as a junior and senior, setting OSAA scoring records for lowest round (65) and largest margin of victory over 36 holes (19 strokes) at Emerald Valley Golf Club in Creswell.
But Slama was more than just a golfer. She also ran cross country and swam for the Saxons, being named a team captain in both sports during her senior year.
Slama golfed for Oregon State, and she graduated with the best scoring average (72.95) in school history, qualified for the NCAA championships as a sophomore, won three tournaments and posted 14 top-10 finishes. She turned pro after graduation in 2022 and earned partial status on the Epson Tour this year.
Bunn was an accomplished three-sport athlete at the Mid-Willamette Valley school around the turn of the millennium, making eight all-state teams and winning a 3A state championship with the 2002 softball team.
She made the all-state basketball team all four years, earning second-team honors as a freshman and senior and first-team recognition as a sophomore and junior. She holds school records for career points (1,831), rebounds (783), assists (342) and steals (306).
As a senior, Bunn made the all-tournament team at the volleyball state championships, helping the Eagles finish fourth, and was a second-team all-state pick.
Bunn starred at Oregon State, where she ranks 15th on the career scoring list with 1,163 points. She is one of 11 players in school history to average 20 or more points in a season, doing so her senior year, when she led the Pac-10 with 20 points per game. She is 13th on the school’s career rebounds list (661).
She played professionally in Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Australia, and she is in her 10th season as the head coach at Linfield.
Brink’s “godbrother” is Golden State Warriors superstar and close family friend Stephen Curry, and she grew up watching Curry play for Davidson University and in the NBA while harboring dreams of being an artist.
It wasn’t until middle school that Brink started playing sports, and as she continued growing — eventually getting taller than her talented buddy, standing 6-foot-4 — she blossomed into one of the best post players in state history.
Brink was a two-time Gatorade state player of the year and three-time 6A all-state selection while attending Southridge, where she helped the Skyhawks win back-to-back state titles in 2017-18.
For her senior season, she decided to transfer down the road to Mountainside, and she led her new team to its first state tournament appearance, where the Mavericks secured a trophy in the hours before the OSAA canceled the remainder of the tournament because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The sudden end to her high school career left Brink with 1,909 points and 1,209 rebounds — one of 14 players to reach 1,000 career points and rebounds in Oregon.
Brink became a three-time All-American, a two-time national defensive player of the year, and the Pac-12 player of the year as a senior at Stanford. She was the No. 2 pick in the 2024 WNBA draft by the Los Angeles Sparks and made the U.S. 3×3 team for the Paris Olympics before tearing the ACL in her left knee in June, ending her season.
Beckmon has been one of the nation’s best long jumpers since her sophomore season with the Pioneers, when she won the first of three 6A state championships and narrowly missed breaking the national high school record.
In three seasons, she lost only one high school long jump competition, breaking the state record at the state meet her junior year by going 20 feet, 1.5 inches.
Once she broke the 20-foot barrier, the improvements came in leaps and bounds — she jumped farther than 20 feet 14 times in the next 16 months, including a 22-4 effort at the Jesuit Twilight Relays that was one inch short of the national high school record. She won three Nike Outdoor Nationals long jump championships, earned two U.S. Junior National titles, and took gold at the 2023 U23 North American, Central American and Caribbean Championships.
She also was the state’s best high school sprinter not named Mia Brahe-Pedersen over that three-year stretch, finishing second as a senior to her good friend in the 100 and 200 meters at the state championships and Nike Outdoor Nationals.
Beckmon recently completed her freshman season at the University of Illinois, where she broke the indoor and outdoor school records in the long jump (tying the American U-20 national outdoor record with her 6.86-meter leap), qualified for the NCAA indoor championships, and won the U.S. U-20 national title.
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