Ashland Middle School track and field athletes, from left, Natalie Kupka, Saki Coltier, Kendall Thomas and Alma Galicia pose with their championship medals.

It was the right time and the right place for the Ashland girls middle school track and field team to earn the Oregon Middle School Meet of Champions team title at Corvallis High School last Thursday.

Ashland coaches told their team that a championship was well within the realm of possibility at the season finale, especially after noting the school’s boys team won the title in 2016.

After 13 events, the Bear Cubs were competing with only High Desert for the meet title and just needed to finish one spot ahead of the Diamondbacks in the 4×400-meter relay. Ashland’s quartet of Natalie Kupka, Saki Coltier, Alma Galicia and Kendall Thomas then mustered a winning time of 4 minutes, 14.88 seconds — nearly 12 seconds off their seed time — to upset the higher-seeded High Desert girls (4:20.29) in the final event.

That was just enough to get 34 team points in a meet that featured 265 teams, finishing just in front of High Desert (32).

Ashland Middle School track and field coach Jim Hagemann said all involved were excited to see the group pull out the girls team title in the final event and cap off a fun day all around.

“When we looked at the scores, we knew that if they were able to win the 4×400, we would win the meet.” Hagemann said. “Our girls pulled together and got a personal-best by quite a bit.”

The feat of winning the relay and the team title in one race is something that left Ashland shocked, according to Kupka, and the feeling still hasn’t fully set in.

“We just all are really shocked,” Kupka said. “I don’t know how much it has set in even now, I’m not sure how many Ashland girls have won state titles and we won the team title. It really happened and it was really exciting.” 

Along with running the 4×400, Kupka captured two individual titles in the distance events, doubling in the 3,000 (10:27.54) and the 800 (2:24.57).

The eighth-grader went undefeated in both events this year, and Hagemann credited her endurance for running in three events over one day to helping propel the team. Kupka went through the races one at a time and was confident that she could pull out the two individual titles.

“She really had an amazing day,” he said. “I was super impressed with her and she really took the lead for us.”

Ashland also got seventh-place finishes from Thomas in the 400 (1:02.32) and Galicia in the 800 (2:29.24) to add extra points.

With Thomas, Galicia and Kupka running before the relay, the prospect of winning state provided the extra boost to get the job done.

“My teammates and I that had run events before, we just kept jogging to keep loose,” Kupka said. “There was adrenaline knowing that we had one thing to do and it made it a little easier for me to cope with it.”

Hagemann was happy to see multiple athletes chip in valuable points to win the state title.

“Everyone mattered,” said the coach. “Everyone came through where they needed to so that we could pull it off with the 4×400. Ultimately, that relay team was what won it for us.”