EUGENE — Brayden Decker found himself nearly in the same position on Saturday morning as last year in the boys high jump at the Class 4A track and field state championships.

This time around, however, Decker showed off his short memory to earn third place with a height of 6 feet, 2.75 inches for the Phoenix boys team at Hayward Field.

Decker struggled early and managed to clear 6-0.5 on his third and final attempt. That height brought the junior back to 2023, when he placed fifth in the high jump (6-0) after bowing out at 6-2.

He shook off the internal anxiety and easily cleared the bar so that history would not be repeated, which ended with a sigh of relief when he landed without the bar dropping.

“On my last attempt, I think every one of my body parts was sweating, to be honest,” said Decker. “I was like, ‘I gotta get this, I cannot miss this.’ And so I just gave it everything and got over it pretty easily.”

Those moments have not been uncommon for Decker, and they are ones that Phoenix track and field coach John Cornet has had to get used to with the school record-holder.

“From time to time, he does that just to keep us on edge,” Cornet said with a laugh. “Today, you saw he had two misses, but he came back the third time with clear clearance on that one.”

From there, Decker cleared his next two heights before ending his day at 6-4 after three failed attempts.

In a year since his first experience at Hayward, Decker has shown a considerable amount of growth in the event, highlighted by breaking the Phoenix high jump record just one month ago.

That moment provided a clear measuring stick to show his improvement, and his potential as the most prolific Pirate in the high jump.

That confidence powered Decker to put in a valiant effort against good competition that featured two seniors finishing in the top two spots. Seaside’s Kyler McCleary (6-5) repeated as champion and Klamath Union’s DayQuan McKay (6-4) was the runner-up.

“I knew it was gonna be us three because I’ve been battling with them all year,” Decker said. “DayQuan and I have been back and forth; Kyler was last year’s winner. I was always mentally preparing myself for probably the last two weeks, just thinking about this, this day and what I could do.”

“The season was great, in general,” he added. “I was really impressed on how I did compared to last year and I’m really proud of that. I could have done a little better at state, but I’ve still got next year, so I’m not too worried.”

Despite the day ending in bronze, Decker knows the future is bright for his senior year and he is ready to work on his consistency.

“He’s going to be a year stronger and a year more experienced,” said Cornet. “We never want to look too far ahead and assume anything is a given — that’s dangerous — but he’s gonna be right in the hunt.”

“He’s goal-oriented and I expect him to be right back here,” added the coach. “He’s gonna be the guy a lot of people will be aiming for.”

The Pirates also saw Kael Feeley end his high school career with a personal-best time of 4 minutes, 4.20 seconds to hold onto third in the boys 1,500-meter race.

The senior previously finished with another PR to place third (8:52.92) in the 3,000 Friday morning after missing the podium in the race in 2023.

Cody Martin represented the Pirates in the sprints with a fifth-place finish in the boys 100 (11.18). Martin joined River Delco, Nathan Faulkner and Robin Trenbeath to run a season-best 44.46 in the 4×100 relay.

Phoenix also narrowly missed the podium in the 4×400 relay (3:35.05) with Ethan Dobbins joining Martin, Feeley and Delco in the race.

The Phoenix boys ended in a three-way tie for 10th place in the team standings with Newport and Seaside at 27 points each.

Laurelin Jansen led the Phoenix girls by finishing fifth in the pole vault. She cleared 8-4 on her first attempt but the junior could not clear 8-7.75 to continue in the competition.

BOYS

TEAM SCORES: Crook County 96, Marshfield 46, Pendleton 45, La Grande 42, Henley 40, Cottage Grove 35, Baker 30, Philomath 30, North Bend 30, Phoenix 27, Newport 27, Seaside 27.

100 — 1, Jason Padgett, North Bend, 10.82; 2, Cody Martin, Phoenix, 11.18.

200 — 1, Jason Padgett, North Bend, 21.50.

400 — 1, Bodey Lutes, Marshfield, 47.97.

800 — 1, Austin Uhl, La Grande, 1:53.64.

1,500 — 1, Austin Uhl, La Grande, 4:01.20; 3, Kael Feeley, Phoenix, 4:04.20.

110 HURDLES — 1, Rasean Jones, Baker, 13.96.

300 HURDLES — 1, Rasean Jones, Baker, 37.28.

4×100 RELAY — 1, Crook County (Cooper Nelson, Gabe Love, Jace Jonas, Julian Lopez), 43.29; 5, Phoenix, 44.46.

4×400 RELAY — 1, Marshfield (Joe Herbert, Quinton Kloster, Chandler Wyatt, Bodey Lutes), 3:24.69.

JAVELIN — 1, Gabe Love, Crook County, 188-2.

HIGH JUMP — 1, Kyler McCleary, Seaside, 6-5; 3, Brayden Decker, Phoenix, 6-2.75.

LONG JUMP — 1, Elijah Oelkers, Crook County, 21-8.75.

GIRLS

TEAM SCORES: Philomath 74, Cascade 51, North Bend 51, Scappoose 43, Molalla 41, LaGrande 41, Mazama 41, Marist Catholic 33, Crook County 30, Astoria 19.

OTHER LOCAL RESULTS

Phoenix 3.5.

100 — 1, Alice Davidson, Scappoose, 12.32.

200 — 1, Alice Davidson, Scappoose, 24.97.

400 — 1, Lillian Pickett, Cascade, 57.97.

800 — 1, Haley Butenschoen, Stayton, 2:18.37.

1,500 — 1, Macallan Cutsforth, North Marion, 4:49.67.

100 HURDLES — 1, Peyton Craven, Molalla, 15.30.

300 HURDLES — 1, Peyton Lennox, Scappoose, 46.25.

4×100 RELAY — 1, Philomath (Ellie Morton, Natalie Dunn, Petra Hernandez, Janic Hellesto), 49.37.

4×400 RELAY — 1, Scappoose (Emily Garcia Ensaldo, Taylor Bourgoine, Peyton Lennox, Alice Davidson), 4:04.94.

SHOT PUT — 1, Kalina Saechao, Cascade, 39-11.5.

DISCUS — 1, Abby Behrman, Estacada, 126-6.

POLE VAULT — 1, Abby Woodruff, North Bend, 10-8.25; 5, Laurelin Jansen, Phoenix, 8-4.

LONG JUMP — 1, Cloe Chase, Marist Catholic, 18-2.25.