Eagle Point Track Club athletes, from left, Logan Moreno, Kaden Webb, Benjamin Leveque and Easton Raber pose with their silver medals earned at the Nike Outdoor Nationals. (Photo courtesy Tyrone Raber)

Eagles quartet breaks own school record in placing second at Hayward Field in boys 4×100-meter relay

A breakout year for the Eagle Point boys track and field team hit another milestone recently after the Eagles finished runner-up in the 4×100-meter boys relay at the Nike Outdoor Nationals to earn All-American status.

Competing at Hayward Field in Eugene, the quartet of Benjamin Leveque, Kaden Webb, Easton Raber and Logan Moreno rewrote their own school record by placing second in the championship finals in 42.03 seconds.

Arrowhead Track Club of Wisconsin won the race in a personal-record 41.55 seconds, while Arizona’s Highland Track Club placed third in 42.10.

“It was super exciting,” Raber said of competing at nationals. “We were not expecting that coming in, whatsoever.”

The Eagles’ relay team consistently hovered in the 42-second range throughout the spring — winning the Class 5A state championship in 42.56 after a Midwestern League championship run of 42.20 — but had no idea how that would stack up in a national event.

“We were consistent,” Raber said of the crew’s incoming times, “but we thought with nationals that there were going to be really, really solid teams there running really low 41s, so we were coming in not thinking we were going to go and place so well.”

Eagle Point certainly had the resume to contend after placing first in every meet that the 4×100 crew took part in this spring. The group was third in the preliminary round (42.44) behind Arrowhead (41.93) and California’s Glendora Track Club (42.16).

“We were trying to keep the track going, we didn’t want to lose,” noted Raber of the team’s unblemished record. “After prelims, getting that third place, we knew that there was a really good chance of us placing first, so we were really wanting that spot.”

The comfortability of competing again at Hayward Field for the second time in three weeks was helpful, but the boys still took a moment to try and clear their minds before the finals.

“It was a different feeling, that’s for sure,” said Raber. “We knew what we were supposed to do and we just tried to act like it was every race prior. We just tried to not make it like a huge moment and just tried to calm down and not have so much nerves.”

Leveque got the race started for Eagle Point, and then turned the baton over to the only non-senior of the group in sophomore Kaden Webb. Raber covered the final turn before handing off to Moreno for the anchor leg.

In that rotation, Raber said that Leveque consistently was able to bring energy to the group, while Webb brought a confidence beyond his years and worked hard to make sure to keep pace with his senior teammates.

A three-sport athlete in his own right after also excelling in football and basketball, Raber earned a 5A state title in the boys pole vault at 15 feet, 1.75 inches at the end of May.

Raber said Moreno “never made mistakes” and was always “super calm and super well-rounded everywhere.”

Moreno set school records in the 100 meters (10.76 at the MWL championships) and 200 meters (21.81 at the state meet) this year. He placed fourth at state in the 100 (11.08) and third in the 200 (21.84).

It truly was a unique grouping, according to Raber.

“I only pole vaulted, I wasn’t really a sprinter,” he said of an increased role as a senior. “Kaden was a sprinter, but Logan was a baseball player and he joined (the track team) basically this year. Ben Leveque is a cheerleader and we finally pulled him into track because he was debating on it.”

“It was a really weird experience having just a bunch of random kids join up on the team and do so well.”

Raber said everything was able to come together for the Eagles this season in a departure from previous years.

“Going back to prior years at Eagle Point,” he said, “the 4×100 team was always changing people and with the coaching, they were always changing it up and doing different things. But this year, we stuck with the same crew the entire time and all four of us had a really good bond going. We were always hanging out together, and it helped a lot.”

The group broke the school record set in 2017 of 43.40 in its first meet of the spring season at the Crater Classic, then conceivably kept trimming that time down with every outing.

“There was a point where every single race we were PRing every time, it was really crazy,” said Raber.

As cool as it is to earn All-American status at nationals, Raber said it wasn’t necessarily the highlight of the season for the Eagles — mostly due to the group’s preseason goal-setting.

“To be honest, I think state was probably the biggest thing, just because that was our goal from the very beginning set in stone for state,” he said. “We all agreed on that. We were all very nervous for state, and we weren’t as nervous for nationals, for some reason.”

Reach sports editor Kris Henry at kris.henry@rv-times.com or 458-488-2035