Trophy presentation Thursday after Crusaders placed first at 3A level in the yearly rankings for the 2021-22 school year
Thanks to a mix of success on and off the field for the 2021-22 school year, St. Mary’s School will be presented with an OSAA trophy during a ceremony Thursday at 10 a.m. at the high school.
The award comes from a program started in 1999 by the Oregon School Activities Association, formerly known as the Oregonian Cup, to recognize schools in each classification for excellence in athletics, scholarship, activities, and sportsmanship.
The most recent honor for the Class 3A Crusaders marks the eighth time in the past 15 years that the OSAA Cup has been awarded that they have achieved a first place finish.
Schools earn points based on their attendance and placement in the state championships and for top 10 placements in the all-state academic program. Beginning with the 2001–02 calculations, a sportsmanship component was added, with schools earning points each season for not having ejections.
In the 2021-22 school year, St. Mary’s won the girls’ state golf championship as a team, including individual champion Riley Hammericksen; Brock Drury was the state champion in boys’ golf and his team finished runners-up; Asa Frisbee won three state swimming titles—two singles titles (200-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle) and one relay (200-yard freestyle); Pratheeka Weerakoon and Hannah Poisson teamed up to finish runners-up in girls tennis doubles; St. Mary’s finished second as a team at the girls track state championships behind a record pole vault (12 foot) performance by Mackenzie Walker and two state titles by Sidney DeBoer (200-meter dash, triple jump); Gavin Cougle won the 100 and 200 meter state titles for the boys track team; and the speech and debate team placed third at the state championships.
In terms of academics, the St. Mary’s girls’ track team finished the highest cumulative GPA among 3A competitors, and five other Crusader programs (soccer, volleyball, boys’ soccer, girls’ cross-country, and baseball) all finished second in theirs respective sports.
Following Thursday morning’s celebration where St. Mary’s is presented with the 2ft trophy, the Crusaders cross-country team will take the trophy from school to Medford to the homecoming tailgate in Lithia & Driveway Fields before 7 p.m. football game vs. Brookings-Harbor.
St. Mary’s was previously an OSAA Cup winner for five consecutive years from 2007-2011 and 2016-2017. In 2020–21, no classification was awarded an OSAA Cup.
The Jesuit has received the most OSAA Cup honors in the program’s history, with 17 overall in the state’s largest classification, including for 2021-22 at level 6A.
Other winners of last school year’s OSAA Cup classification were Wilsonville (5A), Philomath (4A), Regis (2A), and Crane (1A).
Cascade Christian placed third on the 3A list while Ashland placed 11th and Crater placed 13th in 5A.
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Andy Atkinson / Mail Tribune Mackenzie Walker, who set a 3A state record in the pole vault, was one of several state champions for St Mary’s School in the 2021-22 school year.
