Papermaker relay three-peats at Jesuit

Cade Greseth is in good company.

The Camas High School senior helped the Papermakers win the 3,200-meter relay for the third time at the Jesuit Twilight Relays Friday, in Beaverton, Oregon.

When Greseth was a sophomore, he shared the victory with Said Guermali, Adam Ryan and Dustin Zimmerly. Junior year, Greseth won this race again with the help of Ryan, Zimmerly and Yacine Guermali. On Friday, Greseth put the finishing touches on another gold medal performance by the Papermakers.

“It’s surreal to able to say we won this event three years in a row,” Greseth said. “Camas has an amazing middle distance program. We got a lot of talent, we’re deep and we have absolute studs on the team.”

Maton started the relay and kept up with the leaders for the first two laps before handing the baton off to Luke Albert.

“Those two laps were just guts,” Maton said. “Those guys were trying to pass, and it was just elbows.”

Albert gained the lead his first trip around the track. Although he couldn’t hold it, he was not far behind the leaders when he passed the baton to Guermali.

“I really had to pick it up. They’re counting on me to take off a lot of seconds out of my own time, which is what I’ve been trying to do all season,” Albert said. “That second lap was tough. When I got the baton to Yacine, I thought, ‘Alright! We’re gonna win this!'”

Guermali stayed right behind the leader and closed the gap in his last 100 meters to set Greseth up for a big finish.

“I had a lot of adrenaline going into it, but after the first lap, I never felt so far from the finish line,” Guermali said. “I was so confident in Cade. I knew he could win it. He ran a crazy split.”

Greseth took off after the front runner, passed him before the end of the first lap and never looked back. He secured the victory by completing the last 800 meters in 1 minute, 53 seconds.

“I just thought the longer I wait, the less likely that I would be able to catch him,” Greseth said. “I accelerated a lot. It was almost like I was running a 400. The entire time I was like, ‘I don’t like having to run this fast to catch someone,’ but it paid off.”

Greseth caught up to the one in front of him quickly, settled into a groove while staying on his opponent’s heels, took a deep breath and gave everything he had left on that last lap.

“I’m taking this,” he told himself. “I don’t even know how to describe that feeling. I don’t even feel like I’m running right now. It was just crazy.”

Less than an hour before winning the 3,200 relay, Maton and Guermali competed in the elite twilight mile for the Papermakers. Maton took second place with a personal best time of 4:10.64. Guermali secured seventh place with a personal best time of 4:16.18.

Maton continues to make waves as a sophomore.

“A lot of those guys, I wasn’t expected to beat,” he said. “I wanted to. I told myself I was going to beat them, but I wasn’t expecting it.”

Guermali is getting back into the shape after a late start due to an illness.

“This was my first super high-octane race of the season. I was kind of nervous. Will I even be able to handle the first lap?” he questioned. “Getting up there with Daniel and the other two guys out front gave me a lot of confidence. Training is on the upswing now compared to what shape I was in two or three weeks ago.”

The Camas girls also had stand-out performances at the Jesuit Relays. Emma Jenkins earned fourth place in the 3,000 run with a time of 10:18.23. Her sister, Hallie, followed in fifth place with a personal best time of 10:18.85. Ellie Postma, Rachel Blair, Madison Child and Emma Jenkins took fourth place in the 3,200 (9:46.75). Madison Peffers notched fifth place in the high jump by clearing 5 feet, 2 inches.

Up next for the Papermakers is the district track and field meet May 10 and 11, at McKenzie Stadium in Vancouver.