Trophy presentation Thursday after Crusaders placed first at 3A level in annual rankings for 2021-22 school year
Thanks to a blend of success on and off the playing fields for the 2021-22 school year, St. Mary’s School will be presented with an OSAA Cup during a 10 a.m. ceremony Thursday at the high school.
The award stems from a program started in 1999, previously known as the Oregonian Cup, by the Oregon School Activities Association to recognize schools in each classification for excellence in athletics, academics, activities and sportsmanship.
The most recent honor for the Class 3A Crusaders marks the eighth time in the last 15 years that the OSAA Cup has been awarded that they have achieved a first-place ranking.
Schools earn points based on their participation and finish in the state championships and for top-10 finishes in the academic all-state program. A sportsmanship component, whereby schools are awarded points each season for having no ejections, was added beginning with the 2001-02 calculations.
During the 2021-22 school year, St. Mary’s was able to win the girls golf state championship as a team, including individual champion Riley Hammericksen; Brock Drury was the boys golf state champion and his team finished as state runner-up; Asa Frisbee earned three state swimming titles — two individual (200-yard freestyle and 100 freestyle) and one relay (200 free relay); Pratheeka Weerakoon and Hannah Poisson teamed to finish as state runner-up in girls tennis doubles; St. Mary’s finished second as a team in the girls track state championships behind a meet-record effort in the pole vault (12 feet) 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 in the state championships.
In terms of academics, the St. Mary’s girls track and field team finished with the highest cumulative GPA among 3A competitors and five other Crusader programs (football, volleyball, boys soccer, girls cross-country and baseball) all placed second in their respective sports.
Following Thursday morning’s celebration, when St. Mary’s will be presented with the 2-foot tall trophy, the Crusaders cross-country team will also spirit the cup on Friday night from school through Medford to the homecoming tailgate at Lithia & Driveway Fields in advance of the 7 p.m. football game against Brookings-Harbor.
St. Mary’s previously earned OSAA Cup distinction for five straight years from 2007-11 as well as in 2016 and 2017. There was no OSAA Cup awarded at any classification in 2020-21.
Jesuit has earned the most OSAA Cup honors in the program’s history with a total of 17 in the state’s largest classification, including for 2021-22 at the 6A level.
Other OSAA Cup classification winners for the past school year were Wilsonville (5A), Philomath (4A), Regis (2A) and Crane (1A).
Cascade Christian placed third on the 3A list, while Ashland finished 11th and Crater placed 13th in 5A.
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Andy Atkinson / Mail TribuneMackenzie Walker, shown setting a 3A state-meet record in the pole vault, was one of several state champions for St. Mary’s School during the 2021-22 school year.